Weekly Grocery Shopping

This month I have started taking a closer look at our grocery spending. I find it rather ridiculous the amount of money we spend at the grocery store, considering I'm usually the only person eating at home and, I don't even eat at home that much.

My last trip resulted in the laundry detergent rambling. Last time I went to Country Mart on 1/08/2009 and my spending totaled $51.99. It looked like this:

I found that small pile to be a bit sickening compared to the price.

Today I decided to try a couple of different stores. First I stopped by Big Lots just to see what they had. I was pleasantly surprised with their grocery selection today and did most of my shopping there. I also stopped by Dollar General to pick up a few more things.

**Note: You might notice there is no meat in either picture. Our freezer is currently stocked with ground beef, chicken, and steaks. I don't usually cook a lot of meat while Steven is gone because I eat out so much.

Today's trip:

Big Lots:

Suddenly Salad (my favorite!) 3 @ $1.50 ea.
fruit juice 1 @ $2.00
Kraft Mac & Cheese Deluxe 1 @ $1.30 (This was a great deal. I found this same box for over $2 at Dollar General!)
Sunflower seeds 1 @ $1.00
Trail Mix 2 @ $1.00 ea.
Oreos 1 @ $2.00
Cereal 1 @ 2.00
Pringles 1 @ $.90 (another good deal - this is the cheapest I have ever found them)
wheat bread 1 @ $1.20 (another deal! This same bread was $2.75 at Dollar General & is usually ~$2.80 at Wal-Mart!)
White bread 1 @ $1.20 (and another deal! This bread is usually $1.85 at Wal-Mart)
6 rolls of toilet paper $3.70 (Quilted Northern, not generic brand stuff!)
12 bars of soap $4.50
Duncan Hines cake mix $1.00

and my best deal...
1 package of a chocolate peppermint bread mix @ $1.50
- I looked up the web site for this product and was shocked. This bread mix usually sells for $8.00!!

total: $30.55

Dollar General
saltines 1 @ $1.00
1/2 gal milk 1 @ $2.50
Cherrios 1 @ $2.00 (these also had a $1.00 coupon on the box for my pop-tarts! woohoo!)
FiberOne strawberry pop-tarts 1 @ $2.00 (before coupon)

total: $6.80

Grand total: $37.35


For more grocery shopping lists and deals, check out The Grocery Cart Challenge.

I hate buying laundry detergent.

It's true. I absolutely hate it. I hate the fact that I am paying someone else between $14 and $16 each time - so that I can wash my own clothes. Yes, I realize that's pretty cheap when you think about the per load price, but it still irritates me. At $14 a box, I think that should include someone else to do the folding/ironing. :-)

For a while now, I have been following this genius lady over at The Grocery Cart Challenge. While my money-saving abilities are nowhere near her level, I do try. You may remember a while back, when I posted about making my own fabric softener. That was another of her genius ideas. That worked really well, and I plan to do it again soon. The only reason I haven't made another batch is that I happened across a bottle stashed in the back of my cabinet that I had somehow forgotten.

Anyway, back to my original point-

Last week I decided to try a new grocery store to avoid some impulse spending at Wal-Mart. (I have a weakness for craft supplies.) While I was surprised by a few good deals (bananas for $.69/lb), I was annoyed when my normal laundry detergent brand was not carried in the bigger boxes. I was even more annoyed to discover that the smaller boxes were sold out and on sale! After checking out and examining my receipt, I realized that $52 worth of groceries would have been less than $38 without the laundry detergent! I never win with laundry detergent. Oh, and did I mention that yesterday I found a brand I have been wanting to try (but couldn't find at Wal-Mart) on sale for $4.99/48 load box at the pharmacy! I'm telling ya, the laundry people are spying on me and laughing hysterically...

This lead me to have a discussion with Steven over the weekend. I found it a bit humorous.

Me: I hate buying laundry detergent.
Steven: Why?
Me: It's so stinkin' expensive. It drives me crazy. This may sound crazy, but I think I'm going to start making my own.
Steven: You can do that?
Me: Well, yeah...the factories figured out how to make it somehow. Besides, Google knows everything.

I guess he just figured the recipe came to Mr. Tide in a dream? haha, who knows.

Ok, I'm rambling again. I say all of this to say that as soon as I use up the two small boxes in my laundry room right now, I'm making my own. I have not decided which recipe I'll go with yet, but I'll post it when I make a decision.

Creative Money-Saving Idea #1

I found this idea on The Grocery Cart Challenge. I am going to try it, and I hope that it will satisfy my husbands "need" for liquid fabric softener.

"Homemade Dryer Sheets

2 cups of water

1 cup of vinegar

2/3 cups of any hair conditioner

Mix in spray bottle and stir. Don’t shake, this will cause foaming. Soak a cloth rag and ring it out until slightly damp. Then throw it into the dryer with your load of clothes.

This can also be used as a liquid fabric softener in the rinse cycle.

I use dollar store conditioner so this mixture costs me just a bit over a dollar to make. I've been able to get almost 50 loads out of one batch. I keep this stored in a tupperware container by my dryer with the rag already in it so all I have to do is squeeze and add it to the load in the dryer.

Simple and cheap with none of the wax from the store bought sheets that wear your clothes out."

Saving money.

I'm going to try to save more money through Christmas. I actually decided to start saving money on grocery bills, utility bills, etc when we first got married. Then I discovered who I married! People always said that no matter how long you date, you still learn a lot more about who that person is after you are married. Well, I discovered that I married a high-maintenance man!

The following are Steven's responses to my common money-zapping issue complaints.

Me: "I just spent $50 on gas, and the car isn't even full."
Him: "So. Why didn't you just fill it up?"

Me: "Why can't our dog just be normal and eat the cheap food?"
Him: "Even if she could, I don't want to feed her bad, cheap food."
Me: "Why can't the outside dogs eat cheaper food?"
Him: "I don't want them to get the bad food. The other stuff is better for them."

Not only does he not care how much money we spend on certain things, he insists on having a few certain high-priced, brand name items.

• ice cream (Ok, I admit it. I agree on this one.)
• liquid fabric softener AND fabric softener sheets (Can you say, 'Laundry Snob'?)
• toilet paper
• bread
• expensive sheets (nothing less than 400-450 thread count)

Oh, and did I mention that he doesn't blink an eye at the thought of his wife buying her make up at a department store counter? Or that his idea of a night at home lately involves going to Wal-Mart to buy a DVD (or two or three!), even though we have Netflix? He also makes sure we keep a constant supply of treats for our dogs.

Add in the fact that we rarely eat a meal other than breakfast at home, constant home improvement projects, and we end up spending a lot of money every month. While we do have money put away in a savings account, it isn't nearly as much as it should be according to our income.

Steven has been blessed with a well-paying job in a field that he loves. God works in crazy ways. We are so amazed by His blessings in our lives everyday. We live comfortably as a stereotypical, middle-income couple. However, if we plan to ever have kids (and we do), we need to figure out how to make that income stretch past more than two people!

I have identified three ways that I could decrease our spending.

• Eat more meals at home.
• Un-spoil my husband.
• Be creative.

Well, the first two are out - at least for now. In the meantime, I'll go straight to the last option. If you have any ideas or good web sites, pass them my way via the comments option!