Homemaking

Last week, Cathy asked if I “shop the ads”.

The short answer is no, not really. Apart from keeping a price book, I keep my grocery-list making process pretty lean. I do look through Sam’s Club’s “Instant Savings” booklet when it arrives in the mail and make plans to purchase bulk of any of the items we regularly purchase at Sam’s while they’re on sale. I also occasionally check ALDI’s sale flyer when I’m making my list for Thursday – but I’m just as likely to skip it. I do typically take a peek at ALDI’s meat selections when I’m in store and buy for the freezer when they’ve got cheap meat. Depending on how much I’ve got in the freezer already, I’ll buy a ham or a pork roast anytime they’re available for less than $1.50 per pound. Likewise, if there’s a good deal on the family pack of chicken breasts, I’ll buy a pack or two, cook them in my crockpot on low and then shred them and divy them into containers for the freezer to use later for anything that calls for chicken.

But I don’t routinely look through the ads and base my lists off of them.

---

Tuesday, October 9

Some weeks it seems it takes me nothing at all to exceed the $30 minimum for grocery pickup. Other weeks, I’m racking my brain to come up with more for my order. That’s the way it was this week, until I remembered that I need some more canning jar lids for the next time I get the yen to can.

Those come out of my “household – consumables” budget, so my $37.02 order only contains $26.36 in groceries.

Our Sam’s Club order was almost entirely household consumables. Daniel buys the cutlery for his work group’s “snack days” and they need more forks and spoons. And we’ve decided that we’re going to use paper plates and/or bowls for Friday dinners at home so that Daniel and I don’t have to do dishes (or, as many dishes) before our Friday night “reconnecting” time.

The only grocery item is our cheese, $6.43 for a 2 lb block.

So we’re at $32.79 so far – $103.11 left for the rest of the week.

---

Thursday, October 11

ALDI had apples back at $1.49 for a 3 lb bag – which means we bought more apples to make applesauce with. Thirty-three pounds, to be precise.

Beyond that, there wasn’t a terrible lot we needed since a lot of this next week’s meals are already in the freezer.

$39.16 for apples plus miscellany.

So we’re ending the week $63.95 ahead, which is wonderful since we spend a LOT of money on coffee on the second Saturday of each month – and that’s tomorrow!

I’ve officially decided what to do about our foster care stipend. I’m going to take whatever portion I allocated to groceries the previous month and divide it between the weeks of the current month. So, last month, I allocated $83.60 of the foster care stipend to groceries – which means I get an extra $20.90 per week to spend this month. So October’s grocery budget is $135.90 per week.

---

Saturday, September 29

ALDI had this-season Gala apples for $1.49 for a 3 lb bag – and I’ve been pretty bored with store-bought applesauce – so we made a special trip to buy 30 lbs for applesauce. My plan is to can one pressure-canner load (7 quarts) at a time as long as there are cheap-ish apples available. That way I don’t have to do any marathon canning sessions (while the house falls to pieces) – but I should be able to still get some sauce that has actual flavor.

Total cost of apples plus a quart of half and half: $18.03

---

Tuesday, October 2

Walmart Grocery Pickup was $58.91

Do you ever see anything name brand in my grocery pictures? There are three potential reasons:

• There is no generic option (Cinnamon Life, now that Walmart stopped making a generic)
• Daniel asks me, pretty please, to buy the name brand (Honey Nut Cheerios)
• Walmart made a substitution (the Dole Pineapple in this picture)

If Walmart doesn’t have a particular item in stock for grocery pickup, they’ll sub in an alternate at no extra cost to you (they’ll also check with you car-side to make sure their alternate is acceptable to you). Generally, the alternate ends up being the name brand version instead of the cheaper generic I always buy.

Thursday, October 4

Sam’s Club didn’t have an open slot on Tuesday (first time I’ve ever not gotten my preferred slot!) so I scheduled pickup for Thursday.

$38.05

That left me $20.91 for ALDI – which just wasn’t enough. I spent $26.72

So not a bad week, but not a great one either.

I went way over budget ($61.02) the second week of September and have been working to get myself out of that hole. I had to keep my groceries to just $77.71 for this week to come out of September on top.

---

Monday, September 24

I had an eye appointment right across the street from an ALDI and we needed butter desperately (I made tomato soup using oil and mac and cheese using schmaltz – that’s how desperately!), so I did my ALDI shopping for the week early.

$28.71 leaves me and even $49 for the rest of the week.

---

Tuesday, September 25

Walmart Grocery pickup was $56.36 – but $4.17 of that was laundry soap and $9.33 was Vitamin D for the little ones, which means $42.86 for groceries.

I DID IT!

I stayed under budget, even with buying formula!

---

Thursday, September 27

And then we had a doctor’s appointment and all of us got our flu shots – and the little ones were screaming and I had left bottle nipples at home so I couldn’t feed the littlest one her formula except by cup (which she was NOT happy about). So I promised the kids donuts when we went to Walmart to get some bottle nipples.

They desperately wanted to break the budget, suggesting that I purchase all sorts of expensive treats. (I’m not going to lie, I saw a rotisserie chicken that sounded SO much better than the cold beef salad sandwiches I’d packed for lunch). But I stuck to my guns, bought a $2 box of donut holes ($2.15 once taxes were done), and we’re ending September in the black.

Results are in, and…

I am officially great at predicting when I’m going to majorly blow my budget.

Also, I am officially terrible at giving weekly updates.

:-(

---

Tuesday, September 11

I spent $96.09 on my Walmart grocery pickup!

Thankfully, $25.07 of it was on diapers. Which means I only have to claim $71.02 for grocery. Still.

---

I needed more pinto beans, and Sam’s Club has the cheapest around – assuming you’re buying 50 lbs. Which, of course I am! I also got individually packed Ruffles (because it’s ultimately better for me to know that there are potato chips at home that I can indulge in occasionally and in moderation when needed than for me to be picking up entire family-size bags every other week at the grocery store and inhaling them on the drive home. Just sayin’)

After I subtracted my oxygen bleach, it was $62.27

So… with a budget of $115 per week – I spent $133.29 on Tuesday alone. But I didn’t buy any fresh produce, so I still needed to do my ALDI shopping on Thursday.

---

Thursday, September 13

I spent $42.73 at ALDI – all of it on groceries.

And sometimes I just don’t have time to arrange the groceries to look pretty once I get home :-)

So I ended the week $61.02 in the hole.

---

Monday, September 17

I sent Daniel to Walmart to pick up prescriptions for the kids and I – and to get us some ice cream. Sometimes I just feel the need. $4.30 for two containers.

---

Tuesday, September 18

Another ginormous Walmart order – $75.24

But, just like last week, I get to subtract diapers (as well as some storage bags and plastic wrap.) After I take out those, I’m at a more respectable $41.68 for groceries. – and that 25 lb bag of all-purpose flour should last me at least a month :-)

I didn’t do Sam’s Club this week – the block of cheese from last week is still unopened in the fridge and Daniel’s Sun Chips to keep at work will wait until we’ve got more to order from Sam’s.

---

Thursday, September 20

Knowing that my budget was in the red, I intended to shop strictly by my list at ALDI this week.

And I almost did.

But there were hams for $1.19 per pound and I don’t have any ham in my freezer right now (a rare event, let me tell you!)

And I had some extras I needed for lunch (I’d packed lunchmeat and mustard since we didn’t have any bread or easy-to-eat-while-out fruit or veggies in the house.)

So I also bought some bread and sliced cheese for our sandwiches, some mandarin oranges to go along with them, and some trail mix for a pre-storytime snack. (Also pictured? The bread for pizza bread Thursday evening – I’d forgotten to include it in the previous picture!)

That was $68.06 minus $4.29 for the scrub brushes I’d bought for kids’ activities. So $63.77

Okay, time for some quick math (see kids, math does come in handy in your future life!)

*Under breath* 63.77 plus 41.68 plus 4.30 Wait – am I actually going to do this in my head? I suppose, now that I’ve got the numbers down on screen it’s easy enough. Five, carry one. Seven, carry one. Nine. Ten.

