happy at home

DAYS 11 AND 12, MORE GROCERY SHOPPING, AND THE PRICE OF MOVIE POPCORN

Day 11 (Thursday):
Breakfast: Green Smoothies*, cinnamon rolls
Lunch: PB & J on homemade bread, grapes, water
Dinner: Baked potatoes, egg rolls, salad, sweet tea

Thursday afternoon, I went to the store and bought:
-4 peaches
-1 onion
-2 potatoes
-Bag of carrots
-6 Bananas
-Wheat flour
-Cocoa
-Sugar
-Toilet Paper
-Corn Syrup
-Egg Roll Wrappers
-1 head of Cabbage
-3 apples

I went to three stores: the produce stand, Save-a Lot, and Bi-LO. I spent a total of $27.70, which brings my total monthly spending to $124.34. I am definitely going to have to be careful for the rest of the month, if I am going to stay under $200. Especially since a good friend of mine and her two children will be visiting for five days this week.

Day 12 (Friday):
Breakfast: Green smoothies*, cereal
Lunch: Caedmon and I went with a kindergarten class on a field trip to Applebees (for "A" week). The younger two boys had lunch with Matt's mom at her house.
Dinner: Kids had homemade pizza. Matt took me on an impromptu date night to dinner and a movie!

So, the hubby and I are walking in to the theatre and he asks me if I would like popcorn. I didn't, but looked at the menu, curious to see how much it cost. $5 for a small popcorn! I turned to Matt and said "Do you realize that I can feed one member of our family for 3 1/2 days on $5?!!" He laughed and said there was no way that I could do that. So, I showed him the math. $200 for 1 month, for a family of 5. That's $50 a week, or $10 a week, per person. That means I can feed one person in our family for half a week, for the cost of one small bag of movie theatre popcorn. If I had wanted the popcorn before I figured that out, I sure didn't after! This experiment is really opening my eyes (and I think, my husband's!), not only to how much excess is in our lives, but also the value we put on products (not necessarily related to the monetary cost). Stuff to ponder.

*Green smoothies have become a daily thing around here again, after a couple of months without making them very often. They are the easiest way to insure that my youngest children get fresh leafy greens in their little bodies!