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Grocery Budget...and a man in a skirt

February 7th, 2011 at 12:30 am

I went grocery shopping with my list in hand and menu. My total came to, drum roll please... $98. O.K, um, waaaaaaaaaaa.lol. The original total: $107, but I used $10 in coupons, which has never happened before (thanks to the suggestion for the coupon mom website).The bad news was that my target goal of $80 was over by $18. Although I normally spend between $100-150 the good news is that I've never had so much savings using coupons or been as aware as to what was on sale. Plus, to offset this experience there was man wearing a skirt and brown ralph lauren(ish) type boots in the baking isle. It was not a kilt either as I did a double take to figure out what was going on. So imagine buying flour and seeing a fully bearded man wearing a green, mid-length skirt, boots, and a jacket. He bought a cake mix. Also, I have never tried the crescent croisants before...on sale,they were more like round biscuits tonight because by the time I got home the tube was literally just a tube of dough. Those special lines that are supposed to be there were not. So...if anyone knows what shape these are supposed to be in off the tube, please let me know. We had round not so pretty biscuity things instead. I am not sure how people are buying groceries for $60-70 a week for a family of 4? Anyway, I also decided to buy flour and baking ingredients, which is also a new one. I found a play dough recipe, muffin, and biscuit recipe that I am going to try. TRY is the key word here...I am not known for my cooking skills.We also got our taxes done today. Our refund will go toward making up our mortgage and hopefully plane tickets for a family wedding.

12 Responses to “Grocery Budget...and a man in a skirt”

  1. wowitsawonderfullife Says:
    1297042886

    Life is short. Enjoy experimenting! And good job on the coupons. I'm impressed!

  2. mjrube94 Says:
    1297049077

    You did great! Going from $100-$150 to $80 would be a huge jump to make all at once. Coming in under $100 was a great first step, and you can tweak your approach next week to do a little better. Congrats!!

  3. LuckyRobin Says:
    1297051600

    I think you did a good job. I don't think you can expect to do it all at once. Just try and make each week, or each month better than the week before. I have a family of four (sometimes five because my mother eats with us a few times a week) and my goal since I started tracking several weeks ago was to keep my food costs under $20 a day. Eventually I am aiming for an average of $13 a day so I can get to around $400 a month but just going to it cold turkey would be very difficult, especially since we were originally spending $800 a month on groceries.

    The crescent rolls are supposed to be triangluar in shape and then you just sort of roll them from the wider end to the narrow end.

    If you are going to start baking bread, just a tip, wait until the bread is completely cold before cutting it into slices. Otherwise the bread tears easily and it can be hard to cut proper toast and sandwich sized slices.

  4. mamas debt time out Says:
    1297059708

    Thanks! Next time I'll divide my list in categories (meats, vegies, fruits, etc). It's just so logical I missed it.lol. I realized I wander back and forth in the store because my list is so jumbled. I'd go to the same isle twice. Thanks for the croisant advice. I have the second tube in the fridge and will try again. I did find a bread recipe, but I was always under the impression one needed a bread maker machine.

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    1297078438

    You don't need a bread machine to make bread. If you have a good stand mixer with a dough hook that will work, too. Some food processors even have an attachment that will mix dough. Or you can simply do it all by hand the old-fashioned way. It's a lot more work but completely possible. I just use my bread machine to mix the dough. I bake the bread in the oven so I can have normal shaped loaves.

  6. CB in the City Says:
    1297083252

    Re: the man in the skirt. I had a similar reaction once when I waited on a library patron who was wearing a low cut peasant top showing a lot of cleavage -- and a lot of chest hair! I never figured out if it was a man or a woman!

  7. mamas debt time out Says:
    1297088234

    RE: CB. Haha! Love it, I think the hardest thing is to try and act normal without staring (even though the thoughts are more like "what the #$#^?." I think it's just the Big Guy in the sky throwing in some humorSmile

  8. MonkeyMama Says:
    1297095699

    I've spent a lot of time in San Francisco (worked there and lived close to SF) and I have never seen a man in a skirt. LOL.

  9. mom-from-missouri Says:
    1297097323

    Good job--
    If you want help getting it down more, post what you bought.
    I for one, would not have bought the crescent rolls, I would have made them from scratch.
    Also, don't be afraid of the generics (they are often cheaper than buying the brand even if you use coupons). Generic is great for flour, sugar, spices, juices--I get a lot of store brand/generics and my only complaints are generic TP, and the Aldi brand of canned pears.

  10. boomeyers Says:
    1297099025

    That coupon savings is great! Just figure that it paid for your sales tax (if you have that where you live).

    Next week challenge yourself to beat what you did this week. And start trying to stock up on little things here and there. Pick up two bottles of ketchup if they are on sale and put one away in the pantry, or two bags of flour and throw one in the freezer, and so on. Little steps!

  11. mom-from-missouri Says:
    1297106781

    If you cook and bake from scratch, I have found the best deals on flour, salt and sugar are at Walmart in the 25 and 40 pound bags--but not all Walmart stores carry them. They even beat the local bulk store on those items. I store my large bags in a free nonworking chest deep freezer I got off of craigslist. It is air tight and critter free.

  12. Looking Forward Says:
    1297229328

    I second MonkeyMama. We live very close to SF and i have never seen any men in skirts. Bright colors maybe, but NO skirts - lol!

    Good luck with all your baking.

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