2 Weeks Left of the Year!

We have 2 weeks left of the year!  At the beginning of the year I set a goal to not spend more than $5,000 on my groceries (household stuff, beauty products, baby crap, cat stuff was also included in this total).  As of today, I'm at $4,555.  So unless I go crazy and spend $445 in the next 2 weeks (doubtful, as I'm not hosting any big holiday celebration or anything), I would have met my goal. 

Which brings me to my next point - now is a good time to start thinking about whether you want to start some sort of spending goal for 2010.  I was able to get my grocery chart off of MommySnacks.com. 

Blogging and charting my spending really made me disciplined in my grocery spending.  I had very few "quick trips" to grab this, that or the other thing.  Well I still had some of those, but nothing like in the past.  My friend Kara recently made a comment about "Sausage, Bacon, Molasses, & Fluff - what a shopping list!"  But it made me think - yeah, that day, I did in fact go to Stop & Shop with those 4 items on my list.  I only bought those four.  Making a list each and every time I went to the grocery store really made me stick to my guns.  Obviously I had "splurgies" throughout the year - but nothing like in the past.  For instance, once I grabbed a bag of Terra Chips that weren't on my list.  Ooh.  Such a rebel I was spending that $3!  But before 2009, we'd do crazy stuff like buy a big box of Mozzarella Sticks and Jalapeno Poppers at BJ's at least once a month.  I don't think I bought those at all this year.  Since both boxes are $9.99 - that's a $20 savings a month.  Honestly, we didn't miss having "naughty" snacks that much.  We also haven't been drinking as much soda this year - which is def. a good thing.

I'm not sure if I'm going to set a goal for 2010 yet.  I probably will of some sort.  I think what I want to do is set a "grocery day" and shop once a week (but those darn Catalina sales will mess that up!).  There is also a new place called "The Fresh Market" that is set to open in spring.  This place is right up the street from me.  Apparently it's like Whole Foods but "more affordable".  I have the next 2 weeks to dwell on my 2010 goal.  $5,000 is a challenging, yet comfortable level for us.  We could go lower if we didn't eat so much meat, but that's what we like to eat. 

Lastly, for those of you reading this, I do get probably 95% of my coupons from the Boston Globe or the grocery flyers that come on Thursdays.  Unless there is a great coupon out there or I'm trying to work a Catalina, I don't do much coupon printing from the internet.  I guess I'm kind of old school.