Budget Day 3: Sacrifices

I am already talking about sacrifices, and it is only the third day! I was always confident we could do the first 100 Days of Real Food pledge, but to be honest I am doubting this budget pledge often.

• Exhibit A: The amount of raspberries you can have in your cereal when you are on a $125/week budget.
• Exhibit B: The beverage you have to (at times) force your children to drink when you run out of milk and can’t afford to buy more yet.
• Exhibit C: The one super cheap fruit that I will always be able to afford on this budget, but that I am already getting tired of eating.

I guess I really shouldn’t be complaining about my one raspberry. I wanted to buy a whole $4.99 container of organic raspberries at the store, but it was one of the many things I had to put back when I saw how much my bill was adding up to be. Then I was outside checking on my garden when I realized there were 5 ripe raspberries on our raspberry bush! It was very exciting until I remembered it would only be fair for me to share them with my family. That darn family. So anyway, only one lonely raspberry for me even though I love all things berry when it comes to my granola cereal in the morning!

So in addition to raspberries, some of the other things I had to put back when I was checking out at Earth Fare the other day were mushrooms, an avocado, some almonds, cream cheese, and about half a bag of grapes. Yes, I only bought half of the grapes. I also had a few things on my list I didn’t even attempt to buy once I started adding things up in my head. This included espresso, jelly (I figured we must have some left in the fridge somewhere), celery, parmesan cheese, and fontina cheese. I needed the fontina cheese for our lasagna the other night, but just had to do without!

One more negative comment then I promise I will be nice! Since everyone obviously knows the pros of “budgeting” I thought I would share some of the cons I have observed so far…

• You can’t stock up or buy things on an impulse (just in case you might need them) without going over budget, which means you have to go to the store more often.
• You may end up with a lot less variety in your diet since you have to stick to the cheap stuff (like the lovely banana pictured above).
• You might be forced to become a vegetarian.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest I do have something nice to say. Even though I couldn’t buy an avocado (which all of us love) or fresh mushrooms like I wanted for our fajitas tonight they did end up being delicious. I got lucky again like I did with the raspberries and “found” some dried mushrooms in my pantry that have been in there a long, long time. After a little warm water and TLC they were reconstituted and made a great addition to our fajita mix (pictured). I have a feeling that the more I use up these little “finds” in my pantry the harder this budget thing is going to get.

So as promised, this is what my $67 got me at Earthfare the other day…almost all of it was organic by the way…

• Raw Cashews $7.90
• Pumpkin Seeds $3.35
• Coffee Beans $8.99
• Unsalted Butter $4.29
• Cheddar Cheese $4.89
• Monterey Jack Cheese $3.39
• Ricotta Cheese $5.99
• Cheese Sticks $4.39
• Applesauce Squeeze $3.29
• Unsweetened Coconut $2.79
• Whole-Wheat Pretzels $4.39
• Bananas! $1.74
• Baby Carrots $2.00
• Ginger Root $0.21
• Green Grapes $1.45
• Leeks $3.83
• Yellow Onions $3.46

The total (with tax) was $67.68. And on a positive note, the milk man comes tomorrow…yay!