I have spent some time the last couple of days figuring out where we went wrong on the Grocery/Personal Care/Cleaning budget last month. We spend 20% more that the amount budgeted.
Because I rank among the world's biggest nerds, I actually went through each grocery receipt, categorized each purchase and wrote the purchase down on a sheet of paper with the category heading at the top. Christmas food purchases sank our food budget. Like most people we have special food items we buy during the Christmas season and some of them are expensive. The dollar amount of these purchases was almost equal to the dollar amount over food budget last month.
I showed my sheets of paper to Mr H. First he said incredulously "You went through every grocery receipt?" Yes, there were quite a few, and while I tend to be organized with receipts I wasn't last month and had to spend some time finding them. He came to the same conclusion regarding Christmas food purchases, then he said something like, "This looks pretty much like what we eat. I don't see how we can spend less money on food." I didn't say anything but I thought, "Them's fighting words - sounds like a challenge to me."
Last Month's Groceries
January 3rd, 2009 at 03:44 pm
January 3rd, 2009 at 03:46 pm 1230997571
January 3rd, 2009 at 05:48 pm 1231004921
My problem is if my husband ever goes to the store, he wrecks the budget! Once he came home with an organic pineapple. He was so proud of himself for thinking that pineapple would be good with the meal we were having that night. But an organic pineapple?!....$11.00!
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm 1231024159
January 18th, 2009 at 01:44 pm 1232286298