Groceries, deconstructed

July 8th, 2007

So, I actually didn’t really do that bad even with my mom along for the ride. I even went slightly less over budget than I do on a normal week. lol

The total was $83.81, so $8.81 over the $75 budget. Broken down into $46.45 at Aldi and $37.36 at Walmart. When I left Aldi I was feeling pretty good because I was $10-15 less than I usually am there, but then I made up for it at Walmart somehow. That always seems to be the way….

As for straying from my list, I got some beef stew meat at Aldi that was discounted for quick sale for $2.95, and at Walmart I got the soap my son uses on sale ($2.00) and I got my spouse Captain Crunch cereal because it was on sale ($2.38) and we have an agreement…. I will indulge his desire for Captain Crunch when it is on sale :lol:. So a total of $7.33, or 8.7% of my total spending. Without that stuff, I still would have been $1.48 over budget… but only $1.48.

And my straying from the list spending was less than 10% of the total grocery bill so I did accomplish that.

Still a work in progress. But I am feeling actually pretty good about today’s grocery trip. And at Walmart I looked at everything in my cart right before the checkout and then took two things out totalling about $5.50 and put them back. Yay me! Heh.

Maybe since I’m feeling good, my spouse is right and $85 is a more reasonable budget. There has to be *some* joy in the shopping or we’ll all be miserable. Or maybe I just like to overspend. I think my “Non-list items must comprise less than 10% of total bill” is a good rule of thumb.

I need to start bringing a calculator. This is becoming complex. In a good way.