$250 a Month Food Budget – Groceries, Take Out and Date Nights – September 18th – 24th

This past week the HH and I were on vacation, and although we were on a budget, it’s the only time of year I don’t include our food/grocery purchases in our weekly expenses. At the beginning of each year we set aside money for our general vacation fund, and we use that money throughout the year for airline tickets, car rentals, hotels, food and whatever strikes our fancy when we travel.

Here are some of the foods we enjoyed as we traveled around New England this past week:

Most places are selling pumpkin spice latte’s this time of year, but in the northeast… it’s maple!

One of my all time favorite things about New England, are the country stores. They’re all so different. And charming. Here in the PNW, we don’t have them. Instead we have mini marts stocked with the usual junk food, lottery tickets and corn dogs under a heat lamp.

Country stores in the northeast:

1. They almost never sell gas.
2. Public restrooms? Ha! No.
3. They are typically run by the owners.
4. The business is almost ALWAYS run out of an old house.
5. There is always plenty of seating on the front porch.
6. They make the BEST sandwiches.
7. They offer a lot of local products.
8. You actually want to hang around there.
9. It’s a great place to talk to locals and get information on the area.

The Portsmouth Farmer’s Market. In my mind, this was an ideal farmer’s market. The way it should be. 80% farmers, 20% {quality} craft products. And the $3 pretzels? Ah-mazing.

Stonewall Kitchen in York, Maine.  They make a mean chowder. And their garden is beautiful. Even if they do have kale in it. 😉

A random pub in Portsmouth, NH. You can never go wrong with a caprese salad in late summer. Or calamari according to my husband.

Breakfast at Lil’s. {Post coming soon!}

Fancy steak dinner on the waterfront with red pepper polenta and asparagus.

Gelato in Newburyport, MA.  We both ordered a small. And they were huge.

What’s the going rate for Honeycrisp apples in your neck of the woods? In Nashua, NH they run $3.45 a pound.

And the apples were shipped in from Washington state.

Anyone like crab legs?

Anyone know someone would spend $400 on a 20 pound box? I don’t. But, wowza! That’s like someone’s winter heating bill.

Hotel breakfast for 2 {included with stay}.  Which I had to go downstairs to get because my husband would rather starve then fetch his own breakfast in a hotel lobby.

Dinner for 2.

Dinner for 1 the next night because apparently I took too long on the computer and didn’t notice until it was too late that my husband had eaten the entire plate of food.

Eating pizza in the back of the car after a long day of driving through neighborhoods.

Clam strips.

The HH finally got his lobster roll.

Which he ate in the back of a small salumeria in the North End after I bought a handmade salami to bring home and a salami and cheese sandwich for lunch. The HH thought it was totally weird that we were eating in the back of this guys shop until another customer sat down across from us a few minutes later with his meatball sub. It was awesome. And totally away from the tourists. It made me feel like a local.

Only on vacation would I spend $22 for 12 of the BEST fig cookies on the planet. Never, in a million years would I do that in my day to day life. I LOVE being frugal to the core, but when we travel, all bets are off when it comes to food. Some people choose fancy accommodations, upgrades on their rental cars, or tickets to plays or movies. We will typically spend our vacation dollars checking out the local neighborhoods and eating the local food. Things we wouldn’t normally make at home.

I think the fact that we don’t normally eat out much, buy a lot of take out, throw our money away on snack foods, or make fancy meals at home makes us appreciate when we do go out so much more. Vacations… they can be so much fun.

Until you come home and step on the scale. 😉

Ha!

How about YOU? Did you buy any super amazing food this week? Do you have a favorite food you look for when you travel? I’d love to hear about it.

~Mavis

Total spent this week on treats – Vacation Money {I didn’t keep my receipts}

Total Spent in January on Groceries $202.99
Total Spent in February on Groceries $143.94
Total Spent in March on Groceries $183.35
Total Spent in April on Groceries $205.67
Total Spent on Groceries in May $248.60
Total Spent on Groceries in June $147.47
Total Spent on Groceries in July $293.63
Total Spent on Groceries in August $117.29
Total Spent on Groceries in September $98.01
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Total Spent in January on Take Out, Date Nights, and Bakery Treats $42.19
Total Spent in February on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $118.45
Total Spent in March on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $25.29
Total Spent in April on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $62.50
Total Spent in May on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $54.52
Total Spent in June on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $119.15
Total Spent in July on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $12.45
Total Spent in July on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $0
Total Spent in August on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $212.67
Total Spent in September on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $132.50

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