Grocery Game

One of our goals for 2011 is to save money...as much as we can. We were hit with a lot of unexpected medical bills last year and knowing we will have even more with the birth of baby #2 this year, we have buckled down to see where we can save. We have canceled newspaper subscriptions, Netflix accounts, changed our cable tv arrangements, etc. (I hate to say it but one thing I absolutely would not do was give up my DVR...we went months without it at the other house and had basic cable and it wasn't bad, but after getting it at the new house I remembered how much I love extended cable channels and the DVR...so I opted to sacrifice elsewhere!!)

I am really proud of us...its not fun saying "no" to dinners out or lunches out or bypassing trips to Target b/c I know I'm in a buying mood at the time ;) But to be honest, its been easier than I expected. After looking at our budget from last year we realized we spent a lot (and I do mean A LOT) on groceries and eating out. So we made our main goal to cut back in those areas...budget $100 per week on groceries and stick to it and only eating out when absolutely necessary.

What $100 looks like...

We've turned grocery buying into a game. On Friday nights we sit down and plan out our meals for the week and make our grocery list. Then on Saturday morning we head to Wal-Mart as a family and shop. We write down the price of every item we put in the cart and at the end we use a calculator (yes, we actually take one with us!) and add up everything. If we are over or close to the $100 mark we look at what we can really do without this week. The first week we spent $76.98...today we spent $99.31. It fluctuates depending upon if we need household items (detergent, paper towels) or beer or cat food/litter...and this week we did. But we still were under $100 so I'm proud of us once more. It really is a fun game for us as anal as it might seem calculating everything out, doing it together helps us not over buy and over spend. We were very good at going to the store hungry and buying whatever snacks and junk we want at the moment and we've stopped doing that and holding each other accountable..."honey, do you REALLY need that??" is usually returned with a nasty look and then a resigned sigh and putting the item back. He he...like I said, its fun! I hope we can keep this up all year and see how much we save!

- T -