$31.80

Maybe you've wondered if going over my $50 dollar grocery budget, effects the next week's shopping trip, or if it effects our overall household budget? Answer—Yes and yes.

It most definitely my grocery budget. Most of the time, I'm only over or under by a few dollars, and at the end of the month, things balance themselves out. But once in a great while, I'll end up fairly short of my $50.

Let's use March for an example—Tim did my grocery shopping one week and went $25 over budget, I had another trip that I went over by a few dollars, and we made an extra trip to pick up a couple of odds and ends. I usually include an extra $25 in our household budget for things such as those, but even with that I was coming up short of the $50. For my last March grocery shopping trip, I was left with $31.80.

Another option would have been to adjust our overall household budget to make up the difference. But, an unusually expensive date night at the beginning of the month, a large propane bill, and a mama who got a little carried away buying some new home decor stuff made that option not really feasible.

This is what $31.80 worth of groceries looks like.

I was actually really surprised at how much I was able to get. I decided to load up on produce for a couple reasons. One, we can snack on it and it can be used to make meals. Two, I was really close to earning one of my Mperk Personal Rewards. I had to make sure I bought lunch meat and bread. I found a bag of clearance coffee, so I made sure I snagged that too.