Lessons to take away from $300 grocery experiment

My experiment was a success, I was able to feed my family of 6 with a mere $300 that included the purchase price of everything even spices.

As I went through the experiment, I had several thoughts go through my mind and instead of allowing them to get lost amongst the menus and financial reports, I thought I'd share them all in one place.

• Getting started on a tight budget isn't the most fun thing in the world and you may feel the temptation to buy premade frozen meals, because you can get a bigger variety for about the same money, but it quickly pays off to buy the ingredients. 
• Our first week was pretty slim, my kids were not pleased that I wouldn't allow them to go pick whatever food they wanted from our food storage because they were less than thrilled by their options.
• By the second week, I was able to afford a bag of pretzels for them and whole wheat flour to make a more filing bread, so we didn't plow through all of the jam again.
• The third week was a comfortable week. I was able to budget over $20 towards meat even though a power outage at Aldi forced me to do all of my shopping at Kroger.
• Week 4 could have been a completely typical week for my family had I not purchased so much for a Thanksgiving feast.
•  Food storage is incredibly important. On shopping day for week 3, we had a snow day and a closed grocery store. 
• Normally on a snow day, I would have just stayed home and waited to go to the grocery, but the terms of the experiment required that I go to the store or make dinner using only leftover ingredients from weeks 1 and 2.
• Technically I could have figured something out, but we were pretty much looking at bread and pasta with chili tomatoes.
• Pulling up to the deserted Aldi parking lot was a reminder that just because we have money and want to buy something doesn't mean we can have the opportunity. Had Kroger been closed, the experiment would have dictated that I go home empty handed. Not everyone has several grocery stores nearby to choose from.
•  Planning ahead is key. I already mentioned it in week 3, but sometimes the only way to fit a big celebration into the budget is to think ahead.
• I kept each week at or under $75, so when the fourth week which was also Thanksgiving rolled around, I had an over $10 leftover to add to that week's $75. 
• I gradually stocked up on butter when I found it at a good price, because I knew I'd need a lot for Thanksgiving. Had I really been thinking ahead, I would have purchased some of the shelf-stable holiday items earlier on, but no one's perfect, right?
•  I budgeted for the turkey in week 3 to give it enough time to thaw, had I waited until week of it may have been harder to get the size I wanted or to have it thawed in time.

 I hope you enjoyed this experiment of mine. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section or you can find my email address in the "contact me" tab above.

Could your family eat for 4 weeks on just $300?