A trip to the warehouse club

Thus far in August, we have spent about $100 on groceries and $200 on eating out. That's surprised me. I expected both figures to be higher.

The Mexican dinner the other night did indeed yield breakfast. Plus, we got three servings of nachos out of those leftovers.

Last night, my husband and I went to the warehouse club on the way to the movies (and we ended up with enough free samples to qualify as dinner). We spent $142 on non-perishable items. I find that many of the warehouse club items aren't actually cheaper, but I like having items like soap in bulk.

• 21.5 pounds of Meow Mix, $12.32
• 35 pounds of clumping cat litter, $10.74 (cat litter is my primary reason for having a membership. Having a membership is against my principles of how I normally shop. It's too close to Wal*Mart for business practices)
  
• 10 cans of chunk white tuna packed in water, $6.57
• Glad 13 gallon garbage bags, $11.97 (I don't remember how many are in the bag, but they last us more than six months and my husband likes them)
• Special K meal replacement bars, $11.86 (I believe there are 16 in the box. They were the cheapest of all the "bars" and has less than 200 calories each and 10 grams of protein. I start school Monday, as does my daughter, and I haven't quite figured out how to get a healthy lunch into myself. So these will be emergency rations in my purse)
• The 300-use pump of French vanilla creamer, $9.88 (lasts about a month, the little jar is $2-$3 at the store and lasts about four days)
• The four-pack box of Ritz crackers, $5.97 (as long as I have peanut butter and Ritz, we have a quick lunch-on-the-go)
• the mega bottle of Cascade dishwasher liquid, $8.94
• Dove, I believe it was 20 bars, $12.88 (this will also last us months)
• Dial, 20 pack of soap, $7.69 (for hand washing, liquid soap is too expensive and the kid uses way to much. A bar of soap makes a mess by the sink, but the cost savings is worth it)
• JIF creamy peanut butter, 2 big jars, $7.69
• A huge container of Emerald dark chocolate cocoa-roasted almonds, $9.63 (These were a risk, but the taste FANTASTIC. As in, eat-the-whole-container delicious. They are unsalted, have lots of protein, Vitamin E and other nutritional yumminess. Plus they're almonds and dark chocolate, two of my favorite things)
• 4 pack of Degree men's anti-perspirant, $7.38 (this is the only brand that works for my husband. He's stinky. And $2 in the store is a bargain. So this was also a great find)
• toilet paper, 36 premium double rolls, $14.98 (it's not my favorite. I like cottonelle but 36 rolls should hold us for a while)