Shopping/budgets

I just finished paying some bills, and I'm disappointed in myself. I hosted two dinner parties recently... but when the end of the month rolled around I had spent $363 on groceries. I always shoot for $250, and allow myself some wiggle room, so I label $300 reasonable. And even the $363 would be fine... but we also ate out several times and spent $121 on that. So that raises the grand total to close to $500. Not acceptable. But in my head, I understand that each dinner party raises my grocery budget by $50.

Now, today is August 13. We have spent $50 on groceries thus far this month. (I had one dinner party July 31 and the other August 7, so that actually lowered my grocery bills for right now because I still have supplies from those dinners in the house. And we had a lot of leftovers.)

I won't be cooking much this week... I have to work crazy hours. Last night my husband made garlic-vegetable pizzas on my crazy white bread I made the other day.

I thought I would spend about $50 a week in August, going to the store each week for just what we need to survive that week. Except for that initial trip to get supplies for the dinner party, I have not been to the store. (We have no milk, no eggs, no cheese, no fresh vegs.)

And now I discover that will have houseguests for a week beginning this weekend. There goes the August budget.