The Grocery Budget revisited
For four weeks, from February to March, I stuffed all of my grocery shopping receipts into an envelope behind the i-pod on the bookshelf. At the end of the four weeks, I tallied them up in a spreadsheet to find out how much I'd been spending and where I'd been spending it. I wrote about the experiment here . My analysis led me into a lot of mumsy internet forum discussions about budgeting, meal planning, comparison shopping, etc. I moved into phase two of the experiment: creating a menu plan and organizing my pantry. I started off by making a list of all the things I like to keep in stock in the cupboards, refrigerator, etc. Well. I ended up with a list of about 150 items, including actual staples, baking supplies, spices and sauces for a variety of cuisines, cleaning products, medicines, etc. I could make a shorter list, but it wouldn't come close to including all the things we get from the grocery store. Having made the list, I never look at it, but the process of ma...