Thursday, November 29, 2012

When hubby grocery shops alone...

November 29, 2012

My kids were sick for a week. Now I have been sick for five days. I feel like there is no end in sight...along with no groceries in my house! I gave my hubby a detailed grocery list even listing how many of each item I needed. His response, "Do I have to just stick to the list?" Ha. Poor guy. I told him that he could get a couple impulse items but not to spend like $60 on it. Here is what happens when I send my hubby to be surrounded by deliciousness, all on his lonesome (and doing so while he was hungry).

Keep in mind our pre-challenge weekly average for groceries/toiletries/cleaners was $175. He spent $81.68 on food,  $35.63 on toiletries/cleaners, and $7.98 on gossip magazines. Hey, that is already a plus because I usually buy four magazines but he only bought three. Good start hub! He spent a little extra this week because he stocked us up on a few items such as kleenex and paper plates. He found a great deal on plates. Normally we buy a 40 pack of plates for a little over $2. He saw that they had 95 packs for the same price (just a slightly smaller plate, but still plenty large enough). I had given him a coupon for buying two packs of plates so he went ahead and got two of the big packs. I think we will be good to go for awhile on them! Ok, now on to the impulse items. Remember he was hungry. Remember this is his first shopping trip alone since we started this challenge. Also, he has been eating a ton of leftovers and I'm sure he is kind of tired of that and was wanting a selection of items to have at home. How did he do?? He spent $6.16 on impulse items. I should say "item" because the only thing he bought that wasn't on the list was a bag of giant grapes. There is no way that you can be upset if the only impulse item he went for was a fruit! After adding in the commissary's surcharge and taking off the coupons, he spent $133.72 today. We actually needed quite a bit of stuff for our cupboards seeing as we haven't been eating at restaurants lately. He saved $41.28 at the store today. We have not gone out to eat this week seeing as the flu has been rotating through our house. That equals a savings of $80. Adding together our grocery and restaurant savings for this week, we have saved $121.28. Our previous savings was $750.68. This brings our grand total savings to $871.96 in 43 days.

"Saving" money when shopping or not going out to eat isn't really saving unless you take that money and set it aside. Each week, once I tally up our totals I put the weekly amount into our savings account. This is excellent motivation to continue. It keeps us from just spending that money on something else. I've noticed that the food challenge has spilled over into other shopping areas of our life. When debating about buying any item now, I think "Hmmmm. Do I really need this item? What will happen if I don't buy it? Do I rather have that money in our bank?"

On to today's food. Hubby had a leftover grilled chicken breast with some onions and buffalo sauce. He made a taco out of it. Surprise, I had chicken soup. He decided on regular tacos for dinner. I'm still not feeling quite ready for normal food so I basically had a tortilla with some leftover chicken flavored rice a roni in it. Ha. Not quite the taco I wanted, but still better than yet another bowl of chicken soup. A very good challenge day. Way to go hub!!

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