Your Money Spent

[enjoy the ride]

angie68- totally inspiring post. I hope you and your husband have every success and good health.

 

[FarmerChick]

scottyg
are you including formula in the bill? cause if you do your bill is HIGH....LOL...I am so over baby formula thankfully!!!!!

Walmart had Enfamil w/ iron mispriced. One store had it $3 cheaper than the others. I bought TONS and saved close to $500 on that stuff!

oh well...one time I wasn't willing to mention their mistake..HA HA

 

[me&thegals]

That is AWESOME, Karen. Inspires me to try and do the same. My grocery bill... UGH. Where I used to live, there was an AMAZING grocery store that had everything ever made, and it was super cheap to boot. But I haven't found anything comparable, or even CLOSE, here in Michigan. So my bills have gone up maybe 50-100 bucks a month. I really really really really miss Woodman's. Best grocery store ever.

As I was reading your description, I was thinking of my beloved Woodman's! And then you said it! Yes, Woodman's is awesome. My nearest one is 45 min away, but it's where my sister lives and I make excuses to go see her and stock up on some things big time. What grocery stores are available make such a tremendous difference in a person's grocery bill!

 

[FarmerChick]

never heard of woodman's
now I want one HERE!

 

[me&thegals]

I'm telling you! If you can't find it at Woodman's, you probably can't find it anywhere. I used to be able to go absolutely crazy at that store and not break $100. These days, though, I'm noticing the increased prices.

 

[ScottyG]

YAY for Woodman's! Oh, how I miss it. It's not just cheap, but they have EVERY single food product you could possibly imagine, in stock. And it's worker-owned, so there's no huge overhead for the store, is how they keep their prices low. SIGH. I miss it.

Karen, I'm totally not including formula. So many things are just WAY more expensive here. I used to get a brand of pasta I like for 99 cents at Woodman's. Here, the cheapest I've seen it is $2.19. I used to get cans of tuna fish for 39 cents at Woodman's. Here, it's 80 cents at its cheapest. And so on, all the way across the board. Argh.

 

[FarmerChick]

wow those are great prices at woodmans!
now I really want one near me..HA HA

 

[unclejoe]

spend now to save later? but at what point am I over spending --??--I dont' know..LOL

I don't see food getting cheaper any time soon, so buying extra now even if it puts you a little over budget is staying under budget in the long run. Look at the way packaging is getting smaller. It was the same price for a while so as to deceive us "oblivious" consumers, but the prices are on the rise even with the smaller packaging. Personally, I don't think you can over spend if you are stockpiling non-perishable food that you normally eat. We always take advantage of the buy 1 get 1 deals on stuff we use regularly. We probably have 30 boxes of different types of pasta and still buy more when that special comes up. We just make sure to keep the oldest stuff in the front and use that first. Happy Shopping.

 

[2dream]

First you tackle the electric and now the groceries. You are making me feel bad and not frugal at all. LOL.
But you are doing really great and are an inspiration to me. Kind of giving me that push to take control instead of just floating along. Once upon a time I was in control.
Someone mentioned the stock up mentality....I think we all do that. I think thats kind of a woman thing. We want to make sure we have everything our families could want.
Now you have me thinking and planning. I use to keep a list of everything I had in stock on the inside of my cabinet door and a list taped to the top of the freezer. On my fridge was a grocery list.
At the top of my list were a list of things I knew I used weekly. Whenever I opened a can of anything it was marked on my grocery list to be replaced. When I took something out of the freezer I checked my freezer list to see how much more I had plus I put a mark by that item to show it was gone. It went on my list of (if on sale replace if I had plenty left in the freezer or either it went on my must buy list if I was out or really low.)
My grocery list was always ready when I went to the store. I only had to make a quick check of things like butter, milk, bread etc.
Plus by having all those list available and the quantity I had on hand it left me some room to roam if one particular item was on sale. If I had 12 cans of green beans at home but had 3 cans on my list to replace I knew I could skip those if something else was on sale. But my hard and fast rule was that for anything I purchased on sale - something equal to those had to be removed from my list.
Making more money and having less time - plus a major move I got away from all that. Now you have motivated me to make my list again and go back to planning.

 

[FarmerChick]

good reasoning Unclejoe
you are right. a little over spend to save while we know prices are not decreasing is a smart thing! thanks