Money I Spent: $389 total. $15.31 for gas in my car, $169 at Sprouts, and $205 at our local small grocery store. I had to go shopping for 2 families yesterday (though 80% of the stuff was for mine), and decided that I wanted to shop at the places not with the lowest prices (Walmart) but instead with the least amount of people going in and least number of hands touching things. So that would be our local grocery store.
This little store serves our small mountain community, and is known for prices being a little out of whack with big city stores like Smiths or obviously Walmart. Say, a pack of all-beef hot dogs might be $4.50 here instead of $2.50 at Walmart or Smiths. And when that’s all you are going in for, it’s ok, because it’s better to pay that extra 2 dollars and avoid the 45-minute round-trip drive. But prices are starting to creep up even more. That same pack of hot dogs is now $6.95! Milk is $6.99 a gallon. Eggs are $4 and up a dozen. Butter is $3.99 for generic sticks but almost $6 for a tub of spreadable. (They also don’t have a ton of choices, brand-wise. The only spreadable butter they had today was an 8 oz thing of Kerrygold for $5.99).
We had a couple of big expenses, such as a $20 ham and an $11 bottle of the liquid stevia sweetener we like. But mostly it was just a ton of small items like shredded cheese, eggs, sodas, tuna, with really jacked up prices.
So the amount of groceries I purchased today, bought on a normal day at Smiths or Walmart, would probably have been closer to $220 total (just guessing). Very frustrating, but I’m hoping it will last us several weeks. I did realize when I got home that we are close to out of olive oil, and we don’t have a ton of vegetables in the house. So next time I go to the store it will be only for EVOO and canned/frozen vegetables. Not a $390 extravaganza.
Also, I realize that our dining out budget is almost nonexistent right now, and our car gas bills are probably 1/4 normal. So maybe that helps balance out the crazy grocery bills right now.
Money I Avoided Spending: n/a really, I feel like I spent ALL the money! I had planned to pull the trigger on my Amazon cart today and possibly even order my new spring comforter, but decided against it. Those things are waiting for payday. The comforter might wait 2-3 more paydays.
Extra Money I Found or Made: eBay: sold a caftan for $60 and a pair of shoes for $5.
Use-it-Up: Actually did the water trick for my favorite bottle of lotion to get the last bits out. It worked fine. I just added about 1 tsp water to the 10-oz bottle and shook it up. It came out a little watery but I think I got it all! Also in my breakfast I used leftover broccoli from dinner the night before to fill out my egg fritter. And saved half the broccoli for my Thursday morning egg.
Don’t Go Into a Store: FAIL, but what can you do. I had an 8-day streak! Clock starts over on 4/9.
Exercise Every Day: Success! Meant to go out for an hour-long walk/hike, but ended up out 2 hours and 10 minutes! Tried to find some geocaches but went 0 for 3 on them. The good thing is that, even though sometimes you don’t find anything, they get you out hiking or walking in new places. I never would have normally cut through the fields I cut through today, just assuming they belonged to someone. But it was a nice hike off the beaten path. I also went to the closest Pokestop and grabbed a few Pokemon that I had never seen before. I have been seeing more and more painted rocks up and down the road. On the first leg of my walk, I saw two different groups putting rocks out! One was a mom with two little boys, and one looked like 4 teenage girls and a mom. So we are going to get in on this and put some out ourselves!
Work Outside Every Day: Mostly fail. All I did outside today was water everything that needed it in the front and back yards.
Thoughts: Grocery shopping was a weird experience. Other than the skyrocketing prices for staples and the lack of toilet paper and Lysol everywhere (still), it’s just a strange experience to shop in general. At our local grocery store, there were about 10 other people shopping while I was there, everyone wearing a face mask of some kind. Some were the homemade kind, some the surgical paper kind, and some just a bandana or wrap.
At Sprouts, there was a line to get in. All stores can only be at 20% of max capacity, so it was a “1 out, 1 in” situation. I was third in line, and got in almost immediately. All of the staff at Sprouts were wearing masks and gloves, and about half of the shoppers were wearing masks. People stay out of each other’s way. Everyone keeps their distance. Every now and then you hear someone comment to a stranger, “crazy times,” or something similar, and the other person agrees. And everywhere you go, people are shopping alone.
I used to think putting groceries away was the worst. Now I realize that having to clean all of your groceries before putting them away is the actual worst! Well, that and paying out the nose for milk and cheese.
Fiscal Fasters 