Gorcery Day!

Victory is mine! I paid cash for groceries today and only spent $104. ($91 at Wal-Mart, $13 at the bread store)

I had never gone to a discount bread store before. It was pretty amazing.

I got all of the following items...

2 packs cinnamon raisin english muffins

3 loaves of whole grain bread

1 loaf white bread

2 bags of little donuts (something I wouldn't normally buy...)

1 box of cherry pies (ditto)

2 packs of hamburger buns

1 pack of hot dog buns

1 pack of hoagie rolls

1 pack vanilla cookies

1 bag of tortillas.

Seriously...that is crazy. My freezer is full of bread and I planned my menu around what I could get at the bread store. We are having bbq sandwiches, soft tacos, hot dogs, and maybe even breakfast for dinner (my six-year-old's favorite).

My goal for this week is to not go back to the grocery store for anything but milk. My kids drink a ton and if we need more we can walk to the 7-11 up the street. Surprisingly, they charge less than the grocery store for milk.

Dinner: Hamburgers and hot dogs, baked beans, chips and fruit. Friends brought dessert.

Walk, don'drive: 0 miles...the dog hid my left shoe. I promise.

Making Changes

Old habit...

Friday dinner through Sunday lunch we ate out. It was our "treat" for staying in for the week, but we on average spent the same on those five meals than we spent on a week's worth of groceries.

New habit...

Instead of going to a restaurant on Friday night we are inviting friends over for dinner. They bring dessert and provide the dinner. So last night we fed our friends and ourselves for around $21 which was part of the grocery budget. We made some great memories, plus we have lots of leftovers for lunch on Saturday.

More background...

I am equating this entire experiment with losing weight. After the third baby I had 25 pounds to lose. Being rather daunted by this task, I just went back to how I ate before and hoped for the best. But things had changed and my metabolism was not what it used to be. So I joined Weight Watchers and slowly the pounds came of as I accounted for every single thing that went into my mouth. It is still something I am keenly aware of everyday. All of the little decisions add up, which is how we need to view spending money.