I have been trying to find ways to be more frugal.  I have also been trying to get a tighter hold on our budget to help pay off some debt.    In my pursuit of becoming more fiscally responsible, I have been studying the blogs of others who are saving money on their grocery budget.  After all, groceries are one of the areas where I feel that I can try to save the most money.  I thought I was doing well with allowing only one dollar per person per meal, but I found someone who made me feel like a complete spend thrift.  Amanda, at The Fundamental Home, feeds her family of five for $100.00/month.  This is one-fourth of my monthly budget for a family of the same size.  I decided that I needed to see what she was doing and learn if I would be able to apply it in my home. 

Personally, I suspect that Amanda is some sort of Superwoman, but I plan to see if I can replicate her results.  This post is the first in a series where I attempt to  feed my family of five for $25 per week.   I don’t know how long I will be able to keep up with this restrictive budget.  I’m not certain that I can get through one week with only $25 for groceries, but I intend to do my best to make it work.  If I succeed, I can redirect that other $300 per month to pay off some unexpected expenses, and that would be nice.  Paying off debt is a high priority around here.Because adventures are best when shared, I have asked my friend Angie, from Kitchen Southern Hospitality, to join me in this budget challenge, so check out her post about the $25 grocery budget.

According to Amanda, the first thing I need to do is see what I already have on hand in my pantry to use for preparing my meals.  I’m off to do that, then I will ask my family what they would like to have for dinner for the coming week.  After I have accomplished that,  I will be back to let you know about our meal plan and the results from my first shopping trip.

While you’re waiting for our next post, Go and visit Amanda’s site, and read her series about how she feeds her family of 5 for $100/month.

To learn about the steps to take before you set foot in the store, here’s our three step process for attempting to spend only $25 per week on groceries.

Thanks for visiting Patty Cake’s Pantry.

Follow this link to read about my first week’s inventory and menu plan.