Taking stock and preparing for September Savings

I like to do a budget every month. Down to the penny. I know EXACTLY what we have coming in, and try to estimate EXACTLY what will go out each month. Last month was a bust. Preparing for school, taking an end-of-summer birthday trip to the happiest place on earth, and a general lack of discipline attributed to a month that was off-budget. However, I am so anal with my savings (i.e. I have two accounts: one is for saving for periodic expenses and one is for an emergency fund) that it didn't make me go crazy. Well, at least not completely.

I *am* doing this "no-spending" September. (I am sure it is partially because I need to get spending back into control...)

I made my list of meals for the month (see here), I took stock of what I already had in the pantry, and made my list of what I need at the store. I visited Costco, Trader Joe's, and Vons. I still need to get to Walmart this afternoon for a couple minor odds and ends that Vons didn't have. It actually irked me a little bit because Vons didn't have couple things on my list, so I couldn't get all my shopping done in one trip.

At any rate, I ended up spending the following:
Target: $18.99
Costco: $61.81
Sprouts: $59.83
Vons: $161.83***

***Note: Let me qualify this a little bit...at the beginning of the summer I had purchased scrip cards from DD's school (if I am going to spend the money, they may as well get some of it...) and still had $157.06 left on those that had been budgeted for and paid for at the beginning of the summer. So I actually spent only $3.67 this month. :-)

So that's a grand total of $302.46 for all the groceries (actually $145.40 after the gift cards mentioned above).

And let me just say that my refrigerator and pantry are absolutely stuffed to the maximum. I am almost embarrassed to show you, but here are pictures...




















My DH even said to me..."Now you have found the fatal flaw in your plan..." ;-)

The kicker is that I also have to pick up our CSA box today. I currently have no idea where I am going to put those things and wish I had an extra fridge in the garage.

I will update you on this week's menu plan once I am able to sit down with the kids.
--Katie

PS Forgot to mention that this little experiment had perfect timing: my car is headed to the service department on the back of a tow truck today. I am SOOOOO glad I already had this planned out. Of course, I won't save as much, but I will have some extra cash that I can apply to the repairs and the rental car I will need to take me through the week. :-S