This weekend had all the makings of being perfect. I got a truly wonderful surprise on Saturday when a group of friends had a surprise baby shower for me. I don’t expect those kinds of things and I certainly didn’t expect this. I hadn’t even considered having a shower as we have so much from our first for the new baby to use.
Occasionally I have been given to some apprehension about having a baby in a year we decided to buy nothing new. But the few items we would not have been able to find used were just gifted to us (thanks again ladies!!) and I think we are pretty much set. We were given a gift card to a favorite kids consignment store as well as a renowned kids store – Crate and Barrel. (What?, that’s what the card said.) (I will admit though, my first thought [okay second thought, right after YEEESSSSS!], was how expensive everything was going to seem.)
The husband and Toddler L gave me a cake and a glorious bouquet of flowers from our neighborhood, independent florist. And after a strict reminder that I would appreciate NOT getting a store-bought card, husband went into the card drawer (we have many blank cards from pre-Compact days) and found something perfect.
Alas, the weekend did not carry through quite as beautifully and I haven’t been able to write or do all that I would have normally written or done.
I have no menu plan for the week. Right now, I’m leaving it as a fill in the blank. If you’d like, feel free to make suggestions. I have moderate cooking skills, basic staples and foods and no imagination at the moment.
Let’s see what we’ll be eating…
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Perhaps we will simply have Mother’s Day cake every day.
Yes, I think we might.
As for the number of stores visited this week just to do our grocery shopping, YEE GADS. I know. But we walked to one and all others (minus one) were directly en route to other destinations. And with savings like what we saw at CVS (3 boxes of favorite cereal 88¢ each), Ralph’s (6 boxes Barilla pasta 99¢ each) and Walgreens (husband’s preferred deodorant 27¢) it’s hard to not make a quick pitstop sometimes.
Our budget was $80, we spent…
Sprouts Farmers Market – $27.91 (savings = $0.15)
Vons – $7.69 (savings = $4.80)
Ralphs – $5.94 (savings = $9.80)
Walgreens – $2.27 (savings = $2.50 + $2.00 credit | original cost $4.49+tax…final cost $0.27)
Target – $1.84 (savings = $4.49)
Cost Savers – $14.49
Trader Joe’s – $11.62
CVS – $2.64 (savings = $10.93)
Bakery Outlet – $4.18
Costco – $46.93
So, before Costco we spent $78.58 , still under budget. But Costco pushed us over. I’m still trying to figure out how to work the Costco trips into our budget. We didn’t really buy that much, just 5 items. But the savings made it worth while for sure. I probably would have spent about $16.00 for just a portion of these items if I had bought them this week at another store. Now I don’t have to buy them for at least a week or several months depending on the product.
I’m figuring about $30 extra spending due to the Costco trip. If I allow myself that much over budget for a monthly trip I can plan to work at keeping the remaining weeks as much under budget as possible. Typically, I’m pretty happy staying under budget, but this scenario would have me really working to keep it as low as possible. I don’t know how feasible this is but it’s the current thinking.
What do you think?
Do you warehouse? As I was considering the inherent value in this I found a post on the very subject over at Money Saving Mom. Apparently there is great debate over buying in bulk. Who knew?
