$26 Grocery Game Challenge Cycle 1

Hello Sophisticated Spenders!

Jackie from Cheapsters.org and I are teaming up to give the Grocery Game Challenge a try!

My friends over at Canadian Budget Binder created the challenge.  You can click here to read their entire post.

The original reason for the challenge was to show that the $26 weekly amount given to welfare recipients was insufficient.  So we are throwing ourselves into the ring to see if it can actually be accomplished.

The reason I decided to try this (again) is because I waste a LOT of food.  I am tired of losing food to freezer burn and expiration dates!

I will try to stick to a grocery budget!

Here are the rules in a nutshell:

1:  The week is Monday-Sunday.

2:  Tell us your weekly budget. (I will aim for $26).

3:  Name your store.

4:  Total coupons used.

5:  Total spent out of pocket.

6:  Tell is if you went over or under for the week.

7:  Pictures!!!  We want to see what you bought and what you cooked!!!  Feel free to share cheats and recipes!  (My favorite cheat is to buy a rotisserie chicken and mix it with everything.  I know some people do meatless days-that is totally not my thing!)

8:  Share a moment when you nailed it and a moment when you failed it. (Knowing why you nailed it and failed it will help you do more of the stuff you love next week!)

Things happen and tweaks are a very necessary part of this challenge.

I will have a separate happy hour budget because I simply can’t live without happy hour.  But I hope to stop buying groceries that I never get around to using!

And I will start with my freezer.  I will use the stuff that’s in my freezer during week 1 to stay within budget.

Shout out to all of the people who are joining us on this cool journey.

Do you think you can do it?  Please let us know in the comments if you are going to join our challenge!!!!

Here are a few pictures: