Here's the damage...
Wal-Mart
GROCERY:
Ketchup $4.97
TOILETRIES:
Neutrogena eye make up remover $8.37
Hair elastics $4.00
Crest fluoride rinse $6.96
Electric toothbrush $7.46
Cotton cosmetic pads x2 $3.68
Subtotal: $35.44
Tax: $1.52
Grand total: $36.96
Costco
There's a little stow away trying to steal some strawberries
PRODUCE:
Bananas (3 lbs) $1.69
Strawberries (2 lbs) $2.99
Happy Planet extreme purple smoothie (2 bottles) $6.89 (+$0.26 deposit)
Clementines (5 lbs) $6.99
Raspberries (2 pints) $2.99
Blueberries (3 lbs) $7.99
Gala apples (6 lbs) $7.49
Watermelon $5.99
BAKERY:
McGavin's bread (3 loaves) $5.99
Stonehedge bread (3 loaves) $5.79
Chocolate chunk cookies $7.99
DAIRY:
4L 2% Milk $4.69 (+$0.31 deposit)
Mini babybel cheese (22 pieces) $11.39
Eggs (3 dozen) $9.99
MEAT:
Breakfast sausages (2kg) $9.99
Frozen chicken breasts (4kg) $29.99
Lean ground beef (4 kg) $13.46
Chicken drumsticks (24 pieces) $12.81
Cheese tortellini (3 pkgs) $11.99
AISLES:
Annie's mac & cheese (12 boxes) $11.99
Dole fruit salad (20 count) $7.04
Sun-rype juice boxes (40 count) $9.99 (+ $5.20 deposit)
FROZEN:
Pepperoni pizza (3) $9.99
CLOTHING:
Carter's fleece sleepers x4 $35.96 (I will be returning 2 of these)
CK jeggings $24.99
Long sleeve t-shirt $9.99
Dalia sweater coat $25.99
CK knit skinny pant $26.99
Subtotal: $335.80
Tax: $6.20
Grand total: $342.00
So out of that total there was $130.12 spent on clothing which was completely unplanned, which means I am going to have to cut clothing out of the budget entirely for the next couple of pay cheques to catch up. Some of this was unplanned stocking up since they had some good sales/store coupons at Costco on things we normally buy, so I'm hoping to be able to stick to a $300 budget for groceries next pay day. Going forward though I am going to do a realistic $450 budget for 2 weeks of food. That will give us some wiggle room for stocking up, and if we spend less than that we can just throw the excess onto debt, but at least I won't feel like we're too short.
I'm feeling like a bit of budgeting failure right now, but I'm trying to remind myself that part of this whole journey is knowing where we spend our money, what we spend it on, and looking for ways to improve. We've just got to start from where we're at!
Posts
You really need to get into couponing! It kills me to see how much you spent at Walmart- most of that could have been gotten cheap or free (at least here in the States- I'm sure it's a bit different in Canada). I'm enjoying reading your blog- good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I could save some money using coupons, and I should probably get better at saving them when I find them. Couponing here is VERY different though - no way would I get anything free (there is no double couponing here anywhere, Wal-Mart won't take printed coupons either).
ReplyDeleteThe other problem I have is I always look at the opportunity cost of things like couponing - I make $25 per hour working, so unless I can save $25 an hour couponing it's just not worth it to me.