Grocery Report: The Where Do The Batteries Go? Edition
Filed under
Buying Things
,
by
Alison
on
9:56 PM
4
I spent $57.85 at the grocery store yesterday. That included that batteries I bought. And, as Bug so kindly informed me, "you eat yogurt, you don't eat batteries". So why should the batteries go into my grocery budget? And while I'm at it, I don't eat laundry detergent or toilet paper, why do I put them in with the groceries?
I didn't use to. Well, I sort of did. If I picked up some garbage bags along with my other groceries I wouldn't itemize my receipt and put them in another category, but if I bought those bags at Target, they would go into the household category, not grocery. The household category bugged me because it was just a huge catch all so in November I did away with the it and started grouping those things in with my groceries, but I did not increase my grocery budget. For whatever reason, this worked out just fine that first month, and kind of okay the second month, but I can already tell it's not going to this month. Late last week I bought toilet paper and laundry detergent and spent $17.01. So that puts me way over for the month so far even though my two food shopping trips average out to only $5 over so far this month. Assuming normal usage, next month I won't need to be buying toilet paper or laundry detergent, so next month I won't be having this debate, and next month will likely go just fine, maybe.
So do I resurrect the household category for things like this or up my grocery budget?
Switching gears slightly, I have two deals from yesterday that I'm quite pleased with. Yogurt was on sale 3/$1 and I paired that with a $.40/6 coupon. I also picked up some crescent rolls that were marked for quick sale at $1. I paired that with a $.25 off coupon. And I was thwarted once again by unadvertised specials. I used a store coupon at Walgreen's to get some oatmeal for $2, then I got to Smith's and saw that it was on sale for $1.87 there. I noticed that in this week's circular (that was good as of today), so I don't know if it's a monthly thing or if they started the deal early. Oh well.
