Payday!

When payday comes but once a month, you can't help but get excited about it.  A full grocery envelope!  Bills all paid!  I'm still allowing $280 a month for groceries, but it's getting tighter all the time.  I would have made it this past month, if the local grocery store had not had bacon for $2.50 a pound; I have not seen bacon priced that low for months, so I bought four pounds to put in the freezer.  I'm ready for BLT's this summer!  Unfortunately, my grocery envelope only had two bucks in it and my misc. envelope had been empty for two weeks.  So I wrote a check from the general fund.
Last month I realized how silly it is to plan on shopping for groceries weekly when we get paid monthly, so I worked on trying to buy enough coffee, canned goods, paper products and so on to last the full month.  This was scary, because when that shopping day was over, I only had $83 left in the envelope to last the whole month.  
However, it worked out fine.  Once I had all the staples, it didn't take much to get us through.  

Here's todays list.  Pardon my sloppy writing.  This is what happens when you are born left-handed and the school teacher makes you switch to using your right hand.  That's my theory, anyhow.  Plus, since discovering the computer, my writing has gotten much worse because I never write anything.  
The money for the dog food and cat food come out of the "critters" envelope.  
I'm keeping today's list and cash register receipts so I can check next month and see where I bought too much or too little.  I bought four pounds of sugar at Aldi's, but when we stopped at Walmart I found out their five-pound bag of sugar was less per pound.  The Kielbasa was the same price at both locations, and what I bought at Walmart was a name brand.  I didn't buy the potatoes on the list because they were ten pounds for $3.89 everywhere, and when we are in Lexington I can get them this week for $2.50.  
Oh yes, today I was left with only $47 to last for a month.  Hopefully the garden will help out before long.  There is money in the "Misc." envelope, so if I run short I can use some of that.  Don't blame me for all that Diet Coke; that's Cliff's doings.  I'm not sure if three 24-packs will be enough for him for a month. I will say, he sometimes has help getting rid of the Diet Coke.  The two twelve-packs of Pepsi Throwback are mine, and will last all month because I hide it and keep it at room temperature; I don't care if it's cold or not.
The money for Cliff's hearing aid batteries, his Dr. Scholl's heel thingies, the multi-vitamins, and a couple of other items came from the Doctor/Meds envelope.  Hey, it's the best I could do.   
So now you've been shopping with Donna.  Wasn't that exciting?  I have a feeling I'm going to have to allow more money for groceries before long.  The amazing part is that we have our meat and milk, and still struggle to keep our grocery spending under control.  If it gets bad enough, we may have to stop drinking soda; let's face it, we'd be better off without it.