No Spend Update

I blog more and have more updates in September than in any month of the year!

I try really hard to stay on top of my grocery budget and any spending I may do during the month! And in an effort to stay accountable, I blog about it… constantly!

After church on Sunday this week, The Boy and I went grocery shopping for the week at Wico. The only thing actually on our menu list for this week was bell peppers and we had a small list of staples that we needed: cooking spray, fruit for the week, and chicken salad/cracker packages.  This turned into a $72+ trip.

First of all, taking The Boy had me putting some stuff in my basket that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Hello Nutella and applesauce packets. (To be fair, I offered the Nutella so The Kids could make “banana-rollups for breakfast and I’ve been wanting to know if The Boy would take the applesauce packets to school or if he would be “too cool” for them. Turns out he said he would take them.)

We got fruit for the week: cuties, bananas, nectarines, strawberries, and mangos. The only vegetables we had to buy this week was bell peppers; we also bought 24 chicken and tuna salad/cracker packages, 2 boxes of applesauce packets, 3 jars of salsa, 2 bottles of cooking spray, 3 bags of tortilla chips, Nutella, and one loaf of bread. That is everything we bought. The total came to $72.63.

We spent $30 on chicken and tuna salad and another $11 on applesauce. When I was lamenting to The Husband about how cheap the trip would have been without those things, he pointed out to me that prepared foods are expensive. It’s nice to have some quick grab-and-go items at home for those days that are busy or we wake up late, so these things are worth the money. Essentially we got 24 lunches for $40 which breaks down to $1.66 per lunch. We would not be able to buy lunch that cheaply, so again, in my opinion worth the money and convenience.

Let’s total it all up, shall we? Before this shopping trip we had $409.60 left in our grocery budget for September from a total of $500. After spending almost $73, we still have $336.97. We are 1/3 of the way through the month and almost exactly 1/3 of the way through our budget. We are right on track.

As with every year, I’m optimistic that we will be able to stay in budget, but one never knows what expenses might pop up, or what food staples we might run out of…

But so far, so good!