$109.75

Folks, this would be lovely if I weren’t in the hole already.

---

To review…
Week 1: $18.48 below budget
Week 2: $61.02 above budget
Week 3: $5.25 below budget

I’m still $37.29 in the hole for the month.

I’ve got one more full week in the month and I need to keep my purchases down to $77.71

Can I do it?

The good news is that I’m working my way through the first cycle of my new fall menu and putting a half dozen or so entrees in the freezer each week – which means the second time through the cycle should be a) less work and b) less expensive. Also, now that I’ve bought beans and flour and chips and ramen (another “because mama needs something on hand just in case she wants to sulk in a corner with hot food”), I’m not going to need those again for quite a while.

The bad news is that we’ve still got one more week in that first four-week cycle – which means I’m still trying to double up (and don’t really want to make too many substitutions).

Even so, I think I’m up for this challenge. Bring it on!

Online budget accountability is great… until you meet a stressor that is likely to be both hard on the budget and hard on blogging.

Like, for instance, getting a new foster child and then immediately getting a stomach bug. And then traveling to pick up a newly butchered beef.

I’m speaking purely in hypotheticals, of course. :-)

So the rest of August was…

August 11 – Gas Station (snacks while traveling)	$6.79
August 14 – Walmart Grocery Pickup	$35.49
August 14 – Sam’s Club Pickup	$21.50
August 15 – Walmart for Formula	$27.89
August 16 – ALDI	$59.94
August 21 – Walmart Grocery Pickup	$21.79
August 23 – ALDI	$39.01
August 26 – Sam’s Club Pickup	$21.78
August 28 – Walmart	$28.48
August 31 – Walmart	$37.14
Total	$299.81

My budget of $123 per week times 3 weeks means I had $369 to spend – so I came out ahead by $69.19 for those three weeks and $186.36 for the month.

BUT…

Lest I get too confident…

I started off September by spending $500 to buy a quarter of beef (197 lbs) from my uncle.

Since I’ll be eating that all year long, I’m going to do a bit of alchemy to spread the load and reset my weekly budget a little lower at $115/week.

Wanna see my work?
$500 minus $186.36 for August = $313.64
$313.64 divided by 43 weeks from September 2018 to June 2019 = $7.29/week
$123 minus $7.29 = $115 (always round to allow yourself the most wiggle room – in this case, down)

---

And now onto this week…

Wednesday September 6
Shopping was weird this week because we traveled up to Lincoln on Sunday to get our beef and came back down to Wichita on Labor Day – which meant I was in no state to do a grocery pickup order for Tuesday morning. So Wednesday it was.

I spend $34.13 for grocery pickup at Walmart on Wednesday afternoon. All of it was groceries.

Thursday September 7

Then it was right out to ALDI the next morning for more groceries – $62.39 worth.

I didn’t add things up and just happened to end up $18.48 below my budget – but it’s not going to last because I have a GINORMOUS Sam’s Club order coming up next week.

---

Complicating matters, we do receive a stipend to reimburse expenses for fostering – and some portion of that will be added to my grocery budget to cover the expense of formula. I expect to look over our foster care related expenses and determine how we allocate that stipend at the end of each month – and I won’t necessarily include that in my expense reports. So things might look wonky here and there :-)

Tuesday August 7

Tuesday is grocery pickup day and I got pickup from both Sam’s Club and Walmart.

I ordered a 2 lb block of sharp cheddar cheese from Sam’s Club for $6.30 – but I only ended up with razor blades. I need to start actually reading the confirmation emails – sometimes they also let you know that something’s out of stock! So no grocery from Sam’s Club this week.

Then there’s $66.39 from Walmart – but the diapers ($47.77) make up the bulk of it. Once I subtract the diapers and my multivitamin ($4.26), which belong in “Household – Consumables” and “Pharmacy” respectively, I’m down to $14.36 for groceries.

But don’t be thinking I’m coming out ahead this week – a beef went to the butcher this week and a quarter of it is mine. I don’t know the bill yet, but I can guarantee you it’ll be more than the $108.64 I have left for the week.

