Can we just talk for a second about my freaking menu? It relies heavily on leftovers, and THERE ARE NO LEFTOVERS. I mean, on Sunday night, after cooking 2/3 of the meals I planned for the week, we have enough chicken and noodles for one (small) person to eat and a single beef sandwich. There's smattering of coleslaw and a pretty respectable tub of pasta salad, which is a side dish and there is nothing to put beside it. YOU GUYS.
ALSO. Groceries are more expensive every week. I am not sure what's happening here. Foreign relations? Too many strawberries? Bad luck with the grocery store specials of the week? Like I said: NOT SURE. I do know that I am consistently like $50 over budget when I add up Target and groceries.
A couple of mitigating factors: 1. I am not shopping at my beloved Aldi because I have been ordering groceries online which really does save so much time for me that it's worth the price increase (unless you count my time as totally free and then it looks like highway robbery). 2. I have seen this pattern in grocery shopping before. I switch places, and it's really cheap, and then it creeps up and up and up and is back to insane levels in a month or so. 3. We are eating home every darn day because our schedule is madness, so I am buying more meals.
I struggle to find the perfect balance between too many leftovers/too much fresh produce/pantry jammed with carbs all open with a small fistful removed going stale and feeling like Old Mother Hubbard by Thursday (grocery shopping day is Saturday). I always tell myself that ordering a ton means I won't go back mid week, but last week, I spent $46 on random mid-week trips.
Which brings me to another life management thing. Tracking my spending. I spend disgusting amounts of money, but as I look back on the last 2 weeks of color-coded spending I see that even the frivolous purchases I have made (a Starbucks run! midweek pancakes at a diner!) have basically been food or household related (a Mrs. Meyer's Mum candle! A new leotard for Dorothy, even though she has a couple from last year! Really bright water bottles from Amazon-- enough for a team the listing claims, but mine are just for my own children!). Nothing strictly for me except Fiber One and my favorite berries. But-- and here's the rub-- I feel like can never buy anything for me because I am buying SO MUCH STUFF for the house. (That said, I have another billion dollar hair color sesh on the calendar for next week, and that's clearly just for me. And also, I am addicted to the $2 TJ's face masks, so.)
Adulting is the worst you guys.
There is a mammogram on my calendar. I am thinking colonoscopy thoughts. I mean.
Hi Sarah - I enjoy the blog and appreciate your more frequent posting lately! Delurking to make a few comments related to what you said about your spending - and this may come across as overly blunt but as WAHM I only have so much before the kid comes home from school so I'll take the direct route :-)
ReplyDelete1) Even if it's for the house, it still counts as spending and doesn't give you a free pass (i.e., the candle). Would it be more helpful to look at things as unnecessary (candle, additional leotard) vs. necessary (water bottles) regardless of who/what they're for?
2) Are you hitting your other financial goals - saving for retirement, college, have an emergency fund, etc? Sometimes it can be easier to put your money towards yours savings goals and then stick to working within what's left.