It Begins

Today is the first day of my blog where I begin by telling you about me and my family. While neither my husband nor I have been the victim of layoffs and unemployment we, just like so many others, are suffering from a tighter income and a little less wiggle room. With this in mind, it is absolutely imperative that we keep to a budget that I revisit almost daily and ensure that we don't overspend. For now, I am setting our grocery money at $120.00 per week. But . . . . . you need to know that this includes diapers for both of our children and formula for one of ours. So yesterday, I went to Target first knowing full well that our youngest child who is 4 months old, has been on Target brand formula since her 2nd week of life. I chose Target brand for a few reasons:
1. When we travel, I can be assured that I will be able to find a Target nearby to buy formula.
2. This is normally where I buy diapers, so I almost always visit Target once a week
3. I would chose Walmart brand, but I find it to be so much busier on the weekends and more hassle
4. I also found that Target prints coupons after you have paid, so you can use them on your next visit
My target trip included 2 cans of Target Brand Formula and 1 box of Pampers Easy Ups. My total for my trip was $50.47, the formula was $14.89 each, and the diapers were $19.99, I used a coupon from a previous trip for $1.00 off.

So before I even went to the grocery store, I only had $69.53 left for the grocery store. Luckily I had $7.00 in my car that I added to my cash before I headed in the store. So, I headed into Publix with $76.00 and some change in my wallet. I should also let you know that I now always go to the ATM before my shopping trip and withdrawal $120.00. The reason that I do this is simple for me, "I cannot be trusted with an ATM card or a Credit Card to pay any attention to the total." Whenever I use a card of any kind, I pay absolutely no attention to the total or how much I spent. When I hold cash, I count every penny and I know exactly how much the groceries in my cart are adding up to. I know that if the cashier says any amount higher than $76.00, that I will need to put items back. I keep a tally on my list of how much my groceries are adding up to; if you are unable to do this, bring a little calculator in your purse. You will be so surprised how you find errors in your checkouts if you commit to doing this in every shopping trip.