This Month's 2024 Extreme Budget Grocery Spending - April

 

Another month of extreme budget grocery shopping is officially in the books.  I focused a lot on using up what I already had on hand in the refrigerator so I began the month with only a handful of produce items in the crisper drawer – most of a head of lettuce, a few cherry tomatoes, four carrots, some celery and a partial onion.  A big Easter Sunday dinner afforded me the opportunity to use up quite a bit of my fresh produce so it wouldn’t go to waste as I headed into April by making a potato salad, a pan of roasted veggies and an apple pie.  Next I concentrated on using up open containers of condiments and dairy items as well as eating any leftovers from the meals I had prepared.

 

The only items I purchased at the beginning of the month were potatoes on sale (5# red potatoes & 5# russets for $1.99 each), perfect timing as I had just used up what I had in the fridge, a two pound block of cheddar and a quart of cream for my coffee.  I also picked up a couple packages of ground pork for the deep freezer.  With plenty of fresh and frozen produce options still on hand I opted to wait to do any major grocery shopping until later in the month.  However, once “later in the month” arrived I still had a lot of food, including several leftover frozen options to work through.

 

Instead I decided to just pick up an extra quart of cream at Winco after work one day so I’d still get my favorite keto-esque coffee every day and then challenged myself to go without anymore grocery shopping in April.  I had already completed my well planned March/April shopping list so I truly did not need anything.  I also did not need any nonfood items either so that budget is still holding steady with $39.52 remaining for the year.

 

You probably won’t find this month’s grocery tally very interesting, but I find it rather exciting.  With my total grocery spending in April coming in at a mere $25.80 I now have the remaining budget amount to add to the extra from the previous month for a total rollover of $36.59.  Going into May I will add that amount to my $50 grocery budget for a starting total of $86.59.  I can do a lot with that, for sure!