I'm Doing a 30 Day Food Budget Challenge and Can't Decide What Budget Should Be?

LSarahGrace007 on 12/10/2017 - 10:01
Last edited 12/10/2017 - 10:57 by 1 other user

Hello all

First time posting here

Recently in September I did a massive digital detox, no social media, no news, no texting, only using phone for emergencies etc. I did however check my emails daily and skim through the oz bargain forums to satisfy my internet urges 😛

The benefits were amazing, especially mentally, and recently I have decided I would like to do another 30 day challenge, something that has the potential to be a positive, and something that really challenges me to live outside my comfort zone.

That brings me to my 30 day food budget challenge. I would like to try and feed myself for $300 for the entire month, no sharing meals with people, no accepting of free food or gift vouchers, just purely myself. I had a brief think about this and feel that perhaps I could limit the budget even more to $250.

Some things to factor in when deciding what kind of budget I could stick to…I'm not a big eater, sometimes I usually skip breakfast and just end up having a bigger meal at lunch, followed by a lite dinner. I do like to treat myself to take out once a week. I don't drink any alcohol, and I have no special dietary requirements. I also generally shop at Coles or Woolworths,

Was wondering if I could get some feedback from the great people of oz bargain..

$300 for the month?
Or $250?
Or could I go even lower? Perhaps $200

Thanks for any input 😊

Poll Options expired

  • 3
    $300
  • 1
    $250
  • 21
    $200
Food & Grocery

Comments

  • Halo375 on 12/10/2017 - 10:08
    +3

    If possible, try to look at last months statement and work out how much you spent in that month - then halve it. I think $200 would be pretty easy (but not fun) - take a look at this student challenge from the UK, 10 pounds a week:

    http://www.savethestudent.org/money/student-budgeting/live-o…

    • SarahGrace007 on 12/10/2017 - 11:39

      Great idea!

      I use a credit card to pay for all my groceries and that of my families as well so I can earn frequent flyer points, but I keep a spreadsheet of all my purchases to know what people owe me and to know what I individually spent on groceries for the month. Of course that includes household items and non food related items too, so I will keep that in consideration when looking back.

  • trustnoone on 12/10/2017 - 10:10
    +12

    $200 gets you about 52 packs of Woolworths Dim Sims,
    At 1.5kg each thats 78kg of Dim Sims.

    78kg/31 days in a month = 2.5kg of Dim Sims a day, which leaves 1 kg of dim sims for lunch, 1kg of dim sims for dinner, and a healthy meal of 0.5kg of dim sims for breakfast.

    So I'd say feasible with $200 :p.

    • [Deactivated] on 12/10/2017 - 18:19

      I foresee constipation.

    • jjjaar on 13/10/2017 - 08:34

      Can't argue with that logic.

  • [Deactivated] on 12/10/2017 - 10:30
    +1

    Love these challenges.

    Why not the Elon Musk diet!

    http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-challenge-food-budg…

    Then the next logical step is Extreme Early Retirement

    http://earlyretirementextreme.com/about-the-blog

    Good luck with your challenge!

  • 87percent on 12/10/2017 - 10:39

    i was listening to a podcast the other day, and they were mentioning that Elon Musk did a $2 per day food challenge

  • k-rokfm on 12/10/2017 - 10:58

    Why not give freeating a go?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i0xl9MAY14

  • marcusv on 12/10/2017 - 11:31
    +4

    If the digital detox made you feel great mentally why not add an element of health to the 30 Day Food Budget challenge? You could avoid anything pre-packaged or processed and limit sugar, preservatives and colouring. You could just get cheap vegetables from the farmers market, rice, cheap cuts of meat etc. You will notice a huge difference to your health after 30 days.

    If you have a slow cooker you could make meals in bulk and freeze them so all you have to do is drop a meal in the slow cooker each morning.

    • sagrules on 12/10/2017 - 14:53

      Thats a great link. But I usually use a pressure cooker to speed up the process, I don't feel comfortable leaving an appliance on the whole day while I'm at work.

      Could someone recommend me a good reasonably priced pressure cooker, my old one had to be returned to target due to the manufacturing fault?

    • SarahGrace007 on 12/10/2017 - 17:29

      Great suggestion, but That would be a huge change for me all in one go, and honestly I'm not interested in cutting down on those things that much, as I already feel that I eat well balanced meals and snacks, and have everything in moderation.

      I do plan on making majority of my meals in bulk though, and will hopefully get some good use out of my slow cooker 😊

  • [Deactivated] on 12/10/2017 - 11:40
    +2

    go dumpster diving and your food budget could be $0

  • Scab on 12/10/2017 - 12:40

    Do a Broden and pretend to be homeless and eat from the food trucks.

