Lent - Week 2

Preface: I wrote the italicized portion of this on Friday 2/22... the rest is the real story on Tuesday 2/26. lol.

I am so glad I chose to do this for Lent.
I has really kept me thinking before I make unnecessary purchases!
I have consciously avoided the thrift stores and have been re-wearing some of my favorite clothes. I know this sounds terrible and vain and extremely wasteful, but I don't like to re-wear things.  I re-wear pants and skirts and dresses I guess, but tops..... they typically get worn like once every 6 months and I never re-wear complete outfits.  I don't know what it is.  It's not that I think I'm so cool or that I'm going to get a full page spread in Life and Style if I'm caught re-wearing something.
So this is why I LOVE thrifting!  I can get a couple new shirts every single week for a few dollars and never have to re-wear what I've got.
How dumb is that?!
I must stop!

I've been doing really good with groceries, only buying what we need and no extras.

I've been creative with my meals using up what we have in our freezer and pantry.  I have all this stuff that I no longer deem as "healthy" but we're too poor to throw it out!  So I've been trying to make it as healthy as possible.  For instance that big box of pancake mix that I will never buy again.... but we already have... I made strawberry, blueberry, banana pancakes!  All 3 in one!
And those two big bags of tortilla chips I've been eating with some healthy, yummy salsa and made taco salad with ground turkey and lots of veggies the other day.


And then I asked Lee to go to the store with me after church on Sunday.................dun dun dun.
I heard things like:
"wow! didn't know black berries were so cheap!"
"let's buy the really BIG thing of coffee, we'll save money in the long run"
"Vodka sauce?! I love vodka sauce!"
"oooh spices for meat rubs are on sale"

and when I reminded him of the budget he said  "well that'll teach you to take me to the store again!"
He's so cute, and doesn't ask for much and never gets anything for himself.... so I let him get the spices and pasta sauce :)

I went over budget :/ but since we bought a lot of stuff on Sunday I shouldn't have to go to the store much this coming week!  It'll balance out.  At the end of the 40 days I'll do a total amount I've spent and if it's less than $300 I'll consider it a win. right?

Here are my purchases for the week:

Kroger - $9.44 - I went in for cheese (for taco salad) but found so many great deals I didn't have to shop again for a few days!  My best purchase was a whole roasted turkey breast for $2.99!  We ate that thing for DAYS!  Turkey on salad, turkey quesadillas (with spinach and tomatoes, so good!), turkey sandwiches...

Aldi's - $40.58 - the shopping list included: coffee, tomatoes, banana, lettuce, milk, almond milk, cereal, bread, and spinach. we also bought - 2 things of pasta sauce, blackberries and blueberries, spices, olive oil, and guacamole.

Wendy's - $5.15 - this was an impulse stop... should have skipped it, but I didn't and it put me over budget. Lee and I did a lock-in with the teens Friday night and I stayed up from 7am on Friday till about 1 pm on Saturday and on my way home I was starving and there was traffic and Wendy's was there calling my name!  Stop it Wendy's!

Kmart - $4.47- yes I went back to Kmart, like I said I wouldn't, but they had donuts on sale for $3.49! a $1.50 cheaper than Kroger! and I bought some clearance Hershey's hearts. sue me. The Sunday School kids are like way too happy when there are donuts that I can't bear to disappoint them now.  They really are a sweet group of teenagers.  I'll do a post about them soon. (oh and I saved the milk and oj I bought last week in the church fridge so I didn't have to buy that again!)

Total: $59.64

$9.64 over!  so disappointed... but I'll only spend $40 next week. or attempt to.  I'm going home this weekend and getting my hair done, but my beautiful, sweet friend from high school does it and sometimes I don't even think she  charges me enough to cover the supplies she uses, so I may just make it under $40!