Ah, the groceries

June 30th, 2007

Well, this week I had an $85 dollar budget because I added $10 for birthday cake/ice cream/dinner for my son. Not that I got any closer to my budget doing this, but the birthday related food did come out to a little under $10. lol

My spouse says an $85 budget for normal weeks is probably a better one than a $75 one. I don’t know why I never considered it, I thought to myself $75 or $100, and $100 is too high, and I never considered inbetween. Duh. $85 would be $340/month instead of $300… I am thinking of changing to $85 but making the monthly $350 so there is a little bit of wiggle room for diaper weeks.

This was a diaper week and also a toilet paper week and a post-shave face lotion for the spouse week, and those things add up.

I spent: $71.52 at Aldi and $26.37 at Walmart. For a total of $97.89. So $12.89 over budget. Only $2.89 over budget though if I do upwards adjust the grocery budget. I’ll see how July goes and then I may make the adjustment for August’s budget. Although I’d rather spend that $50 reducting debt. Such a life I lead.

What were the impulse/non-essential items this week?

I bought 3 boxes of Jello no-bake desserts at $2.19 a box ($6.57 total). That was the big one. My parents are coming to visit for 8 days starting this week and my dad loves dessert. So I was being a nice host :).

Also… A gallon of Breyers ice cream ($2.99… :oinkoink:), an extra box of Jambalaya mix ($0.89), a bag of egg noodles cause I was in the mood ($0.69), an extra 4-pack of pudding because I am weak lol ($0.79) and a loaf of reduced for quick sale french bread ($0.80). So a total of $12.73. Almost exactly what I went over-budget by. Maybe the budget is correct and I need more willpower ;). Although I only spent $7.96 on birthday related things so that actually adds $2.04 to the overage category. Maybe the budget should be $80/week or $320/month. That seems like a fair compromise. We’ll see what July brings.

12.73/ 97.89 = 13% of my groceries were non-essentials. 13% seems like a lot. Maybe I’ll aim for under 10% next time
The grocery budget may be the bane of my existence but I am feeling like I am understanding it a bit more every time I do this.