  • ddxsamx on 12/10/2017 - 12:52
    +1

    Great to see other people doing challenges - to me it's really about discipline and achieving goals.
    I'm doing something similar, but for a whole year.

    Last year I did no soft drinks, this year i'm on no deep fried food. (it's actually quite tough! :)

    Was thinking of going vegetarian next year.. undecided - That would be a real challenge for me.

    • SarahGrace007 on 12/10/2017 - 17:32
      +1

      That's amazing!
      You are right about the discipline thing, with the digital detox I honestly thought there was no way I could go without social media or without texting, but now that I saw the benifets of it, it makes me want to try other things that require discipline and that challenge me.

      Do you document your challenges or have a blog at all?

      • ddxsamx on 16/10/2017 - 08:59

        Haha yeah too true - nah undocumented at the moment - it comes up during meal times but everyone's pretty cool with it and you'd be surprised the amount of people that actually remember and keep it in mind.

  • mysterytal on 12/10/2017 - 13:05
    +4

    I'm not a big eater either and I usually spend about $35 per week. It's only possible as I only buy food that has been reduced to clear or is on offer. I never ever pay full price for anything. Take a smart phone/tablet and look at pricehipster.com to ensure you are paying the lowest price possible or don't buy it.

    I think then that if you're really trying to cut down then spending less than $150 per month should be possible.

    I would recommend visiting the supermarket almost every day and find when the reduced to clear items are discounted the most. I have found items reduced by 90% several times but it is a lottery as to what is available.

    I would also suggest you spend some of your budget on Woolworths WISH gift cards to save 5%. Spending $95 on one will get you an extra $5 to make meeting your budget easier.

    Keep an eye out for "Try me Free" offers. Over the last few months there has been cheese and bread offers which have helped me out. Also keep an eye on free food offers made available from time to time. Domino's have been offering pizza's over the last 4 weeks (offer has now finished). Aussie Farmers has a $30 discount coupon for first time customers.

    Good Luck.

    • SarahGrace007 on 12/10/2017 - 17:37

      Part of my challenge is I want to create specific rules about not accepting free food, or not allowing friends to shout me dinner or lunch.

      I have an entertainment book membership, so I was weighing up whether I would get those wish gift cards. (I'm not a true ozbargainer I have to admit)but I wasn't sure if it was considered cheating under my rules. I guess it's not, but I just wanted to see if I could go the whole month with just a set amount, no gift cards etc, no crashing in reward points etc.

      I think I might try the Aussie farmers deal though regardless, I did see that somewhere before and had been meaning to check it out

      • mysterytal on 15/10/2017 - 22:31

        In that case it'll probably be best setting your monthly (or 4 weekly) budget to $200 and treating any discount, refund, points redemption etc as a bonus.

        I don't consider paying $95 for a $100 gift card as cheating. It shows as $95 on the bank statement and that's the figure I enter into the spending spreadsheet.

  • Powershopz on 17/10/2017 - 13:33

    This isn't even a challenge. Head over to reddit and check out some of the cheap eating and frugal subreddits to see some challenges.

    Try to stretch $100 or $150 for an entire month and see how much food you can get.

    The trick is not to think of it as #3.33 per day and instead buy stuff in bulk and do meal preps/cooks. Rice, legumes and pasta - boring but frugal.

    • SarahGrace007 on 18/10/2017 - 10:40

      It's a challenge to myself as I normally spend a lot more on food and groceries

      • Powershopz on 18/10/2017 - 11:41

        That's quite a lot then.

        My wife and I eat very well and have a pretty ample food budget (healthy, nutritious food, brand name stuff, cheap take out once or twice a week) and we spend about $650 a month of food (excluding non-edible groceries like garbage bags, toilet paper, laundry stuff etc).

        My biggest piece of advice is to drive your dollar further by shopping smart. You mention you mainly do your shopping at supermarkets - stop this right now. This is fine for every now and then when it's an emergency or you can't be stuffed but if you really want to shop smart find a good market.

        e.g. Doing a week's worth of grocery shopping at the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne I can get a ton of food for $150. If I got the equivalent stuff at Coles i'd be spending $225-250. Biggest dollar saver is your proteins. basic stuff like extra lean mince meat - $16/kg at coles, $5/kg at the market. The supermarket pricing on meat is outrageous! Porterhouse steak at coles = $31.50/kg, at the market = $12/kg.

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