Monthly Shopping Goals: September 2015

Well, when it came to goal setting the monthly shopping goals last month turned out...well not terrible but not great either.  I managed to get some things on my list as I had an unexpected refund check from our insurance company, so I was able to get everything I set out to get from Amazon.com along with some Hershey's syrup in cans for the pantry as well.  I got the rest of the kid's school supplies done and got them underwear.  I skipped the socks until I can afford some decent socks (although their socks will last them a while now that I found the stockpile of dirty socks hiding under my daughter's bed...grumble).  I got the cream of chicken soup, but only four cans of it, not the six I was planning on, but better some rather than none right?

I was able to get the block of cheddar cheese due to some money I got from my mother-in-law buying some cloth drawers off of me and I did get garbage bags (because I ran out).  Other than that the rest of my list from the bulk stores didn't happen last month due to lack of funds.

I have a Home Depot gift card with like 2.00 left on it and was hoping to get water softening salt, but they were out of the blue bags of Solar Salt both times I went in to pick it up.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to spend the extra money for a bag as we're running out of salt in the water softener, which is irritating, but nothing to be done about it.

I also picked up some extras that were on sale really cheap.  The flavored water my daughter brings in her lunches went on sale for 1.25 per six pack last month, so I spent about 20.00 just on flavored water.  My pantry is now swimming in the stuff, but it will be used and since it is normally about 4.00 per package, it was definitely worth stocking up on it.

Blue Bonnet margarine went on sale for .99 per pound when you bought ten of it and various other items (it was mix and match).  I went and bought 10 pounds of margarine.  Due to a Just 4 U coupon I had loaded with a "personalized price" and the computer took off a set amount per pound of margarine for the sale, I was able to get the margarine for .79 per lb. 

In my house growing up my mother used nothing BUT margarine for baking and cooking, so when I was introduced to real butter I thought I'd gone to heaven and bought nothing but butter for years.  Recently, though, I've started changing my tune as margarine is so much cheaper per lb than butter is.  I'm not a fan of anything but name brand "good" margarine (generic margarine just tends to be gross tasting) and I plan to use the margarine in baking and cooking where the flavor wouldn't be too pronounced.  Butter is so expensive when we eat it all the time on mashed potatoes and on toast on top of baking that I felt the margarine was worth the money. I've been using it and so far, so good.  It really is helping to stretch the butter out, which is saving me a LOT.  And 10 lbs of margarine cost me less than 4 lbs of butter would have, so it was definitely cost effective.

I worked both of the above purchases into my regular weekly shopping budget to avoid over spending, which worked well.

This month's shopping goals are going to be living by the adage, "Cheap or not at all".  Mainly because at this point I'm just trying to conserve money for going shopping next month.  In Alaska we get a life saver called the Permanent Fund Dividend in October.  The vast majority of whatever the amount dividends end up being will go into the bank as a GREATLY needed influx to our savings, but we always take some money out of the dividends to go and stock up on pantry stores.  I'm just going to try to hold out for that trip and just make do with what I have pretty much until then.  

So, here we go.  My shopping goals for this month.

Monthly Shopping Goals for September 2015

Regular Stores:

1.  4 cans of Cream of Chicken soup
2.  3 cans of Cream of Mushroom soup
3.  Olive oil (if it goes on sale for 5.00, if not skip)
4.  Cat litter and dry cat food
5.  Popcorn (if it goes on sale).

Other Stores:

1.  Get Water Softener filter and change out (this is around 30.00 for one, but it's a once a year switch out and it's actually past due by about a month now...it's time to get it done).

And past that barring unforeseen circumstances popping up, that's it in the way of shopping goals for the month.  Sad, I know, but that's the way it is.