The day started out great for the challenge. I was out of my refridgerated coffee creamer. Instead of running to the store yesterday, I decided to use up some coffee creamer my mom had left in my cupboard during their last visit. One container down (probably a few more to go). I knew better than to grocery shop on an empty stomach so I heated up some of last night's spaghetti. After gathering my list and coupons, off I went. Braving the commissary (military grocery store) on pay day. What was I thinking?!
Keep in mind that the weekly average of the month prior to this challenge, I was spending $175 on groceries, cleaners, and toiletries. We would also go out to eat a couple times and our weekly average for that was $80. Here is how this week's spending breaks down.
Let me start with the most unbelieveable part. I spent $0 on impulse items. I seriously can't remember if that has ever happened. Yay me! I spent $21.20 on toiletries/cleaners. I spent $88.78 on food. I spent $7.98 on gossip magazines because we all know those are a necessity. Ha. The commissary had a special coupon booklet today. Each coupon in the booklet would save you a certain amount off of the purchase of your turkey. I only used the coupons for items that I had been planning on buying anyway because I was getting low on them at home (peanut butter, cooking spray, cheese,etc). I also bought the turkey for $15.48. After adding in their surcharge and taking off my coupons, I spent $127.12 out of pocket today (including our thanksgiving turkey!). I saved $66.40 this week on groceries.
We went out to eat a couple of times during the past week and spent $61.48, which is a savings of $18.52.
Taking my previous savings of $492.29 and adding in $66.40 and $18.52, I now have a grand total of saving $558.69 in the past 29 days!! Are you kidding me?!
Dinner: I decided to do something fun for the kids. Well, little did they know it was also due to the challenge, but I'll get to that in a bit. I made macaroni and cheese. During the last half of cooking time, I added a handful of broccoli to the noodles. After adding the butter, milk, and cheese packet, I added a few scoops of leftover corn. One dish done. Next, I took some hotdogs and turned them into octopus.Octopi. Octopus'. Whatever. I cut legs. Then, I rummaged through the cupboard. I found a baggie with eyeballs in it. Yep. My friend owns an ice cream shop and she sent us some toppings for the kids to make some fun sundaes at home. I dipped the eyes in the cheese and pushed them onto the hotdogs. Voila. Dinner. The kids thought this was so much fun. Little did they know that I came up with this meal because the hotdogs needed to be used up in the next couple days. It was also a nice distraction for them. They knew I went grocery shopping today. The second that they got off of the school bus, they both asked "did you get us a surprise?". No impulse buys = no surprises. However, I was able to reply "yep, dinner is a special surprise." I usually won't let them have macaroni or hotdogs for dinner because they aren't the healthiest options. Tonight will be just our secret. Shhhh. Don't tell daddy what he missed by working tonight!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment