Remember my goal?

My goal was to lower my weekly budget to 75 euro's a week instead of the 100 euro's. Now I shamefully have to admit that these last days we kept to no budget! I have no real idea of what was spend because of illness I haven't been able to join dh in grocery shopping. He has done a great job doing the groceries but he never looks at prices or go to the market and aldi to find good deals. If I have to guess we spend about 200 euro's on groceries in 2008 already! Yes I know that is twice my budget and I could get upset about it but I have decided to just feel blessed that my dh has taken over my task when it was impossible for me to do so myself. I already felt bad when I asked him about the budget and he was not able to give me a reasonable answer I get the feeling he felt interogated or maybe even belittled that I asked him (the provider) about where the rest of the money was. I just left it at that caus he wouldn't be able to make it appear again and why fight/cry over spilled milk.

Starting monday I hope to get back on track and from now on I will make specific lists with stores and prices listed so dh and my eldest know exactly where to get the groceries.

I just ran into this beautiful photogallery on time.com about what the world eats. The gallery is full of beautiful pictures of families around the globe with their weekly spendings and food that they eat weekly.

I was shocked to see how much families spend weekly! Another conclusion that can be taken from these pictures is rich country (1st world countries) equals unhealthy eating and drinking habits!

I myself come from a third world country and as the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. I make almost every meal from scratch. No canned veggies, or boxed or frozen foods I do have some canned goods in my pantry but I might use them once every 3 months certainly not every day! I make pizza's and meals and freeze them for days that I am simply to tired or in pain to cook. Well once again I am grateful for my upbringing! Thankful for my heritage!

Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City

Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25

Favorite foods: sashimi, fruit, cake, potato chips

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily

Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Favorite foods: fish, pasta with ragu, hot dogs, frozen fish sticks

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat

Kuwait: The Al Haggan family of Kuwait City

Food expenditure for one week: 63.63 dinar or $221.45

Family recipe: Chicken biryani with basmati rice

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca

Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

Favorite foods: pizza, crab, pasta, chicken

China: The Dong family of Beijing
Food expenditure for one week: 1,233.76 Yuan or $155.06
Favorite foods: fried shredded pork with sweet and sour sauce

Click here to see all the pics in the gallery.

Are you just as inspired to spend less when you see the picture of The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp? Wow imagine that having to life on $1.23 dollars a week with the whole family!
I am going to find a program to sponsor one or two of the families in the camps with some of the money that I am saving on groceries.

Love and blessings,

Chayil

Groceries 12/15/07 till 12/21/07

Grocerystore 30.82 euro
lemonade
rice
cereal
muesli
garlicbread 2x
gouda cheese
pizzadough
salmonsalad (take to work and school lunch)
tunasalad (take to work and school lunch)
sandwichbags
half full milk 2x
frozen fish 2x
grated cheese
whole weat bread

Budget left: 69.18 euro

Groceries 12/8/07 till 12/14/07

I try to spend a max of 100 euro's weekly on the groceries (food, tioletries, cleaningsupplies etc) In about six months time I want to spend a max of 75 euro's. Sadly enough groceries especially biological/organic fruit and veggies are extremely expensive in NL (not all but most of the tropical fruits and veggies and as a caribeangirl I like my okra/stringbeans and what nots ;-)

Market 6.99 euro's

1 kilo tomatoes

1 cabbage

2 zuchinni's

1 cucumber

1 kilo banana's

Healthstore 3.59 euro's

1 biological/organic tioletcleaner

1 roll of biological candy

Grocery store 37.62 euro's

Gouda cheese slices 2x

biological/organic patatoes

spinach

kitchentowel

juice

cola for dh

muesli

strawberry and vanilla custard

e.v. olive oil

smarties

bulb

paper hancherchiefs

tomatosoup 2x

coffee

biological/organic handsoap

seasalt

veggie sausages

whole weat bread

corn (can)

lettuce

Xenos 9.83 euro's

casa fiesta wraps

naanbread 2x

salsa mild

joy strawberry (healthdrink for kids)

green punch soda 2 lil cans for sunday after dinner treat

sweet and sour saus

capri sonne 4x

Total: 54.63 euro's

That leaves me with 45.37 euro's I still need to buy fish and milk/bread for the rest of the week.

Update:

Grocery store 17.95 euro

Tilapiafilet 1500 grams

2x whole weat bread

1 plant for fishtank

vanilla yoghurt

Budget left: 27.42 euro I am probably going to overspend this week because I am getting guests. My auntie and niece are coming to spend a few days with us so I need to adapt the budget to 6 ppl instead of 4 wich is perfectly ok caus it's going to be fun the kids love having family around and I haven't seen my aunt in 2 years (she lives in surinam)!!

Edit:

Grocery store 15.36 euro

caprisonne 2x

low fat milk

whole weat bread

cookies

gouda cheese

pancakes

prunes

stroopwafels this is actually a gift for my dh his american collegues, I send some over for them when dh was last there and they have all become somewhat addicted lol

Market (wednesday) 4.25 euro (auntie paid the fruitman she was so quick I could not even protest)

1 kilo banana's

5 pears

5 apples

10 tangerines

2 zucchini's

1 cabbage

Budget left: 7.81 euro I fed a family of 6 and still stayed within my budget. The 7,81 one will go straight into my saving can.