It was around this time last year when my food budget was totally out of control. I went to the grocery about 3 times a week (sometimes more) always spending at least $50 a pop. That's how I ended up spending almost $800 a month on food.

In January, I decided to start saving, with the idea of a new car in mind. Well, it was a real blessing since I got laid off and was able to use those savings for my France trip!

This coming year I am participating in Emily's food budget challenge. Hopefully, I will be able to stick to my specified budget (which will be a little more structured than what I did before) and even learn something in the process!

A few things about my food buying situation:

• I grocery shop for 2.
• My usual way of limiting grocery spending is by limiting my trips to the store. I also have been known to revert to not cooking much at all, or just scrounging around in the freezer and pantry for odd left-over items.
• I subscribed to a CSA over the summer, and it could even go until November, but it has been paid in full. I figured it out to be about $20 a week, so that's how it will look in the food budget.
• I'm a vegetarian and I try to eat/buy as much organic and local products as possible.
• For my purposes, I am going to include alcoholic beverages in my budget, which I have not wanted to do before. If it's something I buy, it will be in the budget.

I am going to be posting about this on a monthly basis, the first Thursday of each month, reflecting on the month prior and setting new goals for the upcoming month.

I am pretty excited to be taking this on!

For the next month, I am planning on spending $100/week on food and beverages (so $400 until my next update).

Other Blogs Participating in the Project:

• Emily Levenson
• Dairy-Free Cooking
• Test Kitchen Tuesday
• Red Pen Mama
• Fit Flexitarian
• Warm As Pie 
• Katy Rank Lev
• My Inner Healthy
• Little Blue Hen
• xox, b
• What da Health?
• Project Food Budget 2.0
• Ignition Nutrition
• A Nice Heart and a White Suit