Little temptation

This morning I remembered something that I wanted to mention in my previous post. The ~$55 that I spent at WalMart yesterday was two actual dollars out of our bank account. The rest was from gift cards we received from our wedding. Jesse and I decided to put off buying a bunch of little things that we registered for until later in our lives when we have substantial income. We decided that right now it is more beneficial for us to use them towards groceries and other items that are needed right now.

This puts me in quite the predicament with myself. Should I consider us spending only the $2 at WalMart and $20 at HyVee as what was spent for groceries? Here is what I have decided so far: I'm going to do my best to buy the least amount possible until the 22nd. I know that I will have to get milk and realized this morning that our coffee supply is low. So, I won't be upset with myself if we go over budget because we were able to use the gift cards.

I'm still in the trial stage of our grocery budget. I'm not sure if we can get away on $25 a week. I know it would be easy if we gave up a few of the more expensive items like pop and coffee....but I just don't see that happening. We do go through our phases of not drinking pop at home so there is a chance for that. But Jesse says he requires pop for lunch at work to get him through the day (PepsiMax or CokeZero). He has been buying at work for .50 a can but when I realized he was buying it every day, I decided it was time to stock up on soda when it is on sale and him take a 12 pack to work. It will save us many, many coins. At least $4.57 a month if it is one pop a work day depending on the sales I can find. As for the coffee, we may be able to pull it off but that would be difficult. I can give up a Mountain Dew OR coffee every day, but I don't think I can do both. Not right now at least. Jesse probably could deal with having the coffee that is supplied at work. But for now, I think we will probably stick with these items.

I'm simply not sure if I can buy the food we want to eat and try to stock up on the sales for the week in order to be prepared for later weeks. It can be done, I just need to work a little harder. It takes time to build up a cupboard and to figure out what works and doesn't work for us. After all, I suppose this is the reason I started this little blog for myself to begin with! It's just a bit frustrating when you buy something that you think was on sale for a great price to see it the next day, in the new ad, at an even lower price. It will take awhile for me to learn what good prices are for certain items. For instance, I know that I will never pay over .77/lb for a whole chicken or leg quarters. As a side note, another goal I have is to find a way to only use whole chickens rather than buying chicken breasts for certain meals, as breasts are much more expensive.

Lucky for me, HyVee is having a 2-week ad. This means I will only be tempted by two new ads rather than three. And from what I have seen in this 2-week ad, there isn't a whole lot I can't live without. HyVee deals that I am tempted by: apples for .88/lb (just bought 7 apples for 1.37/lb); ground beef for 1.99/lb; shampoo or conditioner for .99 per bottle (since we especially need this now); 12pk Pepsi products, 4/$11 plus we have a $1 off coupon. Right now, I only see myself getting some shampoo and conditioner, possibly pop if we decide to stock up. At least this is a two week advertisement so I can wait it out longer to decide to buy them!