Groceries, anyone?

July 22nd, 2007

So I’m back from the weekly adventure of the grocery store. I actually am starting to feel like this is a fun challenge, this getting under budget thing, instead of an annoying headache. I was very cheerful shopping, which is good because it is the only “sanctioned” shopping I really ever do right now lol.
But that didn’t help me be under budget today. I spent $54.02 at Aldi and $25.98 at Walmart, for a total of $80 even.

I am getting a lot better at just not even putting things in my cart that are impulse buys. Generally. And I walked right by that Arizona Iced Tea display without even stopping at it. :) I had more trouble walking by the Doritos display, which is odd to me since I’m not a big Dorito eater and I was buying them for my spouse. I guess I like to treat my spouse even more than I like to treat myself.

I went $5 over budget, and the “extras” I got equal almost exactly $5 coincidentally. A family size bag of Doritos for $3 (for my spouse not me), and 4 boxes of “gourmet” macaroni and cheese on sale for $0.49 each ($1.96 total). So $4.96 of nonessentials, and $5 over budget. Coincidence? Heh. $4.96 is 6.2% of my total spending so not too bad on that front.

I actually did some price comparing using my Aldi receipt at Walmart for a few things I wasn’t sure Aldi was the cheaper alternative and I found that Aldi was indeed cheaper, so that was good. I have been meaning to do that for a while now. I have aspirations of keeping a spreadsheet with prices and printing it out for store use so I know when things are a good buy but I am just not to that level of organization yet.