Friday, August 1, 2008

Frugal Lessons: Grocery Shopping

I went to the store last night, because I had about 2000 coupons which were going to expire...  And I learned a hard lesson: restraint.  It was difficult for me to stick to the on sale and have a coupon plan I've been using lately, especially since I hadn't shopped in a few weeks.  In fact, I pretty much destroyed it completely... FAIL

I bought a couple things that were on sale, and a couple that I had a coupon for, and most of it was things I needed, but I could have done better.  I didn't need to buy a pound of bacon to have for breakfast, or a steak to have for dinner, but I was craving it!  I didn't need orange juice, but I hadn't had any in weeks, and I had a coupon! I didn't need peanut butter, but we were out of it, and I had a coupon!  I certainly didn't need perogies, but they are a nice treat, and I had a coupon!  I didn't need green beans, but it is really iffy buying them from the farmer's market, and if they didn't have any I would have to go back to the store! I did need toilet paper.  Really, that's all I actually needed at the store.

On the other hand, I had a nice steak dinner last night, with perogies and green beans.  And this morning I had bacon, eggs, and toast, with a nice tall glass of orange juice.  Those 2 meals just kind of cost me $44 though.  Ouch.

How do I kind of justify it?  Well, I cut the steak into small pieces, vacuum sealed them, and have about 4 steak dinners left.  I did the same with the bacon, divided it into sections of about 4 slices and vacuum sealed them to have some other weekend.  The green beans should last me a week or two, and the perogies should last a month or so, they are a sometimes-treat.

Honestly though, its not really justifiable.  I should be going to the store every week!  What if steak had been on sale last week? Then I would have already had some and wouldn't have gone shopping with a craving in mind...  Some of those coupons may have been put to better use in previous weeks, if only I had gone shopping!

How do you deal with being too busy or too lazy to go shopping? Do you have a shopping day? Do you avoid scheduling things on that day? What if something crops up? How do you make yourself go?  Living by myself as I currently do, I could live on whats in my apartment for weeks...

~Katharine


If you enjoyed this article please considering buzzing it on PF Buzz - Submit to PFBuzz.com

Also you can  subscribe to the Femmes Frugal by reader or
subscribe to The Femmes Frugal by Email

1 comment:

  1. I'm sure those two meals didn't cost you $44. . . don't you have some orange juice left? And maybe some bacon? How many people in your family?

    Yes, you are allowed some splurges. They make you feel better and they keep you on track. And foods like peanut butter actually ARE frugal, even if you didn't need it you will use it in the future, probably in place of some more expensive lunch items.

    ReplyDelete