If you read yesterday’s post about me trying to
teach my kids a lesson, I
did break down and go to the store today, mainly because we were out of meat
and fresh fruits and vegetables and I’m not mean enough to deprive them of
those items. So while I was at my local
grocery store today I noticed the lady in line ahead of me had a gallon of milk
on the belt. This shocked me because the
half gallons of milk were on sale for $1.00 each, while the gallons of milk
were on sale for $2.69 each. Why in the
world would she want to spend an extra $0.69 on the same exact quantity of
milk? My guess is she just didn’t pay
attention to the prices, which makes me wonder how much more money she was
wasting on other things.
She then asked the cashier for some cigarettes. Now I’m not going to knock her for smoking
since I am a smoker myself, but she is really spending way more money buying
these at the grocery store than if she were to roll her own or even buy them
somewhere else. As I stated in my post “
How to Save 65% on Cigarettes”,
I roll my own cigarettes at a local smoke shop using their machine that does
all the work for you for only $22.18 per carton. This same smoke shop is located almost
directly across the street from the grocery store she was buying these
cigarettes at. On top of that, even
before I discovered rolling my own cigarettes, I would never purchase my
cigarettes at the grocery store because they are always more expensive at
grocery stores than they are at gas stations or convenience stores. This is one of the few items that are cheaper
at gas stations, but it is cheaper nonetheless.
I had to wonder what kind of person is so careless with their
money. I have a few theories.
- She is one of those people, like my husband was
before I proved him otherwise, who thinks “oh it’s only 69 cents” or “what’s a
little bit more for convenience” and doesn't realize how much all of those add up.
- Her husband handles all the finances and she has
no clue what her spending habits are doing to their finances.
- She just doesn't care enough to pay attention to
prices when buying anything at the grocery store. She just buys what she wants and doesn't care
what it costs, at least to an extent.
- She has an endless supply of money, which is
highly doubtful, but good for her if that is the case.
Her case could be any combination of those above, but unless
she falls into that 4th scenario, she is hurting her family’s
finances by not buying more responsibly.
So what did I buy at the grocery store today? Four half
gallons of milk at $1.00 each, eggs on sale for $0.99, sugar, bananas, five
pounds of ground beef, deli meat and cheese for lunches, deli potato salad on
sale for $1.25, pickles, Soda Stream cola for our Soda Stream (more on this to
come in a future post), two boxes of cereal on sale for $1.88 each, hamburger
buns, two packages of bacon on sale for $2.69 each (great deal!), some Cheez-It
crackers, and chips and dip because I splurged a little. Since my wonderful stepson works at this
grocery store, we do get a small discount and I only spent $61.87 total. The total discount was $4.39. I then came home like I always do and opened
my Ibotta app on my phone and got $1.10 back for some of the items I purchased
(bananas, bacon, and cereal). If you do
not have this app already, you need to download it. It is free and takes a few minutes of work,
but you get free money just for buying things you already buy. The best part about Ibotta is that not all
items are brand-specific. They give you
money back on any brands of milk, bread, produce, etc.
photo credit: Day 3/365 - Ride in the Shopping Cart.. (Explored) via photopin (license)
Labels: frugality
