monthly food budget

tomorrow is my first day of work. AUUUGHH. i'm pretty nervous, as most people are on their first day... however, i have never worked in another country before and english is not the native language. that adds a tiny bit of pressure. at the same time i am looking forward to helping in the public healthcare sector and of course reeling in a paycheck. YAY.

speaking of money, this month i tracked grocery expenses to see how much of my non-existant income i have been spending. it looks something like this:

535 - fruits & vegetables
257 - grains & pulses
186 - dairy & eggs
60 - seafood
220 - cooking necessities (spices, flour, etc)
324 - alcohol
86 - candy
---
1668kr

according to oanda, that is equal to $319.67 US, as of today. for two adults living in copenhagen, it may seem quite cheap but some things need to be taken into consideration.

• the dane picked up groceries himself a few times and he doesn't usually take the receipt.
• some of the dairy/eggs and candy (chocolate) were bought solely for completing a daring bakers challenge.
• living in a colletive, we share some pantry staples like olive oil and paprika.
• part of the alcohol is used to make my beloved rugbrød at home.
  
• not logged was that fact that we ate out 3 or 4 times and went to the movies twice.

according at this log, we spend most money on fresh/frozen fruit or vegetables and we don't eat much meat or seafood. on the not-so-bright side i'm surprised to see that we spend more on alcohol than grains/pulses. but it should be noted that 1) i was experimenting with different beers for my rugbrød and 2) it's summertime and there are lots of parties and nights out while people are out of school or work is slow. it will certainly not continue this way in the fall. and obviously i should really cut back on the candy too. x:

so far my best result with rugbrod has had only 2 variations from the original recipe i used. instead of hvidøl i used tuborg rød, which is quite a bit stronger and makes for a tastier loaf. i made the mistake of using some more expensive beers with hardly any difference in flavour from the cheapest hvidøl. tuborg rød is only about 5kr anyway. i also added some organic pumpkin seeds that were on sale earlier in july. i still care for the same starter than one of the dane's friends passed on to me along with the recipe, and i hope it lasts a good while longer. (: