Good morning!
I thought today would be a good time to recap what I bought since I decided to start my budget overhaul since I decided to leave my job.
Last week, brought lots of unexpected purchases, most of which could not be avoided. We did the best we could though! We also cut our grocery bill by half. I also decided that I wold have to part with some lovely organic products for the time being to save some cash.
What I bought last week:
I will try to include any combined purchases of Eric and I- such as a meal out, gas, etc. I am not keeping track of what he spends though simply because I don’t want to nor feel like I should.
- Subway $17.50– Eric and I rarely go out to eat but this was an exception! We had a ton of errands to run after work and didn’t get home until 9pm. So we opted for dinner while we were out. I had a footlong veggie sub and him a footlong roasted chicken. He also got a coke.
- Birthday Gift #1: $70
- Birthday gift #2: $20 (I used a gift card so this was a free bee! yay)
- Birthday dinner groceries: $50 (huge salmon, cake ingredients, veggies, etc)
- Gas: $35 (this was free because I had a gift card from a Christmas present!)
- Subway: $3 (I got a 6″ veggie sub in a pinch when I was starving after work and had no emergency snack for the commute home)
- Shipping: $38
- Sunday groceries: $50 (We cut this by more than half- very pleased with this)
Grocery Cut-backs:
The obvious place I could make huge cutbacks with regard to groceries is reducing the amount of specialty & organic products that I have been buying.
Here is what I have decided to forgo for the time being:
- Ezeikel bread $5 (instead I will buy no name 100% whole wheat bread shown below for $1.47!
That is a savings of $3.53 per loaf of bread! And likely a $5 savings per week.
- This was a toughie, but I will not be buying any Larabars for now. If I want any, I will have to make them myself! This is very sad because I had been eating one Larabar a day for a while now. It was my treat at the end of my work day. Bye bye Larabars, hello homemade ones! This is a savings of about $20 per week! Holy crap Larabars are expensive.
- Buy bulk! The Bulk Barn is a fabulous bulk store in Canada. It has oddles of cooking and baking products and you can save tons of money by shopping there. We needed black pepper today and the grocery store pepper was $16.57 (!!!!!!!!) for their big size. I said absolutely not! We went to bulk barn and got all of this below for $2.33. I also spotted some flax on sale 25% off and got all of this for just $0.45 cents! I should have gotten more.
Last week Total spent (minus gift cards): $228.50
As I said, last week had some purchases that were unavoidable. Next week will be much better. :) I still think we made great progress by cutting our grocery bill by half! :) I am also proud of myself for cutting out Larabars and some of my fabourite organic products. Sniff sniff. Time to get creative! When my hummus runs out I plan on making my own from now on.
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My green monster this morning used a new kind of green….
SPINACH!!!!
I felt like popeye!!! hahaha
Ingredients:
- 1 cup packed baby organic spinach
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 cup original Almond Breeze
- 1 Tbsp. flax
- 1 small leaf kale
This smoothie was awesome!! Loved it. :D
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Coming up on Oh She Glows:
- FAQ’s
- Recipes to the wonderful Afternoon Powersnack submissions
- The rest of my Birthday dinner party
Don’t forget to submit those entries for The Healthy Valentine’s Day contest!!!
Also, check out my new with tags Lululemon hoodie on sale on Ebay starting bid just 99 cents! This sweater retails for over $100!
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Women wish to be loved not because they are pretty, or good, or well bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.
~Henri Amiel