Monday, August 8, 2011

Week 1 Food Spending for August & When Momma Ain't Happy....

Saturday marks the last day of the 1st week of food spending for August.(I'll add an extra day to each of the rest of the weeks to account for those 3 additional days this month beyond the 28th.)
I did quite a lot of food shopping this week....3 trips to the grocery store and a trip on Saturday to Big Lots.
At the local independent market I finally picked up some pie crust on sale and made my quiches.  I also picked up some plain yogurt to make tzatziki sauce for my ersatz Gyros.
While I was there I picked up on sale....4 bags of frozen veggies, whack biscuits, carrots, potatoes and strawberries for a total of $23.34.

Then at Weis Markets, along with more Swiss cheese for my quiches and the ground pork I got to make my DIY breakfast patties HERE, I found some other deals.....battered fish for half off(#2 son eats this), breakfast link sausage, some boneless pork chops and swiss steak on discount and store packaged feta cheese(for the Gyros).
I splurged and bought a container of hummus(on sale)and some store bakery garlic crustini rounds for a snack for me.
I picked up 16 bottles of gatorade on sale with hangtag Qs on them as well.  These are a donation for the Marching Band Camp next week.  The total was $55.16 at Weis.

Then on Saturday Hubs wanted to go out so we checked out Big Lots.  I got some quart sized canning jars I needed, Ocean Spray 100% juices for $2(my buy price for 100% juice other than apple), Oreos(for #2 son), a box of chocolate chip pancake mix(for #2 son to make), a Xmas stocking stuffer(it's a secret!), and 2 jars of mayonnaise on clearance.  I was very happy about the mayo since I was down to my last jar for a stock-up 2 summers ago at Acme where I got it for free.  And yes, mayo does last 2 yrs. past the sell by date on the jar. ;-)  We left that store $27.72 poorer....

Then it was off to Weis again, for more Gatorade for the Marching Band, Power-Ade for #2 son's use at Band Camp and a bunch of bags of chips.  #2 son talked me into all that snacking stuff since the house was bare and it was on sale so I don't feel as bad.  Plus he'll take a bag or two to band camp next week.  I do feel bad about the $34.78 I spent.  bleh.

In total I spent $141.00 of my $250 food budget for August in this 1st week of the month.
Ugh.
Ugh.
Ugh.
And I haven't even gotten any produce to put up for winter yet!

My savings percentages ran from just under 34% at the local market to 45% for one of the Weis Markets trips.   I had a 40% savings for all trips combined.

We ate the Meal Plan that I had made last week as posted already.
This week?
All bets are off on the menu.

Hubs is on vacation but we are staying home.
So he gets a staycation.
Saturday he bought more books.  I wish he'd go to the library or read what he has already!
Today he's at the local amusement park with #2 son and his friend.
Later this week he's going to go play chess.  This costs money and a ton in gas as it's 2+ hours away.

I get business as usual.
Can you tell I am not happy?


But I'd like to at least not have to cook this week.
If I don't cook, it's not like he will fix meals instead.
He'll just go buy fast food and spend unnecessary money.
If that happens, I won't spend any food budget money this week(as eating out comes out of a different kitty).
But I think a large scale amount of crappy fast food all week, along with being bad for us, is just a wasteful frittering away of our cash when good food is here in the house and he can't be bothered to throw a meal together if I am busy and he isn't.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.
I am feeling overwhelmed and unappreciated by my children.
Why am I still having to deal with buying college books for the 20 yr. old student after 2 years of college?  It's bad enough I have to do their tax returns for them and now I have to find deals for Daughter, the incoming college student. Why can't he handle his book order now?
Both kids are in a state school(within the same system)yet their schools handled Everything so differently!  Instead of being easy, they make it so complicated.  One hasn't even posted the bill for this semester.....the bill that needs to be paid before Aug. 24th.  And they only let you pay online using a credit card and they make YOU pay the processing fee they are charged by the cc company.  You can't mail them a check or hand them cash in person. 
Just ridiculous....

And #1 son chooses to come home from his summer job for 3 whole days before he has to leave again for college.  And he expects me to get him 2 dr. appts., dentist appt. and an optometrist appt. AND fill an eye glass prescription within this time frame.  He could come home sooner and he could schedule all this his bad self, right?
I think 20 yrs. old is time to start handling your own shit....


Sluggy


7 comments:

  1. Fred has piles and piles of books that he only read half of. Pisses me off to no end. Yes, why can't they get them from the library? Why????
    p.s. I'm going to shoot you an email. Look out for it.
    m.

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  2. "Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today."-I'm in line next to you. I've had enough.
    I had a terrible weekend. The dog was sick and every time I thought I was done, there was another pile. I cleaned carpets for 7.5 hrs and I'm not kidding. Den was sick so he slept.
    Then on Sunday we were supposed to go to my inlaws to see my SIL & insulting BIL. Den was sick and pissy. He was so bad that I started crying. Needless to say, we drove all the way there and turned around and came back. So then just to make it better. MY SIL's BFF texts me and tells me I should call her(SIL) because she is upset. WTF!

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  3. Holy cra$! 16 bottles of gatorade?
    Well... now that I think about it, it's not that many in our household either...

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  4. mark--Heck, I'd be happy if mine bought them from Amazon used booksellers rather than full price from Amazon! I feel your pain....

    SonyaAnn-I had a puking dog here all day on Sat. too...up til 5 am with a freaking dog! We lead sad, sad lives you and me. We need a vacation together away from all of them.

    McVal--16 bottles + another 16 when we went back to Weis. 32 bottles total for the marching band camp. AFter Qs that .50¢ a bottle out of my pocket so I can afford to be a generous benefactor for one day.lol

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  5. At the risk of your throwing a bottle of Gatorade at me, how long has the "sew three pj pants" been on your to-do list? Yes, I do check up on you, missy! Just kidding...lol.

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  6. Oh, I am so surprised to see you are still able to write to us after eating mayo that is 2 years past it's sell by date!!! We all know that you DIE if you eat any food after that magic date. All the food is very smart and knows how to read a calendar. Shhhh, secret here -- I have food in my pantry that is beyond the sell by date and I'm still alive too!! By the way, I had some past date Gatorade (like 3 years) and I called the company and they said it's fine. Not like your Gatorade will last 3 years. Ha

    dicity

    My Google acct won't let me use it anymore. Don't know why.

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  7. I cannot tell you how much I identify with the scenario of you doing everything for your 20-somethings in college. Through Corey's senior year, I was still trying to get him reduced-price textbooks as soon as he knew his schedule. And I hated that PSU charged the processing fee back to me to pay by cc. If retailers aren't allowed to do that, why do big-ass-rolling-in-alumni-money universities allowed?

    And I still make the boy appts for doctors, although he has gotten better about doing some of that himself. It just seems to take longer. Then again, waaaaay back when I was in college, my mother didn't have any way of helping me do any of that for myself - there was no way for her to do much of anything except the tuition part with a check. Even if she wanted to see my schedule and buy me textbooks, she couldn't because I never knew my sechedule until I'd spent a day standing in multiple lines at the registrars, begging each prof to let me in so I could get the required course only they offered in order to graduate some day :)

    Sorry, I got a little off track there...

    Meanwhile, no matter how hard I try to start each month swearing I will go nowhere near my budget on groceries, I end up spending right up to it and often before the last day :P

    ReplyDelete

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