"Being Realistic" ... about Groceries

It's been happening for a while now...  "groans" as the cashier tells me the total of our weekly groceries shops... yes, audible groans.

Groceries are getting expensive!!

I remember our seminary days. Brian and I both having part-time jobs, both going to school and our $50 grocery bills that used to make me "groan".... LOL!! That was our goal... staying at $100 for all our weekly incidental expenses.... groceries, gas, movies, out to eat, etc!!

So now when just my weekly grocery shop rings up $100+... yes, I "groan"... loudly!  LOL!! And then we still go back to the grocery store at the end of the week... for soymilk, fruit, occasionally juice or to pick up something I forgot the 1st time;)

Thankfully we have all our needs provided for. My husband is an avid budget -er and has it all planned out so that we can have grocery money, pay the bills, save for a house, and even save a bit for the kids' college:) So to save we try to stick with the budget!!

After "groaning" this week, I began to wonder though... is our budget realistic?

We roughly average about $150 a week on groceries! Which sounds crazy high to me...

but then divide $150 by the 6 of us...


$25 to feed  each one of us for a WEEK!!!

Good grief... we are conservative even on our infrequent "nights out" and spent more than that on just one evening out for just TWO of us!! 

I used to coupon a LOT!!! I still bring along my coupons, just in case! But I've really gotten out of the habit of only purchasing items on sale and stocking up on items we use regularly... it just got too crazy to bring coupons and 4 children!

As I attempt to get back into couponing to be more frugal with our finances...

I realize I need to be realistic....
there will probably no longer be $50 grocery bills on the stock up trips...

Not with all these sweet mouths to feed;)

Besides shopping sales, using coupons and gardening.... How do you try to keep the grocery bills from getting too high??

It's here

As some of you know, my Nikon camera finally gave up. The lens just didn't want to move on or out any longer....My mother-in-law accidentally left her camera during their last visit. So for the last month I've been using her camera until I figured out what to do with mine.

Well the Nikon is 3 1/2 years old and was a awesome gift to a young family with a baby :) We thought that we just needed to go ahead and purchase a new reliable camera and then look into fixing (if possible) the Nikon.

After much debate (just my personality, especially on big purchases and since I'll be using this for at least the next 3 1/2 years), I decided to go with this Canon A650.... it was recommended by many and I found it at a decent price.... 1/3 less than good 'ole Wally World. Check out Beach Camera if you're in the market for a camera... decent prices, free shipping ( for over $100) and delivered FAST (less than 3 days and I ordered on a Sunday evening).

So now I should have crystal clear, beautiful pictures.... aha hahaa!! Maybe as soon as I learn how to take pictures right (right angles and lighting), you might get a glimpse of some good ones.

Also, I have to mention this because I was very impressed......we use a credit card that offers "rewards". Now, I KNOW credit cards can get people into trouble but we are very conscience of how much we spend (credit cards, checks, cash) and we also pay off our charges every month so we DON'T pay any interest!!!! When the need for the camera came up I started searching the process for "redeeming" our rewards......it was a little tedious, but only days after requesting our rewards in cash, we received a check that TOTALLY covered any of the cameras I was looking at (granted none were "top of the line" or professional). So it was "fun" picking one out because I was spending "free money". Brian says that he is getting the rest of the reward check for some books he's been eye-ing..... good thing I did save some money on the purchase by buying the accessories (batteries, card reader) at Wally World.