After a rigorous, three-month analysis of our shopping habits, my husband and I came to the conclusion that $400 a month -- including food for our 1-year-old son, but not the cats -- was way too much to pay for groceries. Beating the bad habits

After all, there are people doing the Women in Red Grocery Challenge who have managed to get their bills down to just a few dollars for a full cart of food.

Our challenge: Slash our monthly grocery bill in half, to a bare-bones $200. Doing some research

Here is the true-life diary of what happened.

Oct. 23: Cost-cutting begins

My husband went shopping and spent $48.85. He forgot all about the fliers, coupons and sale prices we had discussed. What's up with that? He seemed irritated that I even mentioned it! Sifting through the circulars

His point was that everything he bought was on sale. My point was that now we had only $151.15 left to spend until Nov. 23. "How are we supposed to do that?" he asked. "I'm not eating Kraft macaroni and cheese!"

Excuse me, Rachael Ray.

Talk back: Have you tried cutting your grocery bill?

I pulled out the list we had made -- chicken tenders, pork chops, green beans, etc. -- and pointed out that if we had gotten all those things, at the bargain prices, we would have had food for a week and have spent only $30.

Two things are already clear to me:

• The family has to be in sync on grocery spending -- or only one person must be in charge. Perhaps hire a grocery dictator. Getting on the same page

• You have to be organized and plan your shopping trips, as well as your lists. None of this "I rushed to the store because we needed milk -- and ended up spending $45."

Still, $151 is doable. I bet we can reach our goal of cutting our grocery spending by 50% -- using sales fliers alone.

Oct. 31: Sudden grocery drama

My husband trucked off to the supermarket with strict instructions to spend about $40 and no more.

He came home and said, "Well, I didn't spend $40."

He spent $73.

"But I saved $16.04!" he said, pointing to the section of the receipt where it tries to console you that you've been a smart shopper.

Actually, it wasn't as bad as I first feared. Everything he got can and will be used for breakfasts and dinners in the next 12 to 14 days. We've mapped out all the meals on our kitchen chalkboard.

Still, we're down to (let me open my calculator) $78 for the next 27 days. But who's counting?

Shopping lessons of the week:

• Always be positive when your spouse does the shopping. A few dollars over budget isn't worth the marital strife. Pasta solves many problems.

• I think we should try coupons. Why am I so hesitant to go there?

Nov. 3: Struck by a windfall

WE FOUND $26 IN MY HUSBAND'S WORK PANTS!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure what you do with a massive windfall like that. We decided it fell outside the margins of our grocery budget, and we bought a small sailboat and a mink for the little lady. Just kidding. But we did splurge on:

• Tostitos Hint of Lime chips.

• A six-pack of Yuengling Black & Tan beer.

• Local, fancy, handmade, overpriced cheddar.

• Breakfast at a local diner.

Nov. 7: Grocery doldrums

This is much harder (and more boring) than expected. Apparently, a chunk of our grocery budget had gone toward spontaneous treats, like olives or shrimp or overpriced salsa. And now that we're sticking to a list, our menu is a lot less jazzy.

Still, the list of meals on the kitchen chalkboard prevents us from straying far off budget. Having it there, front and center, reduces the number of high-impact random grocery incidents (see shrimp, above).

What we're learning:

• It is possible to maintain your normal diet, but you end up eating a lot of chicken anyway.

• Meat goes on sale! Who knew? You can get two-for-ones on ground turkey and pork quite often.

• My husband is right: Never buy a product only because it's cheap. Unless it's something you like, you won't touch it. I bought two huge containers of a certain brand of coffee, BOGO (that's groceryspeak for buy one, get one free). I thought we were java-set for a year, but the stuff is so vile that it's just sitting in the pantry.

Last, and sadly, with 16 days until the end of our month, I don't think we're going to make the $200 limit.

We aren't skilled enough. We are afraid of coupons. Thanksgiving is coming.

This is like playing the violin. You need the right equipment and years of lessons.

Nov. 12: Advice from the pros

Fortunately, when I posted our crisis on the Women in Red message board -- where the Grocery Challenge was born -- people were reassuring. They told me to take it slowly. Graphic: Shopping tips from the WIR

As a poster nicknamed "Ormis" wrote: "Mia, I'd recommend trying a more modest goal, maybe shaving off 10% each month. We spend about $400 for the two of us. When I started the grocery challenge it was because it had creeped up over $600! So for a while I tried to just come in under $400. Then my next goal was to get it down to $350."

Nov. 16: High-impact holidays

We just arrived in New York, en route to Virginia for Thanksgiving. It's a weeklong trip, with three visits to friends and family, and I'm not sure how to gauge its impact on our grocery budget.

On the one hand, we won't be buying our normal supplies. On the other, we will be contributing something (wine, bagels, holiday treats) whenever we visit people.

My husband argued that because of the holiday impact, we should write off this month and start over in December. But you know what? In my experience, every month packs some kind of surprise. Rather than write that out of your budget, it's smarter to build in a bigger margin.

Nov. 18: Cheaper than thou

When I saw "Coffeegirl," a core member of the Women in Red, at a Washington, D.C., WIR meeting, she said she is going to spend only $127 on a Thanksgiving meal for 12 people.

I'm depressed.

Nov. 29: Success! (Sort of)

The month was officially over Nov. 22, but we were too chicken to tally up the receipts until an MSN Money cameraman came to shoot the conclusion of our grocery experiment today.

It was a nail-biting exercise, taking the receipts out of their envelope and adding them up. As we sat at the kitchen table, my husband read out each total, and I

tapped it into a calculator.

The grand total, including about $80 for holiday spending: $300.77!

To my surprise, neither of us felt we had failed. After all, we had aimed pretty high (or in this case, pretty low). As the month wore on, we had time to adjust to the fact that if we couldn't earn the gold, a silver medal would do fine. We could save $36,000!

The trick in the months and years to come, of course, will be learning to save it -- and not eat it.

Talk back: Have you tried cutting your grocery bill?

Published May 9, 2008