Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Yesterday was grocery shopping day. I waited until Mia and Charlie were in school. I planned carefully with my meal list, staples list, store circulars, and my coupon binder. I worked REALLY HARD. My grocery budget includes household cleaners, health & beauty, etc. so I had some good coupons for various cleaning products that we use a lot.

I spent $27.72 at the first grocery store (they double 5 $1 coupons but you have to spend a minimum of $25) and got dish detergent, toothpaste, Windex, granola bars, and a $ bottle of hair spray. Then off to Shaw's, hoping to only spend $125 or less.

Unfortunately, I bombed. $141.87 for a grand total of $169.59- and I still need to pick up milk today (cheap milk day!). I'm frustrated. I guess my issue is this... either you can have a cheap weekly bill, or your can stockpile various dry goods and other items when they go on sale. But I don't think you can stockpile and end up with a low bill that week. So sure, I won't have to buy Windex again for at least a year... but that didn't make the bill look any better. I'm hoping that once I get a good stock of items, it'll start to show in my grocery bills.

Last night we had teriyaki chicken with pineapple, yellow rice, and salad. The chicken was a hit with Charlie and even my husband liked it. Mia preferred the pineapples! $11.08 for the meal, no leftovers but the salad.

Monday night we had delicious burgers & fries from a recipe we saw on America's Test Kitchen. Tom ended up paying just under $11 for the steak, potatoes, and buns he purchased to make the meal. It felt like a splurge (we haven't had burgers in almost a month) and it was SO good.

On another up note, we've both been losing weight since we've stopped eating out. Not a ton of weight, but I'll take it! I'm averaging about 2 pounds a week. What a great side-effect!

Unfortunately, we're still very much in the red for the month as we try to catch up from our habitual overspending. I need to take a look a mint and see if I can compare this month to last, to try to feel like we're making a dent, because often it just feels like we're treading water. It sure feels like we've been doing this for months, not weeks...

My hope was to have enough in the grocery budget to pay for 2 meals out each month, but that's not going to happen. Boo.

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