Frugal Friday: Help! I Spend Way Too Much On Groceries!

$1155.78.  That is how much we spent on groceries for the month of July. My husband had noticed that we seemed to be spending a lot on groceries and so he added it up. I guess he felt the number was too high to say out loud because he emailed it to me, despite the fact that I was sitting in the next room.

Our household is comprised of two adults, one baby, and one dog.  How does such a small family spend $1155.78 on one month’s worth of groceries? It seems like a bit much (even in Canada, where food is expensive).

In our defense, this was a particularly expensive month for groceries.  We had been out of town for May and June, and so we had to re-stock a lot of items. Also, this grocery bill is a total of the money we spent at the grocery store and Costco, so it includes other household items like toilet paper, diapers, etc.

I’ve always been careful about my spending, and I hate the feeling of wasting money. My philosophy is that if you save money on the little day to day items, you won’t feel guilty spending money on the big ticket items that you really want.  For example, I don’t feel the need to buy brand name rice cakes, but I did buy a top-of-the-line car seat for my daughter. I also believe in the importance of eating wholesome, healthy foods (hence the exorbitant amount of money I spend on groceries).

After looking at this past month’s grocery bill, I am determined to decrease our grocery spending without sacrificing the quality of the food we eat. Here is how I plan to do it:

-Meal Planning- This is the most challenging task because I’m finding it hard to find recipes my 10 month old daughter will also be able to eat. It seems like every meal I make has something in it that’s not “baby friendly” for one reason or another. I don’t expect that I’ll get it together enough to plan every night’s dinner ahead of time, but I’m definitely going to try my best to do more meal planning because it ensures I will only buy what I need.

-No Limited junk food/pop- The hope is that this will trim our grocery bill as well as our waistlines.

-Using Coupons- Good coupons are hard to come by, but I am keeping my eyes peeled for them and trying to remember to use them when I have them.

-Eating reasonable-sized portions- Often, I will cook a meal that should feed about four people, but my husband and I eat the whole thing by ourselves. This is not healthy. It's also expensive, and it needs to stop.

Also, I’m starting a new “thing” on my blog called Frugal Friday. Every second Friday, I will share my “feats”, “fails”, and “finds”  on my quest to becoming more frugal.

Feats:

-I did a meal plan for the majority of our dinners this week.
-I have been getting better at remembering to turn off lights when I leave the room (I have an annoying habit of leaving them on, which drives my husband insane. He’s right, leaving lights on is a huge waste of money, not to mention the impact on the environment).

Fails:

-I had to throw away broccoli that had gone bad. I hate throwing away food, especially vegetables and fruits which are so expensive.
-I take excessively long, hot showers. My money is literally going down the drain.

Finds:

-I came accross a $2 off Pampers diapers coupon.  Now I just have to remember to use it! There are a bunch of other great coupons on the P&G website, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

Do you have any feats, fails, or finds this Frugal Friday?

Trying To Be Smart? Don't Use These Words

I am certainly not a grammarian, my vocabulary leaves something to be desired, and spell-check saves my butt far more often than I’d like to admit. This, however, does not stop me from judging others for their inadequacies when it comes to the use of the English language.

As a sequel to "Trying To Be Funny? Don't Use These Expressions?", I now present you with “Trying To Be Smart? Don’t Use These Words”.

Unkept- You could maybe have an “unkept” promise, but please promise to say “unkempt” when you are referring to a person’s disheveled appearance.

A “mute” point- The point is not mute. It, in fact, does make a sound. The sound it makes, however, is irrelevant, because the point is “moot”.

Shmozzle- Simply put, this is not a word. However, I often hear people use it to describe a situation that is messed up. Eg. “It was just a big shmozzle”. First of all, the word is “Shlemazel” not “Shmozzle”. It is a Yiddish word used to describe a person who is down on their luck, a failure, and kind of generally pathetic. Thus, a situation cannot be a shlemazel. A person is a shlemazel. George on Seinfeld, for example, was kind of a shlemazel.

Orientate- This is used so much that I think it’s actually become a word (my spell-check thinks it’s a word, so it must be a word, right?) But if you’re a traditionalist like me, you know that you are not getting “orientated”, you are getting “oriented”.  In the same vein, you are not conversating, you are conversing. By the way, “conversate” really isn’t a word. Even spell-check agrees with me.

What are your favourite misused words? (No, I did not just misspell "favourite". I'm Canadian, and that's how we spell it here.)