Sustainable Saturday - Organic on a Budget Year in Review!

I thought it would be fun to finalize our 2010 grocery spending to see how well we did throughout the year.  Included in these all inclusive numbers are all food, toiletries and personal care items.

Month	Shelf	My Price	Savings Rate	Goal	Variance
January	$746.78	$409.52	44.23%	$500.00	$90.48
February	$667.50	$452.99	32.14%	$500.00	$47.01
March	$913.86	$495.70	45.76%	$500.00	$4.30
April	$599.93	$255.88	57.35%	$250.00	$(5.88)
May	$731.37	$441.33	39.64%	$500.00	$58.67
June	$999.89	$516.66	45.82%	$500.00	$(16.66)
July	$564.56	$476.76	51.55%	$500.00	$23.24
August	$842.55	$466.11	44.68%	$500.00	$33.89
September	$520.09	$347.30	33.22%	$500.00	$152.70
October	$930.52	$589.33	39.68%	$500.00	$(89.33)
November	$711.24	$388.02	48.86%	$500.00	$111.98
December	$790.55	$588.89	35.48%	$500.00	$(88.89)
TOTALS	$9,018.84	$5,428.49	43.20%	$5,750.00	$321.51

For the coming year my food goals are:

• To produce more in quantity from our garden (2010 was not a great year for our garden due to pests).
• Explore canning foods more.
• Purchase (grass-fed) beef in bulk.  
• Purchase less refined products such as Turbinado (Raw Sugar) in bulk.  
• Purchase and experiment with Coconut Oil.