The Big Shop: The Frugal Edition

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I shop the first Tuesday of every month for all the meat and pantry items we need in a month. Grocery stores here offer consumers 10 % off the entire grocery bill. I've been making monthly menu plans and shopping this way for years. It's supposed to save us money.

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But for the past few months, this has been costing us money--not saving it.

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That's because I've been stupid and using my credit card to pay for them. If we're "a little short," it's no biggie, right? My husband gets paid on Thursday--every Thursday--so we'll just transfer the money right over.

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Except I forget.

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Or there isn't quite as much as I'd thought would be there.

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Or something.

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So, as part of this whole Dave Ramsey thing we're doing, we decided that though I would do up the menus and go shopping as usual, I would check my bank balance and not spend any more than we had available. (Novel concept.)

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I usually spend about $350.00 after the discount.

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Today, I had a little over $200.00 to work with.

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I came in under--far enough under, actually, that I could have purchased those two cans of coffee I left behind because I was a bit anxious. (I really wish I'd got them, actually. But, I do have enough to last until the next shopping trip on Sunday.)

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I also left behind the lovely hams: we usually have at least one in a month--and use the left overs for another meal--but I couldn't do it.

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I also found that I didn't pick up any extra. I bought one bottle of ketchup--not two. I got just one can of tomatoes even though they were on sale and "I can always use tomatoes." I have some in my pantry. I didn't buy the pre-shredded or the pre-sliced cheese.

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I have no idea how the rest of the month is going to go. But we seem to be off to a good start.

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The next thing I need to do is write up our budget for the month based on Ramsey's method.