Stacking Pennies . . .

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!

I went on my first full shopping trip since relocating and moving into my apartment. I looked at the current balance of my grocery bill in horror. How on earth was it at $79 already? And they still were ringing up my order!! The grand total was $95, then they swiped my Ralph's card and it dropped to $70. It is ridiculous that they do that. It is just forcing you to use a grocery card if you want any discounts at all.

Anyway, $70 is still much more than I spend on weekly groceries. About double! Although part of it was because I'm restocking almost everything, it still was a bit excessive. I think my solution will be to make this last two weeks.... so no new groceries until Februrary 12th! I am pretty sure I can do it. When I complain there is no food to eat, I usually mean, there is nothing I feel like cooking and eating.

What on earth did I buy? Well, I won't copy my whole long receipt, but here are some of the more expensive items on the list.
Chicken breast fillets $8.90. I don't usually buy meat, actually. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm not a big fan of meat and I don't really know how to prepare it well.
Frozen Strawberries, huge bag, $8.50 (should last a very long time. For smoothies)
Lunch meat, 2 packages, $5 (much cheaper than buying a sandwhich!)
Peperoni to make English muffin pizza's: $3.50
Lunch cheese: $4.19, I forgot to price shop this I think
I also bought butter, milk, bananas, coffee creamer, 2 boxes of cereal, frozen broccoli and lots of other miscellaneous items.

There were some things on the list I didn't get. I had a frugal recipe that called for ziti, so I set out to the pasta isle. When I didn't find it, I realized I wasn't entirely sure if ziti was pasta at all. Maybe it was a cheese? So I'm back at home, ziti-less and just looked it up. It was pasta after all. I also could not find any muffin mix to make bran muffins. Maybe no one else likes them?

I liked to have a grocery budget of about $120/month, but I may have to up it. We'll see.

This weekend was very very very expensive. I feel like I've said that too many weekends in a row! I purchased a nice big dresser from Ikea, and now have real drawers to put my clothes in! That was a hit of $150, but money well spent. Then I also bought some other random organizing supplies--my closet has a lot of shelving and I want to make it organized and neat. By the time I left Ikea, it was a bill of over $220! What a dangerous store! I didn't even buy everything a needed wanted: more lighting, shoe rack, coat hooks, and some decorations.

I somehow got tricked into taking the boyfriend and I out for sushi. I wasn't exactly tricked, but the sushi was pretty over priced, and that was another $40 out the window, just like that. I asked him how often he thought we should go out to eat, and suggested once a week, and he said maybe less, once every two weeks. That's what he says in theory, but he has suggested eating out several times this week. I don't mind taking us out to eat sometimes. However, I do need him to understand that he can't say one day "Let's save up 150k in three years!" and then the next day say "I need money for the take out!" I was getting a $35 meal stipend while I was in the hotel, however, that meal stipend was my only income for a week and a half!

We wanted to meet up with my boyfriends friend last night, who I hadn't yet met. His friend suggested going out to eat (again!), then suggested just eating at whole foods. So i paid $7 for a sandwich, and then we bought a $13 bottle of wine.

So that is the boring details of my weekend spending. I'm afraid to add those numbers up, but.. $280? Yikes!! Was my life more enjoyable when I didn't feel pain every time I paid $7 for a sandwich? I think I need to loosen up about things and realize it is just money. Not spend more, or not cease to think about purchases. But if a purchase is something I ultimately decided I want to spend (dresser), have to spend (drivers license fee), or am willing to spend to go with the flow (sandwich from whole food), what is the point of getting all worried about it?

I think I get my first paycheck February 7th. To say that I'm anxiously waiting would be an understatement!