I love my husband, I really do. But sometimes he just amazes me. He took a couple of days off of work, last Friday and this past Monday for a guys weekend away. That's all fine and good (well now that he is back it is all fine and good). Well, Friday was payday. If you don't work on payday, you don't take your paycheck home (at least if you are like my husband and never sign up for direct deposit). So he goes back to work today. Forgets to get his paycheck. Love him. We live on one income, so if he doesn't bring home his paycheck... well, you do the math.
Back to my budgeting issues- I am trying to figure out where my money goes. I know, that sounds bad. I have a general idea of where the money goes, I just can't figure out where it ALL goes. Some of it went to the grocery store tonight. All four of us went to the grocery store. I shopped with little rugrat in the cart while husband chased older rugrat around the store. Fun times. Luckily the store was quite emtpy. My best purchase of the night? A large living room wall clock for $5. At the grocery store! I love signs that say 75% of. Now a clock may seem like a small insignificant thing, but we have been looking for one for about a year. Trouble is most of the ones we like are around $50. I just can't spend $50 on a clock. Is it just me? Now, I CAN spend $5.
We actually stayed on target for the grocery budget tonight. My bill was $42 and that included the clock and ice cream (we...er I have a small ice cream addiction). Now I have to hit another grocery store tomorrow or the next day (depending on winter weather in good old New England) and will most likely spend about another $25. I try to keep my weekly budget at $60, but lately have been hitting closer to $70. My goal is to start cutting down and get back to $60 or $65 a week. I may have to give up my ice cream.
So here is what I bought:
2 boxes of wheat thins (on sale 2 for $4 and I had a $2 off of 2 boxes coupon)
1 container of store brand cottage cheese
1 lb of deli turkey (don't usually buy this much, but I had a coupon of $1 one pound and it was on sale)
2 half gallons of ice cream (hehehe)
1 lb of bananas (we go through at least this much a week)
2 apples
4 boxes of mac and cheese (see what healthy food I feed my family?) on sale 50 cents a box
wall clock for $5!!!!
bagels
2 jars of apple sauce for little rugrat
5 boxes of frozen veggies (I almost always buy frozen, not bad prices, I can stockpile them and they taste much better than canned) I have never bought boxes before, but it was a GREAT price
3 jars of Ragu pasta sauce (on sale 2 for $3 and I had a coupon for $1 off of three) I use about half a jar per meal with my family so these will last me awhile
I have a freezer in my garage and pantry shelves above my washer and dryer (which are in my kitchen...no basement) so this allows me to stockpile enough food for a small army when there are good sales.
I looked over my list and it is a mishmash, but that is how I shop. I look at sales, I look at what I have and I meal plan from there. I do still have another store to go to. Normally I split my shopping between two grocery stores shopping the sales, my local butcher for all my meats (I buy in bulk once every 6 weeks and freeze) and Costco. When I have time I go to a local produce store that has AWESOME prices, but since rugrat number 2 arrived hitting that store just isn't happening as often.
Okay, here are my ideas for meals for the next week:
Tuesday- sloppy joes and green beans (made that tonight, EVERYONE loved it)
Wednesday- hubby cooks, I work until 7
Thursday- shrimp breaded and baked, corn
Friday- pasta (not sure which box I will pull out of the pantry) and crockpot meatballs
Saturday- homemade chicken nuggets, mixed veggies
Sunday- taco night
Monday- mac and cheese with hotdogs (yup, its gonna be a healthy night!)
Tuesday- roast chicken in the crockpot (thank you crockpot lady!), green beans
Now lets see if I can stick to my meal plan for once....
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