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I am trying to spend as little as possible but while saving money is a big deal, time is also a big deal.
I see the awesome deals every week at all of the stores but my reality is that I just cannot run around to get the best prices. In my town I have a Walmart, 2 Dave's Marketplace, 2 Stop and Shops, a CVS and 2 Rite Aids. My beloved Target is 20 minutes away (an honestly, the closest one is terrible compared to the one we used to live near) and my closest Whole Foods is 30 minutes away (insert super sad face here). Online shopping for clothing and random household stuff has definitely been my savior, especially Christmas shopping.
Each week I shop at Stop and Shop (despise it but they have the best sales). I go to Dave's Marketplace when they are having a great sale and Walmart once every few weeks when I need food and the other stores aren't having any great sales. Target is a luxury stop that I only do once every couple of months and BJ's (a warehouse store) is somewhere I go every four or five months because it is so inconvenient to go to.
Rite Aid and CVS are super close to me but I have only been shopping at CVS as I just cannot get out of the house enough to chase drugstore deals at two stores. Even CVS runs are only every few weeks.
Even with cutting coupons I am still spending $100 a week on groceries and household stuff (paper towels, toilet paper, toiletries, etc). I suppose that is really good for where I live but I still feel like a failure sometimes. I honestly go the the supermarket and have a list but always add other things as I am walking through the store. It's never junk food, just stuff that I realize we need because the original list I made is tiny.
The worst part is that lately I have found myself making choices based on price instead of nutrition. How terrible is that? Now, I don't buy chips and junk food but on regular foods I'll take the cheaper option instead of the more expensive healthier option. It's like I am using the fact that I have three kids and no time to excuse the fact that I am buying less healthy stuff.
You know what? I am done with this. We have debt to pay off, rent to pay on our townhouse and a big car payment on our SUV but I am sick of making judgement call on our food. I am sick of buying chicken breast from the grocery store that I cook and don't end up eating because it tastes like crap. I am sick of buying stuff because it is cheaper than something else. From now on nutrition is king. Screw the supermarket meat- it is terrible. I will only be buying meat from Whole Foods- not because I am a snob but because it tastes better (way, way better) and the animals are raised humanely. This means that I will choose food bases on the nutrition factor over the price factor. My kids love certain fruits so those fruits will be bought, even if they cost more.
I am not a snobby food person. I am just a mom who wants to feed her family as healthy as possible. If that means my grocery spending goes up, then so be it. It is my job to teach my kids how to eat healthy so if I have to put off paying off debt longer than so be it.
If I'm going to blow my grocery budget every week (I originally wanted to just spend $75 a week for a family of 5) then I might as well buy the good stuff!
It seems like you have a lot going on here----your target budget was set too low, and on top of that you've determined that better tasting meat is a priority grocery staple for your fam. Neither of these things is bad, but for the purposes of your blog, could you focus on not only why you've chosen a route other than "cheap", but how you aim to balance that? And it's nice to see that you made a mistake in setting your initial grocery budget and you're addressing that problem---but out of curiosity, what's your *new and improved* weekly grocery budget for a fam of 5+dog? Thanks for posting!
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