this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

At the beginning of the month I planned a two week menu and bought all the necessary groceries then. Last week, all I had to do was a milk/bread/and produce run. Groceries for the first half of the month cost $101.34. Only $1.34 more than budgeted. I'd say that planning a two week menu versus a one week menu really helped me to stay within budget.

Yet, I opted for a one week budget this time around. With Christmas coming and relative who may or may not come, I planned through Christmas and then we'll see what happens. I spent $53.55 yesterday, which puts me pretty well on track to spend within my $200 budget for this month. It could have been about 40 cents less, but the cashier rang up my yellow squash as a zucchini, and zucchini cost almost twice as much. I saw her at first ring it up as a yellow pepper and cancel that out, but I didn't catch what she really rang it up as until it was all said and done (I'm sure I had to turn my head to tell Bug to sit down - why oh why do I take him shopping with me?). I could have gone to customer service to get a refund, but this store is set up horribly and getting back to customer service would've not been easy with two kids and a shopping cart full of food, so I opted not to.

No wonderful grocery deals, but Target had their Hanes kids sweats on clearance for 50% off. I got Buggy a sweatshirt for $1.98. He really wanted sweatpants, but they didn't have any in his size. A very good selection in sizes smaller than 2T, though.