6/9/10, I went to Costco today...mistake! Everything there was calling my name and I barely refrained from buying 16 large cupcakes. I was pleased to see that they now offer organic meats, cheese, produce, and milk. My sister in law informs me that this is a recent development.
I did my best to stick to the $40 budget I had set out for myself, but I exceeded it by $34! I ended up spending $74.83 on everything. I was able to buy:
3 lbs of organic chicken, 3 lbs of organic beef, 1.5 gallons of organic milk, 12 cans of tomato sauce, 24 organic eggs, 12 freshly baked bagels and 36 rolls of paper towels. Not bad, eh?
$109.51-$74.83= $34.68
That my not look like a lot of money left (and it's not), but we now have enough food to last until 6/21/10 with some alterations to our menu. Instead of stir fry and frozen pizza we will have chicken parmesan and meatloaf. Tasty substitutions! I think we should be able to make it the last 9 days on $35...especially if we just start eating eggs a lot. I'm not terribly worried.
I have made up our menu for the rest of the month (click to enlarge):
In other news I am making some money on the side doing some sewing projects. So, that will help supplement our budget if we need to. And the brightest note of all: I found $2.00 in my pair of jeans that I didn't realize I had. SCORE!
I also read this really interesting article about the idea of 'wants' vs. 'needs'. Ex: I need to eat vs. I want steak. I am often guilty of confusing my wants with my needs. The author suggests that once you have a set budget for each week to write down what it is that you want. For her it was a 4 qt crock pot for $15. At the end of each week (or day) she would put whatever change was leftover in a bank. It took her 13 weeks to save up enough money to buy the crock pot, but she extolled the values of waiting until you actually had enough money as it allows you to 1) stay within your budget 2) makes you think each week whether you really want that item.
How many times have you come home with a piece of clothing you really wanted and it is still in your closet having only been worn a handful of times or not at all? I still have a dress from the 8th grade with tags still on it. I promised my father that if he loaned me the $10.00 for it I would wear it often. Nope.
I have made a list of a few items that I want and we will see how long it takes me to save enough for them :)
Wants:
- a new vacuum (Bissel Power Groomer): $99.00
- GLEE vol 2 soundtrack: $10.00
- Bedside table matching lamps: undetermined as I have not found them yet!
1 comment:
Costco always does that to me. I try to only go when the list is long instead of going when I just need a couple of things. But they do have some great items! Needs vs. wants is definitely something good to learn about yourself. Something I am constantly working on! :)
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