Home How often to you grocery shop and how much to you spend?

[divergrrl]

Date: 2/21/2008 7:52:28 PM
Author: Mara

lol MC I am horrible about seeing and buying impulses. Also I am guilty of buying things that mostly sit to look cute on the counter (Maribelle hot chocolate comes to mind, super cute container!!)...!!

DF...we could easily eat out of our pantry for a month or two...it''s a walk in pantry so it is kind of big (fortunately or unfortunately?!). Greg is always like WHY is it so packed in here and why don''t we eat out of here?? I try to clean it out 2-3x a year but it''s really just ''reorganizing'' it to make it look neat...haha. I am a sucker for wanting to be sure I could make ANYTHING at ANY TIME because sometimes I get impulses like ''i want to make chocolate chip cookies'' so I have to have options.

Strm, $10 a month for toiletries and TP?? Our TP is $10 for a 12 pack and ummm we use about one a week. I am a total TP whore.

You TP whore...LOL.

I am with you Mara on the cute container thing. Hand soap comes to mind. I love having cute bottles of soap at each sink. If they look like they are from Provence, all the better. LOL. And smell....I lurrrrve things that smell good. Soaps, cleansers, candles, etc. I have to have good smellies in my home, so I can do a total impulse buy on anything cute to put on my counter too.

 

[Mara]

DG that sounds like so much work!!!

taco truck up the street. $1.25 tacos...cereal for breakkie; 2 tacos for lunch, 2 tacos for dinner. mmm tacos. $5 a day!! $10 for 2 of us. $300 a month ..hehe. we are obviously doing something wrong.

 

[divergrrl]

Mara: it WAS total work the 1st month, but now I''ve got the hang of it, clipping takes me a half hour, shopping takes 2 hours & i just go once a week. I was like ARRRRGHHHHH this is a pain in the arse, but then I''m a SAHM, so I thought, well heck, my job is managing our household finances,so if i can save,why the heck not?

And now I shop 1x a week, and am sooooo organized its scary. I am doing less errand running---total pain w/2 small kiddos, so its way worth it. But I just started college funds for the kids & little man starts preschool in September, (of course its a fancy spanish immersion program...lol) so I''m trying to keep my net expenditures even.

Its a fun challenge, and since I used to manage product lines, margins, etc....its kind of a mental thing for me. Even if I''m not bringing in money, I''m shaving off "unneccessary" costs and saving us money while getting more, so its worth a few extra newspapers.

Heck if I can stock up on italian diced tomatoes for .33 a can instead of buying them onesie twosie for $1.25 apeice why not? (and I''m saving about 75% on all the stuff I''ve been stockpiling) In the past I''ve just always bought as I''ve needed something and never planned ahead...so really...saving TONS. More bling money perhaps???????

I probably would have never gotten into it if I was working. (the first month was super time consuming, I was very frustrated..spent a lot of time on the GG boards asking questions). But it was raining here, dh was traveling, so I had a lot of late boring nights alone to figure it out. All good now. Truly, I spend about a half hour a week on it besides my actual shopping trip.

I just hate spending money on stuff that doesn''t sparkle & I really only like "good" food (not into processed --well besides soups, canned beans & tomatoes) so its been a challenge to get our grocery bill in line.

Now if I can get my dang power bill down I''ll be happy. $150 a month for a 3200 sq ft house? The chick at the power co. said that was good. But my heat is on Natural Gas! ARGH! I think my power should be $50 a month. Gotta keep finding coupons for those halogen bulbs.

hee hee...