Last night M and I went to our local ginormous grocery store and spent a wad of cash - $108!! I originally had our food budget down as only $150…which is ridiculous because my husband is 6’ 1” and loves to eat. As in a sort of human garbage disposal. So THAT budget item needs to be increased. However, I felt OK about the $108 or two reasons:
First, I spent a good 30 minutes poring over the Kraft quarterly magazine, picking out meals that were easy, looked yummy and had a short “needed ingredient” list. I hope that this will give us something to look forward to – not only cooking together, and then eating the deliciousness, but yummy leftovers as well too. (I don’t mind taking these for lunch. M, on the other hand, doesn’t enjoy it so much. He works with a lot of women, and although they will bring their lunch, the men in the company all seem to go out every day. Which is ridiculous. But, I understand why he is more compelled to eat out than I am…)
Second, we may have spent $108, but we saved over $25 with coupons and store specials. We also bought a lot of generic items. Really, when you think about it, $108 is not a lot of money. We bought items for breakfast (bread and yummy strawberry jam for me!), lunches (lunch meat, provolone and Dijon mustard), four separate meals and dessert (chocolate-peanut butter cookies…yummm). If we ate out instead of cooking, the four dinners alone could cost us anywhere from $80 - $120. So I’m trying to chill about the grocery thing.
I’ve been trying to be Suzie Homemaker and cut out coupons, create recipes, etc., but sometimes it’s just exhausting to come home after class (I don’t get home until 9 p.m. two days a week) and cook a meal. Sometimes I’ll get M to make something while I’m gone, sometimes he’ll make me a grilled cheese or omelet when I get home, or sometimes its just cereal – which is fine! It’s just amazing to me that my mom came home after work and always made an amazing meal. When I think about the time and money that went into all those home-cooked meals, I get a little choked up!
On another food note, M and I went to an out-of-town wedding this past weekend. It was great, and thankfully we didn’t have to pay for lodging since we stayed with friends – but we still had to pay for the meal on Friday night and the subsequent partying all weekend. On Friday night we went to a really nice restaurant – we got looped in before I could see the menu prices…$25 entrees, etc. – but we did relatively well and only spent about $75 for the two of us. But then you have to tabulate the money spent on gas and drinking…not cool. Although the weekend was probably only $150ish, that is still $150 I wasn’t planning on. (And we still haven't bought the wedding present yet)
Good news though, M might be getting promoted at the end of the month! I really hope it comes through – the extra money would be great…we need to get that credit card paid off!! One last note - last night I was cleaning up the place and found a $100 gift card to Macy's - the same gift card that I though I'd lost in the move! SuperSweet!!!
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