Today is Thursday

Today is Thursday and the new grocery store ads were out as of yesterday. I am planning on doing simple shopping this week. Only the bare necessities... milk, bread, eggs, and fresh produce. I went over budget for the past two weeks. WAY over budget for both those weeks, so now is the time to make it up.

I couldn't tell you how much over budget I went. I know two weeks ago I spent $85 and there is no telling what I spent last week. I think one trip was $11, the next was $55 and the third was $35, so total... $101. All in all for those two weeks I spent $186. That's more than four weeks worth of groceries! Jeez... I didn't realize how bad I did until I just put the numbers up there.

I have some making up to do, so let's just do $20 for the next four weeks. That won't bring me completely back on track, but it will bring me close. With as much as I save each week on groceries (the weeks I overspent included) I'm sure I have saved way more than that so you know what? I will just keep to the bare necessities this week and then go back to normal budget.

I have stocked up on enough laundry detergent and fabric softener for a while. I have five of each right now, so I won't have to buy that for hopefully until next year. Same goes for paper towels. I have two packs of toilet paper (nine rolls each) so hopefully that will last us through the month, but we shall see. I'm hoping I have enough to get through the rest of this year.

I have stocked up on enough baking stuff (flour, sugar, condensed milk, etc.) to do some baking for the season, so that will be nice.

Now, I guess is the time to start doing some Christmas shopping. I've started some and need to take stock before I actually start. I am starting tomorrow with my cousin's wife. We are going to hit some discount stores and see what we can't find. I'm also keeping an eye out for deals online for photo stuff, gift certificates, coupons for stores, etc. to help with this. If you see anything good just let me know!

Now is also the time for "de-cluttering", clearing out closets (especially the girls) and decorating. I asked hubs if I could start decorating for Christmas already and was greeted with a huge sigh and "OK". So, I need to get all that stuff down out of the attic.

The question now is... real tree or fake tree???