Intentional Food Budget

For the last few years our food budget has centered more around what our daughter could eat than around what we could reasonably spend. When we went on GAPS specifically it got a little wild trying to stretch our income around those dietary restrictions.

The many hours of overtime Mark needed to work, and me trying to fit working from home (covering a good part of our gigantic food budget), homeschooling, and GAPS while struggling with health issues lead to a LOT of stress and guilt.

However, time after time I got confirmation that it was what we needed to be doing. Both in praying, and seeing my little girl flourish. When the alternative was for her to keep reacting to new food, to break out in eczema, have sleep issues, etc. how could I not do what I knew needed to be done?

She is doing worlds better and we are no longer on GAPS. Honestly, we stopped a little sooner than we should have. But, it was no longer as important as it needed to be for the focus and finances it took.

I no longer feel guilty about the time and money we spent on GAPS, because we were able to make it work (even if barely) and it helped our little girl so.

This past week though, I was extremely convicted on how high our food budget still was. We had taken it down to 600 what it was at the heights of GAPS. Still, we could barely afford what we were spending. Mark is no longer working insane amounts of overtime, and I stopped doing freelance work months ago.

It was time to reevaluate!

Back before all of this dietary stuff happened, and we were paying over 1/3 of our smallish take home income on debt, we were spending $160/mo on food. I KNOW that can not happen again. If nothing else (allergies and more mouths to feed for example), food costs have gone up since then considerably.

Almost ten times that  (1400) , as it sometimes was on GAPS, obviously isn't happening either!!!!!!!!! I truly hope we never need to spend that much on food in a month. Ever. Again.

EVER. AGAIN.

But, like I said. I am at peace with how much we spent on food because it was important and we found a way to make it work.

We are going for 500, and if I can swing it 400. I am nervous how that will work with lingering dietary restrictions. But, 500 means we are actually making decent progress on debt and even if there isn't overtime we can buy the occasional non-food related thing. 400 means we are making greater progress, but I don't know yet if it would be doable in this season.