Monday Musings: Week 45

Week 45 Spending (Nov. 1-9, 2014)
Groceries	$297
Entertainment	$23
Miscellaneous	(-$13) refund
Toiletries	$10
School	$26
Total	$343

I’m still feeling the need to stock the pantry for winter. When I was perusing my food stores, I didn’t have the ingredients for even 1 batch of taco soup. In addition, I was completely out of canned green beans (a winter staple) and the supply of diced tomatoes was getting dangerously low. So when Kroger advertised all of these goodies for a sale price of $0.49/can, I went a little crazy. I came home with 24 cans each of green beans and tomatoes, and enough staples to make two pots of taco soup. They also had a lunchtime favorite, Chunky Soup, for $0.99/can which is the best price I’ve seen all year. Consequently, there are 12 cans of that in my pantry too. Then our local Brookshire’s had a special on sirloin steak. I’ve been paying $5.99 a pound, so when I saw an advertised price of $3.50/lb., I grabbed several packages. Combine these with the regular purchases of milk, produce, a few holiday items, and I ran that grocery bill right on up to nearly $300. That’s the first grocery shopping marathon I’ve done in 11 months, and I must admit that I enjoyed it immensely! I find it very gratifying when I get a receipt from the store that says: “Total $86.67, followed by Total Savings $85.50.”

Syd grilled steaks for Sunday lunch which was a real treat. He fixed 7 pounds of steak for 11 people. We had baked potatoes, green salad, homemade rolls, and tea. I figure we had $35 in the meal, which means we fed everyone a delicious steak dinner for about $3 per person – pretty impressive! I tried out a new roll recipe that I want to bake for Thanksgiving dinner. Yum -- they were worth every bit of carbohydrate splurge. Watch for the recipe on Wednesday.

My iron levels are improving, but I find I really have to get 8-9 hours of sleep or I tire very easily the next day. This has forced me to slow down our pace and learn to say “No” without feeling guilty. I’m trying to reserve my time and effort for really important things like homeschooling Essie and Josiah, our volunteer work at the food pantry and helping friends within my areas of strength. Of course, basketball takes a lot of time and energy, but thankfully Josiah has gotten his driver’s license, so he can get Esther and himself to practice. I have come to the place where I can say ”no” to great buys on clothes and even school supplies (my Achilles heel), but I tend to repeatedly over commit to activities and responsibilities that consume large amounts of time. I wish I it was as easy to budget time as it is to budget money.