The inspiration:
I was hanging out on Pinterest the other night & found this great pin called the $20 Grocery Budget (http://www.frugalfarmwife.com/article/a-healthy-diet-for-20-00-a-week/) I had to click through (the ultimate click bait for me, saving money!) I have always lived very frugally searching for a bargain but more about this later. This gave me the inspiration to write The $20 Meal Budget Challenge.
The Idea:
The $20 a week grocery budget is in US dollars based on food for 1 person eating 2000 calories, the food prices were very cheap, I mean crazy cheap. Lots of people commented about this both positive & negative. The food was very basic & for me, the meals were very plain. Lots of people commented on this too, clearly, the writer lives in an area where food is quite cheap. She does readdress this & lots of other comments in another blog post.
When calculated at today’s exchange rate $20US is approximately $27.31, Aust.
So I got thinking how would a challenge like this work for me & my family. What would we realistically be able to get our food spend down to? At the moment we spend approximately $275 Aust per week this includes everything from cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, drinks like tea, juice & coffee, pet supplies (2 very fussy cats) & treats. Once this is taken out the spend is $250 There are 6 people in my house 4 adults, 2 teenagers. It works out to $41.67 ($30.57US)each per week, $5.95 each per day, in reality, this is quite minimal. We are all big eaters with one vegetarian, I make nearly everything from scratch & this is the key to keeping your food spend down.
The $20 Meal Budget Challenge:
This is my challenge for this week to get our food spend to come as close to $20US ($27.31 Australian) as I can.
I think I can do it. I’ll let you know how I go.
If you want to play along too, feel free & post your comments below.
Keep Cooking,
Kerri
