How to Spend Nothing on Christmas Gifts Next Year

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$100 Grocery Challenge

As part of my goal to live a frugal life and save money, for 2015 I am setting a $100 Grocery Challenge for me and my husband.  Essentially the goal will be to spend no more than $100.00 per month (yup--per month, not per week!) on groceries for the two of us.  I've seen similar challenges at $250 or $400 (often for families of 4 or more) but never something as low as $100.

We already started cutting back on food expenses in late 2014 by moving towards cooking for ourselves for all 3 meals and utilizing slow cooking and freezer meals for convenience and to save money.  However, my husband has also gotten very into cooking lately and trying out new recipes with unique ingredients as a result we often have to make extra trips to the grocery store for items outside our regular pantry staples for his recipes.  This is not conducive to keeping under the $100 mark, which essentially results in a daily budget for food (for both of us!) at $3 a day or $0.50 per meal per person!  This will be tough, but if we can keep our grocery bill this low, it will go a long way towards paying down our debt and preparing for a life with a mortgage.

As part of this challenge, we will be able to utilize food that we already have on hand in the pantry, fridge, and freezer--so it's not a true $100 per month budget.  But with the exception of a recent trip to Costco, we have otherwise been eating from what we already have already to clean out our fridge, freezer, and pantry, so we are a little low on some staples.

I'll keep you updated throughout 2015 on how the challenge goes and feel free to join the challenge with me and share your experience on this blog, through Twitter (@MayaFrances) or on Pinterest (vbchica14).