Groceries So We Don’t Keep Eating Out
Of course we ate out while we were on our trip, because, well, we were nowhere near our house and couldn’t cook for ourselves. But now we are home and I needed to grocery shop so that we wouldn’t have to *keep* eating out! The cupboards were looking okay but the refrigerator and freezer were a little bare. But I fixed that! And then some….
I spent $81.13 at Aldi this week and $10.94 at Walmart for a total of $98.83. This was under my $100 budget so I was pleased with that part. But as for the impulse buys… I bought:
- Package of hash browns for $2.19 (been craving breakfast for dinner a lot)
- 2 packages of whole wheat pasta on sale for $0.89 each
- 2 packages of chocolate-dipped granola bars, $1.99 each (well…)
- Bag of 2 dozen tiny playdoh containers for $2.99 (for my son… tiny means less mess lol)
For a total of $10.94 in impulse buys, 11% of my total spending. Kind of blew right past that 5% goal… oops. I know that some of that was just having a long list of items, it was easy to sneak a few extras in, or so it seemed. I did put back a few other impulse items before checking out so I was proud of myself for that. Just… not… enough of them. Mmmmm chocolate covered granola bars. I was actually buying granola bars anyway so that wasn’t as bad a purchase as it could have been.
I did pretty well though for coming back after a trip and having to stock up on basically all of the perishable items I buy week to week. I am kind of seeing how I might be able to reduce the grocery budget just a hair. Maybe in November I’ll aim for $95/week and see how that goes. I still have ~$108 left in this month’s grocery budget for next week so I am hopeful I will be able to come in under budget overall.
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October 21st, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Sounds like you’re on the right track to come in under for the whole thing. I hate having to eat out when traveling too. That added some stress to our honeymoon, because we’re homey people who prefer to eat in.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
It sounds like you budget about $100 per week for groceries. If that’s the case, maybe I’m not too far off. I budget $150, but I have a 6-foot tall 16 year old boy who is very involved in sports to feed plus my spouse and me and sometimes my 21 year old daughter. I was thinking that maybe I’m spending too much. But then maybe I’m not.
I don’t like to travel and eat out either. It totally ruins my whole planning system.
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Yes my budget is $100 a week. Once upon a time it was $75 a week but that just was not working out at ALL. My kids are little so I think you are doing a great job