This week Jen at Sprite's Keeper has cut us some slack by letting us revisit a post. God, I love that woman. She saved me from some sort of mental purge that may have been completely incoherent.
I posted this about a year ago when I was going through a "I need to save money on groceries" phase. Yeah, like that lasted, HA!
Grocery Negotiations
I had read somewhere (probably a blog) that if you only shop once a month you’ll save a ton of money, mostly from not impulse buying. This made sense to me and really so little does anymore; what with politics, the recession, and the last frustrating episode of House. What can I say; I'm deep.
After careful consideration I figured that there was no way that I could shop just once a month. The whole rotting produce thing or God forbid running out of cheese. I decided to change to grocery shopping every other week. This seemed do-able. And, except for the little mozzarella incident we’ve stuck with it.
When I say we I’m using the royal “we”. The boys have not been quite so enthusiastic. But, they are along for this ride whether they like it or not!
Our 2 weeks are up tomorrow and the list of needed items on the refrigerator door has grown to novel size proportions. I’ve budgeted $200 for the next 2 week period so some major decisions need to be made. I thought bringing JR into the conversation would be a good way to get him to buy into the whole concept. Here’s an excerpt from our discussion.
Me: Oh look, Albertson’s has that buy ten things and get $5 off deal.
JR: Honey, the game’s on.
Me: They have some of the items on our list on sale.
JR: UH UH
Me: This will be a tough choice. Should I get 5 bags of brown sugar and 5 pounds of butter? WOW they have Fritos on sale.
At this point JR becomes engaged in the conversation. Fritos are a staple in his diet. Yes, it’s Okay if you hate him at this point. He eats Fritos, cashews and drinks a beer every evening after work then eats dinner then has homemade ice cream and cookies for dessert and NEVER gains a single pound. Not 1 single pound. Hating him right now is the appropriate response.
JR: Why do you need 5 pounds of butter? Why not get 5 bags of Fritos instead?
Me: The butter is for cookies. (Knowing that this would be the best angle to attack this kind of reasoning.)
JR: Okay, you really have to get those I guess. Can you get another 10 items? Maybe, go to the store twice? Then you could pick up 10 bags of Fritos.
Me: The deal says I can buy 20 items to get $10 off. So, some of those items can be Fritos. I was thinking more in the lines of 3 bags of Fritos, 3 bags of chocolate chips, 2 jars of peanut butter, and 2 boxes of oatmeal.
JR: Do you really need peanut butter and oatmeal?
Me: cookies?
JR: Right! How about cutting it down to 1 jar of peanut butter and 1 box of oatmeal? That leaves us (he’s getting into it now that his Fritos are on the line) 5 bags of Fritos, 3 bags of chocolate chips (they were never in jeopardy), 1 jar of peanut butter and 1 box of oatmeal.
Me: We could do that.
JR: Great. (As he shakes his jar of cashews at me) We’ll need some of these.
Me: Gee, they are not on sale but peanuts are. We could swap out 2 bags of Fritos for 2 jars of peanuts.
JR: No, that doesn’t work for me. Peanuts are considered good for you right?
Me: Sorry, my bad.
At least point JR is no longer interested in our grocery finances. He has gotten his 5 bags of Fritos and something exciting has happened on the game that he has missed trying to defend his beloved Fritos.
Love,
M
That's hilarious! I could never make it two weeks because I always forget that one essential ingredient...like eggs. Although I would often sooner order take out than have to run to the store.
ReplyDeleteI have to go several times a week. I buy in bulk at Costco once a month. Then I get produce and dairy in between as needed. I am pissed about the mister there being able to drink beer, eat nuts and Fritos and not gain weight. That just doesn't seem at all fair. I haven't had Fritos in years and now that's all I can think of thanks to you so out to Publix I go.
ReplyDeleteWay back during the Stone Age when my older kids were very small and I was an economizing fool, I only shopped once every other week. I would go back on the weeks when I didn't grocery shop and buy milk and bread - and ONLY milk and bread.
ReplyDeleteI made menus and grocery lists and stuck to them. I shopped sales, but never really clipped coupons because coupons are almost always for expensive "convenience foods" and I never bought those.
I fed four people for approximately $50 a week, and we ate reasonably well.
What the blue blazes happened to that self-discipline??? I need to find it, surely it's hiding around here somewhere...
Oh, you should appreciate this - my word verification is "gratin"!
Contract negotiations for Fritos? I love it! I wish my pantry looked like your pantry. Our dinners would be so much more entertaining! (Yes, I know we've already been there.. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're linked!
I love this. Glad he got his fritos.
ReplyDeleteI would never make it 2 weeks!
I remember this post because I had to ask you what frittos were. That must make us really old bloggy friends - a year huh?
ReplyDeleteI had a handful of Fritos in my Turkey Chili tonight and it was GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. I'm on JR's side here. Sorry.
ReplyDelete