It was a “girls week” at our house with Jake being gone to California.  One of the “special activities” the girls requested to do for our girls week together was to go grocery shopping with Mommy, makes me smile!  They had a blast although I bought more then was on my list.  Guess it is okay to splurge a little on the kids especially if they are on their best behavior while Daddy is away.    Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.

• $8.29 at Walmart for 2 Oscar Mayer Lunchables, 1 Simply Kraft Sour Cream, 1 bag Great Value English Muffins, 1 bag sandwich Bread, 3 boxes General Mills Cocoa Puffs Cereal (I was able to get several of these items marked down – bread, priced matched – Lunchables, or on clearance – Cereal, it was $1.00 per box on clearance!)

BiLo Groceries:

• $12.41 at BiLo for 1 bag Wonka Splashberries Gummies, 1 bag Wonka Puckeroom Gummies, 1 can Del Monte  Stewed Tomatoes, 1 can Contadina Tomato Paste, 1 can Hunts Tomato Sauce, 1 can Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Jalapenos, 1 box Good & Fruity, 1 gallon Milk, 1 container Southern Home Sour Cream, and 1 pound Strawberries (I went in for milk…….as you can see the girls found a couple extra items which were marked down at closeout prices.  Everything, other than the milk, was marked down on clearance including the fresh strawberries.   The girls know that the “purple” tags in BiLo mean closeout prices so we better at least look at it!  I used reusable bags to get a 5 cent per bag credit.  My total before savings was $44.10 minus $31.69 in savings making it $12.41 for that trip and without using any coupons!  Love the closeout deals!)

Ingles Groceries:

• $5.48 at Ingles (YIKES!!!) I know I spent almost $6.00 on this amazing 4 cake sampler this week.  WHY you ask!?  Those in my church’s Community Group already know the answer but for the ones who want to know why I would spend that much on a dessert I will share a little insight into my crazy life with you.  I was up at 4 am on Sunday morning to take my sweet husband to the airport, went to church, ate lunch with the girls, did some activities around the house (probably should have taken a nap instead), made the dessert for Community Group that night then I started helping the girls with their Awana lessons (completely forgetting about the Mint Chocolate Chip Smore’s Brownies in the oven).  After awhile Brina went to get a drink from the kitchen and when she came back she said “Mom, it smells really good in the kitchen but it is a little cloudy.”  My immediate response “THE BROWNIES!”  Needless to say they were past presentable and eatable from the looks of it too at that point.  So on my way past Ingles after dropping the girls off at Awana I splurged on this cake.  It was delicious and I am thankful for the extra wiggle room in my grocery budget this week, but would like to not make a habit of these extra splurges.  Thank goodness for grocery budgets and having wiggle room for emergencies no matter how big or small. (FYI: this cake was on sale this week too, normally it is $6.48 so even though it was an emergency I was still able to save a little bit)  Note to future self: When your already running on fumes focus on one task at a time!

This week I spent $26.18 on groceries.  Even though I was a little under on my budgeted amount for the week I was able to stock up on several items.  Thankfully I had extra wiggle room this week to cover the expense of my multitasking mistake (see Ingles grocery splurge above).  I hope that next week is an even better week and we can come under budget.

It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.