Make sure you read the introduction prior to reading this post.
To quote the ever popular Dora the Explorer “We did it! We did it! Lo hicimos! Yeah, we did it!” We reached the $100 mark in savings ($78 from the experiment, $22 going into the experiment). Things are starting to look really good for our family outing. That $100 mark opens up so many more options for us–a day trip to Baltimore or Philly; a trip to the Adventure Aquarium; a really nice family meal at-gasp-a restaurant and maybe a movie…so many possibilities. It’s quite exciting!
(A note about the dollar figures. You may be wondering why the savings numbers contain no change. The change is split between our spare change jar in our kitchen and our daughter’s bank. It’s still getting rolled into savings but only dollars are being counted for this experiment’s savings.)
However, I did not do a fantastic job with my planning this week. Like all prior weeks, I looked at what we had on hand and what we needed to replace but I guess I didn’t look carefully enough. I might have missed some key ingredients, like canned tomatoes and ricotta cheese. I’m pretty sure I can make due without these (actually, I know I can make due without the ricotta cheese…I made baked ziti last night without it and it came out pretty good) but it’s still frustrating that I messed up with my shopping. The most frustrating is that the grocery store did not have gallons of 1% organic milk in any brand so we’re going to have to go back to buy another 1/2 gallon. I have no idea why I did not buy two during my shopping trip on Saturday morning but I didn’t. Again, poor planning on my part.
One thing I did do right–when I bought my Morningstar Farms chicken, I bought a 1 box containing 4 grilled “chicken” patties rather than individual bags of “chicken” strips. Many of the meals I planned this week involved chicken and since both my husband and daughter eat actual chicken (which we have plenty of in our freezer), it seemed more fiscally responsible and practical for me to buy my “chicken” this way. Now, I have chicken for each of the 4 meals where chicken is planned and it only cost me $3.79 for 1 box of 4 patties rather than $15.16 for 4 bags of chicken strips.
I also bought a couple of items that were not on my list. I bought pink lemonade mix and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I had buyer’s remorse when I was done but I can’t change it now. I guess I should just consider myself lucky that I had extra money for splurges and move on. Because 3 years ago, I could not and there are still lots of people who are in that same boat.
Anyway, all told, $32 was spent at the grocery store and $43.01 was spent at Aldi.
