Let me just start off by saying that my grocery budget has been shot for the month. Unfortunately, I had to buy laundry detergent and paper towels last week. If you are the primary shopper for your family, you know that these two things can easily total $20 by themselves. Now, I know that I only have to buy these items once every five or six months, but I still cringe when I get to the last paper towel because I know that I'm going to have to pinch pennies some other way.
I've been getting by on $100/two weeks at the grocery store for the past five months. Sadly, this will not be the case for the first two weeks in May. I spent $83 last week at the grocery store leaving me with $17. I anticipated this purchase and put back a little extra for this week's grocery trip, so I have $40 for groceries. Now, I know that I've posted on here that I've been able to buy groceries for $30, but that was when I had meat in the freezer. My freezer is currently pretty bare. I've got a little hamburger and three pieces of chicken, but I'm determined to make this work!
Here's my menu for next week:
Sat: Chef Salad. (I have half a head of lettuce, onions, and some sandwich meat. I'm going to buy a cuke, a tomato, and a bag of shredded cheese)
Sun: Quesadilla with chicken (I have the tortillas and the chicken, so I'm going to use the remainder of the shredded salad cheese for my quesadillas. I'm also going to buy some rice and a can of corn.)
Mon: Grilled cheese and soup (I've got the cheese, the soup, and the bread)
Tues: Burgers (I have the hamburger. I need buns. I also have some broccoli left over and some french fries in the freezer.)
Wed: Burger leftovers
Thurs: Pizza (which I'm going to buy for $2.)
I will also need to buy some fruit and snack cakes (for our brown bag lunches) and some microwavable pancakes for breakfast.
and then of course Friday is pay day, so I can go shopping again before dinner Friday night.
Now, I know that grocery shopping may seem boring, but I enjoy competition. Did you know that I ran track back in the day? Yup. I'm into beating my personal bests, and folks, I've got to tell you, I think I can beat my personal best at the grocery store this week. I mean, we may not be eating fancy food, but it'll eat.
Not to criticize - but why did you have to buy paper towels? We gave them up in our house about a year ago and don't miss them. Old t-shirts and towels that aren't suitable for donation have been converted to cleaning rags. Rags are continually added to or removed from the pile depending on how often we retire clothes or what we use the rag for.
ReplyDeleteFor the price of an 8-pk of paper towels, I bought a pack of white napkins and we use those - well, as napkins. Since they're frequent use, they get tossed into our regular laundry. I don't miss paper towels - neither does the landfill.
And since I know you're wondering, no - we don't go so far as 'family cloth'. There are some things we just can't commit to.
I'm sure you are right, but honestly it takes me so long to run through them that I can get over the biannual cost. From a green perspective, I'm sure going without PT would be the way to go. Thanks for the food for thought!
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