September '11 report

Another month ends. I'm pleased with the way my budget ended the month from a theoretical standpoint. My goal was to spend $250 on groceries and eating out. This essentially meant not eating out. At all. Ever.

I can be really good with a grocery budget, but my weakness is dining out. I'm not talking the occasional cheap fast food either. We have our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant where we spend $75 for a multi-course meal that has enough leftovers to feed us for a second and sometimes third meal. We have local pubs we like, and cheesesteak shops and diners... Sigh. And Wegman's café where one of the boards that I serve on meets for lunch.

But I think I succeeded this month-- $160 on groceries and $140 on dining. Now I am fully aware that part of the reason this was possible was because I did an extra grocery trip in August to prepare for the hurricane.

September brings quarterly bills: life insurance, water, sewer, garbage. Early October brings car insurance. Luckily, this September brought a third monthly paycheck for my husband and I. So even with all these bills, Quicken reported that we made $1,000 more than we spent. Then, why is my checkbook empty? And I mean EMPTY. I had to transfer $150 from savings to have grocery money.

So, in search of a bargain, we headed to Target.

We spent $96.01, but many items classify as 'household' and 'gifts' vs 'groceries.' My estimate is that $48.01 was groceries.

We bought:
- Energizer batteries for our garage door openers (household), $5.99
- 2 bags cool ranch Doritoes (one for a party we attended), 2/$5.00
- Archer Farms jalapeño cheddar kettle chips, $2.79 (for the party)
- Fresh Express veggie lovers salad, $1.99 (regular price, $2.99)
- Campbell's chunky soup, chicken broccoli, 2 cans at $1.50 each
- spaghettiOs with meatballs, 2 cans at 99 cents each
- Market Pantry macaroni and cheese dinner, 4 boxes at 57 cents each
- Pacific Foods tomato herb soup, $2.69
- Archer Farms cheese and bacon dip, $2.99 (for the party)
- 5 pounds of rice, $2.99
- chock full of nuts New York roast coffee, $3.54
- 3 12-ounce cans of tuna, $2.19 each
- 1 pound strawberries, $2
- 2 large cans Libby's pumpkin, $2.94 each
- 2 1-lb packages 93% lean ground beef, $1.99 each
- green giant frozen asparagus cuts, 2 packages, on clearance for $2.08 each
- here my memory gets fuzzy: one of these was a mixed vegetable in sauce with green beans and potatoes and one was steam in bag broccoli with cheese sauce, one was $2.06 and one was $1.89
- Alexia sweet potato fries, $3.59 (grumble-- I could buy my own sweet potatoes and cut them myself for cheaper)
- half and half, the quarts, 3 at $1.54 each (that's half price I think)
- 18 eggs, $2.84
- Very Vanilla soy milk, $2.79
- extra sharp cheddar, 8 ounces, $2.49
- birthday cards, one 99 cents, the other $2.79
- snuggimal (birthday gift), $8.49
- 100 piece bags of Hershey candy, 2 at 9.99 (with $5 free gift card)