We’ve also been out of town part of this week, so I mostly cooked to clear the fridge. Next week, we’ll be at home and will be filling the fridge back up.

I’ve been doing a rather terrible job of keeping my grocery budget under control of late (only in part because we’ve added children to the family since the last time we increased the grocery budget). So, inspired by Kristen’s “What I Spent, What We Ate” feature, I’m going to try a little bit of this online accountability thing.

We’ve upped my grocery budget significantly this year (for our new fiscal year of July to June!), and I’m now at $123 per week

Tuesday July 31
I got grocery pickup from Sam’s Club and Walmart.

$22.58 from Sam’s Club – all grocery.

$35.71 from Walmart – including Vitamin D for the little ones ($9.33) and a couple of spray bottles ($2.10), bringing the grocery total down to $24.28.

That leaves me $64.71 for ALDI on Thursday…

Can I do it?

Thursday August 2

I kept $64 in mind as I shopped, adding the cost of items (always rounded up) as I added them to my cart.

My mental math told me I was buying $57 worth of groceries. The check out total said $56.18

Not shabby (as far as keeping to the budget AND as far as mental math goes.)

I hadn’t made and packed a lunch for us for after our ALDI and library trip – so I picked up lunch stuff for us at ALDI. This is what was left after we were done :-)

Homemaking does not at all come naturally to me.

I am a messy, if ever a messy was. I’m a piler, a clutterbug, a have-everything-spread-out-in-front-of-you person. I lose myself in projects and forget to budget energy to finish all the way to clean-up.

Which means that my house has perpetually been a mess.

I hate it.

**The living room before naptime**

I hate walking in to a messy room. Hate looking at piles of stuff. Hate not being able to find what I’m looking for. Hate tripping over junk or having grit all over my feet from unswept floors.

But for years and years I’ve felt powerless against it.

Before I had kids, I figured that the messiness was a matter of discipline and once I applied myself to fix the problem I’d manage to get and keep things clean.

Then I had kids and I tried. I really tried. But I never managed to get things even picked up.

I was picking things up all. day. long. and never making headway.

I was tripping over things, banging into things. I had bruises all over from falls caused by the clutter.

And I was anxious about anyone coming over because the floor was perpetually covered with junk.

It was terrible.

**The dining room before naptime**

Worst of all, I felt so defeated.

I had always assumed that if I tried, if I just applied myself, I could keep a clean house (or at least a non-messy one). But I was trying and I couldn’t do it.

Then I was either reading Mystie Winkler’s blog or listening to her podcast and she said something that I decided to implement. She encouraged mothers to not clean up amidst their children’s play. Don’t try to clean up the Legos while the children are playing with them. Choose a time, before lunch or whatever, that you clean up and do the clean up then – not all through the day.

I figured I had nothing to lose. It was worth a try. What I was doing was clearly not working.

**The living room after naptime cleaning (20 minutes for the whole house)**

I chose naptime. Getting a handle on things for my own sanity was more important for right now than teaching the kids how to pick up after themselves.

So I stopped picking up while the kids were awake. Once they were asleep, I picked up the living areas.

I quickly realized that picking up wasn’t all I needed. I made a point to sweep the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen each day. That way, all the little scraps of paper and crumbs of food and broken pieces of crayon would be dealt with daily.

And, wonder of wonders, my house started being picked up.

Even at its messiest, it could still be picked up and presentable within a half an hour’s time.

No more four hour cleaning sessions just so I could feel comfortable letting someone sit in my living room (yes, that’s how bad it was!)

**The dining room after naptime cleaning (20 minutes for the whole house)**

Picking up more thoroughly, less frequently is definitely working for me!

Usually, I reserve my dishwasher for tableware – plates, bowls, glasses, mugs. I handwash those big, bulky cooking and serving things.

But I had a stomach bug this weekend that got me all behind on dishes – and my in-laws are visiting next weekend (so it’d be kinda nice to have a semi-clean house). So I ran a dishwasher full of the normal stuff this morning – and ran a dishwasher full of big glass bowls and metal pans this evening.

Not gonna be a hero.

Not this time.