Sustainable Food Budget Challenge Week 1

I cant' say I kept it totally honest with the start of the challenge. I'll admit my guilt -- I ate a banana, some non-local or organic spaghetti sauce, and some nutritional yeast. Nope, none of them are on the sustainable food budget list of things to eat. They fall in no categories other than off limits. Can I blame my husband? He has to eat too, and the banana is actually his fault 'cause he bought too many and it was going bad and he told me to eat it or it'll get thrown. God forbid we throw food out. The same was the case with the spaghetti sauce... it went on home-made pizza (which had the nutritional yeast for the cheesy flavoring and nutrition on my half). The sauce was a left-over bottle in the fridge that also was gonna go bad if we didn't use it up. The point being made here is as long as you eat sustainably most of the time, are a whoopsies ok? I'd say yes. And I'm also saying yes to required vegan nutrition that may not be organic or local -- like the nutritional yeast (although it IS non-GMO which is ok in my book). Once again, another food challenge is an eye-opener and the food knowledge database is filling up. If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, I'm participating in a Sustainable food Budget Challenge for the Month of April -- trying to keep the budget under $176 a month eating only sustainable (local) or organic food. And since there are very little local foods in early April, I'm buying organic and it ain't cheap -- thus, the challenge. And how is that budget coming along? Well...we'll see how it ends up at the end of the month. I'm 2/3 at my limit already one week into the challenge ($110 of $176.00), but that includes a bunch of bulk (its cheaper buying bulk) items that I may not use by the end of the month (10 lbs of potatoes?). So there will likely be some recalculations. I found it very interesting that many folks are concerned about staying in the budgetary guidelines. Read some of the other challenger's comments here.