This is a graph of my food spending - including groceries and restaurants - since January 2010. Huge improvement as you can see.



January and February were high because I was buying all of my groceries at Whole Foods - never again.

March was actually a really good month. I switched to farmer's markets and CSA instead of Whole Foods. March is high because it includes the $450 up-front cost of my CSA share, which gives me organic vegetables once a week for the entire summer and fall.

April was a good month for groceries but I was eating out pretty frequently (and my favorite restaurants are usually about $40 per person per meal including tip)

May and June I think I did great. I ate out once or twice a month and continued to buy 90% of my food from local farmers.

Even though I'm halfway through June, I actually don't need to spend anything else on food this month, and I probably don't need to spend anything on food well into July either - I have a freezer full of locally raised, grass-fed meat, and my weekly box of organic vegetables is paid for. Meat and vegetables are the base of the food pyramid for the grain-free, sugar-free eating plan that I'm following, so I'm all set for quite some time. (I'm following the Paleo Diet ... it has done wonders for my health and energy level, and it my completely cured my acne, but that's a story for another day!)

Anyway, I don't need to buy food for a while now. I expect food spending in July to be even lower since I already have so much food on hand.

I also have a variety of nice loose-leaf tea for work and home (which I include in my food budget because it's edible!) I think my tea stash should last a few weeks at least, although I'll probably replenish it in July.

I'm pretty happy with this improvement!