What do you consider "groceries"?

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Remember Ike Godsey's General Merchantile on The Walton's? He had everything!! From thread to gasoline to appliances. The general store of long ago became specialty "department" stores, and once again stores have combined their wares. Nowadays, we can buy motor oil at the pharmacy, rent videos at the corner gas station, and buy clothing at the supermarket. Yes, it's convenient but in the long run, we're the ones that are paying for that convenience. I've found that, yes, it takes some extra time, but look through all the weekly sale papers and find just what you NEED on sale for a better price. Shop several stores and only buy what you went there for. This way, once your supply at home is sufficient, you can always buy on sale and save money. It's tough in the beginning, but it's worth it.

I've really learned alot reading the different experiences about grocery shopping. But what do you consider groceries? Is it only edibles? Do you include dog & cat food? How about personal health & beauty aids? Housekeeping supplies like masking tape, glue, a new mop?

Many many thanks to all who have written. I've thoroughly enjoyed this topic.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), October 17, 2001

Answers

I consider all household edibles "groceries". Out door birds have the "feed" bill, household non-edibles go on "household" or "personal". With that said, I usually fudge and buy some personal and non-edibles when I get my big shopping done. It is harder to figure out what the budget is doing when I combine them though. :-) I love these threads too. I am going to be keeping closer track and refining my shopping!

-- notnow (notnow05@yahool.com), October 17, 2001.

I have a set amount of money that has to buy everything we get on a weekly or monthly basis--food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, animal feed. This is what I get when we go "grocery" shopping. I am looking at ways to make/grow as much on that list as possible. Things that we buy only every six months or so, like clothes or shoes, tools, etc., come under a different section of the budget.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 17, 2001.

Charleen! Well since I ain't purty and don't need any "beauty" products then most of the money goes on grub. Oh, I guess I do buy some shavin stuff from time to time but parfumes don't fit this old hick very well. Lil Dumplin buys the feed for ole Calvin the cat and I don't have any animals to buy for.

I don't separate anything that goes into the house. We have to have the laundry soap, cleaning supplies etc anyhow so it doesn't make much difference on the budget. Besides all that it's just Lil Dumplin and the old fat man livin here now---well besides ole calvin.

I guess I could kinda "lump" the bolony in with the motor oil for the mower! Har Har! Good post! old hoot gibson. Matt.24:44

-- "old " hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), October 17, 2001.


Charleen to me groceries is food only, I have a whole seperate criteria for the other stuff! I also count chicken feed and seeds/garden plants in the food budget amounts. What I do is when I get home from a shopping trip, I subtract the amounts from the total on the receipts that aren't food. Like I might take off amounts for bleach, toilet paper etc... Then I write this amount for food on my calendar. At the end of the month I total these amounts and write them in a notebook. Now I can play with these numbers finding averages for the month, the total for the year so far. Figure out what I can spend this month to get myself back on track etc... for example last Jan I only spent $150 for the monthe, but in Feb I spent $260. I am not so concerned with spending $60 exactly each week, but maintaining my average throughout the year. There will be times that I spend more when I find bargains and times I spend less because we are super-stocked.

It doesn't take a lot of time to make this a new habit, and I love to play with the numbers.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), October 17, 2001.


I do the same as Melissa does because when I am buying supplies (household and personal) in Wal-mart, I may also buy coffee or some other food item that is on sale. I like to keep the amount spent for food items seperate from other items. It makes it easier to see which area I might be able to cut back.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), October 17, 2001.


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