So last Month, I decided to do a "March Money Experiment" to see how much we could save on food and challenge us to be better stewards.
The Experiment: Buying only what you need and eating what you have to waste & spend less, to be able to save & give more.
The Plan: Whatever we saved under our budget, we would put half into savings and the other half into local missions.
(*For example: If we budget $500 for food, and we only spend $400 then we'd put $50 into our savings and $50 into a local non-profit.)
Unfortunately, even with all my hard work in trying to spend less at the grocery store, we went way over budget on dining out. So we sort of came out even, which meant no money in savings or into local missions. :-(
Tear.
No seriously, I really did almost cry. I worked so hard!
So I am determined this month to spend less in order to save and give more.
Here's how:
1. Meal planning
Shopping only for food for our meals-no extras, no junk, no impulse buys (as in cheese-its and desserts).
2. Not wasting!
I have been doing a lot of reading/research into how much food we waste as a country. I read that Americans waste about 40% of food that's produced. That means what's produced on farms, never makes it to the stores. Or restaurants wasting tons of food. Or in our homes, throwing out produce that went rotten before we ate it, or throwing out leftovers. So, we'll be eating what we have in the pantry/refrigerator instead of going to the store and eating lots of leftovers.
3. Limiting our dining out.
For us, it's the little things that add up. Picking up a jamba juice here, sandwich there, etc. No more!
I just can't get these statistics out of my mind:
Americans waste 40% of the food that's produced each year.
1 in 8 children will go to bed hungry tonight.
We throw away more food than others get to eat. How can we begin to live differently to spend and waste less? Save and give more? I asked people to share tips on how they save money on groceries and would love to hear if you have any!
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