Habit and the grocery list

I once read A poem titles "Who am I". It stuck me at the time and it strikes me now. Of course I had to google it and find it.

Who am I?

I am your constant companion. 

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. 

I will push you onward or drag you down to 

failure. 

I am completely at your command. 

Half of the things you do you might as well turn 

over to me and I will do them - quickly and 

correctly. 

I am easily managed - you must be firm with me. 

Show me exactly how you want something done 

and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically. 

I am the servant of great people, 

and alas, of all failures as well. 

Those who are great, I have made great. 

Those who are failures, I have made failures. 

I am not a machine though 

I work with the precision of a machine 

plus the intelligence of a person. 

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin - 

it makes no difference to me. 

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and 

I will place the world at your feet. 

Be easy with me and I will destroy you. 

Who am I? I am Habit

So what exactly does this have to do with groceries you may be asking yourself after reading the title of this post. Well I will tell you. If there is nothing else that is habitual in our lives it's the need to eat and buy food. We need to eat and we need to eat regularly  This can become an automatic routine or a great burden. I have tried to follow a meal plan and depending on life circumstances I do quite well. However right now, we ar ein flux. It'shard to tell week to week what people can eat, so doing a monthly meal plan- or even two weeks can be hard. In stead I make sure we have the food we can eat on hand and  then I know I can make meals out of those foods. For now it works.
 However, in order to make it less of a burden and start to work on my own grocery habits I have this awesome spread sheet that a dear friend made for me. It's an excel spread sheet that calculates the price of groceries. This way I list the 3 grocery stores I usually go to, each item that I do buy (over time) and the typical price. Then I can decide on a meal plan (or not) and I can see what I usually have on the list (either from last time or a saved list). I can adjust it according to my budget. I consult my cabinets and I know what I need to stock up on and what can wait for another week. Since I'm doing this on the computer before I'm in the store, I an be pretty confident that, I know what we have and that if I follow the list I will stay on budget. All I need to do is adjust the # of each item and not only does my grocery list change, but my store total and total food budget change. It's FABULOUS!  I can plan easily what I want to spend. I typically save $20 for the kids to choose healthy food that are in season. they each get one pick and so do I. It keep us (the parents) rewarding their good food choices and it also helps to keep the food budget more from spiraling out of control!
I hope to be able to share this table soon. I haven't yet figured out the best way to share documents that aren't cumbersome, so I will check out some options and try to get the file up. In the meantime, sleep well and be happy, you have choices in this world! What a marvelous thing
Willow

Including cleaners etc in the Food budget

Many people have two sets of shopping lists- Food and other. The other often include cleaners, paper towels, toilet paper, shampoos and toiletries etc. I don't It's too many lists for me. I have one shopping list. It works easier for me. I often buy shampoo at Trader Joes along with my groceries and it's too difficult for me to separate and figure out which money is from which list. So I combine. Works for us.
 For both health and finances we have simplified our personal care items. I will cover personal items now and cleaners in a future post.

Hair
 The kids and I use Curly girl method and only use conditioner. We buy one from Trader Joes. It's $2.99 and lasts 1-2 months for the 4 of us girls. It has worked for us for 3 years on all variety of hair that the 4 gals of us in the family have- fine, thick and medium hair- straight and curly. DH still likes his standard products, I used to coupon for them, but I currently buy his personal products in bulk once a year for Christmas- he's happy getting his name brand and his family gave personal care items for gifts all the time. YAY! Love that's he's not picky about that! I keep trying to get a more natural cheaper product for him, but haven't found one he likes yet.

Razors

Razors are a Costco item. Again- once a year. We usually pay $40 for a year supplies of razors. I could do better couponing, but as a homeschooling, husband in school, cooking non allergen foods from scratch mama, I don't find it worth the effort any more. Once upon a time I did. It's a different season for me. But if I could get some coupons and pay 13 cents for  shaving cream again, I would do it in a heart beat! :) We bough 20 and it lasted us 3 years- and we gave a bunch as gifts!

Toilet Paper

 Each Jan/February, I try to find a FABULOUS deal on toilet paper and buy a years supply. That has happened two years. The other years, I buy in bulk. Most recently though I have found the best Price for toilet tissue at Amazon. My buy price is 50 cents a roll. I won't buy toilet paper unless it's under 50 cents a roll- or we are COMPLETELY out- that's happened once. Amazon subscribe and save has it for $20.75 for 48 rolls. That works out t o be 43 cents a roll!  My buy price!
Often though I can find it in January at Staples or another Office store for 30 cents a roll. I buy a years supply and we eat more beans that pay period :)

Toothpaste

I buy the kids one every 6 months. Their Dentist recommended Squigle Enamel Saver with Xylitol. They share it and get a small teeny bit on their tooth brush. This is also a Christmas stocking gift. I can't stand toothpaste so I use baking soda- or just  brush well. I still have a few tubes from couponing years ago for toothpaste for the Hubs. I need to start looking for toothpaste deals coupon wise. I haven't paid for toothpaste for the grown ups in 5 years because of couponing.

Please let me know if you have more questions! I have been toying with making my own toothpaste, but haven't found a recipe I like quite yet.

Willow