Sensible Shopping FAIL

Remember when I said I needed seven items at the store?

Yeah. Three bags later, I am trying to figure out where I went wrong.

Ok, some of it I'm not getting on my own case about. I didn't know we were out of dog food when I made the list. And we finished the orange juice with breakfast. While I have other juices, the OJ is the closest thing to a fruit in its natural state that my youngest will consume, so that gets high replacement priority. And I needed lunchmeat for this week's lunch bunch meal since peanut butter is not allowed at school.

Here's where I made my first mistake: I took the kids.

When my child who eats nothing new ever wants to try goat cheese, what am I supposed to say? I love goat cheese and will certainly encourage this. It will not go bad in our fridge. And the snack food aisle did not go well. One wanted to get Chex Mix "for Daddy." It really is one of his favorites, and I have been avoiding the snack aisle so it's been a while. The baked Cheetos I would have passed by, but I didn't. At least I can compare them to the Trader Joe's ones we usually get and have a real idea of price and (while I balk at the word in this context) nutritional information.

However, I cannot pass all the blame to the children. Apparently I'm not the only one reading Write-Sizing and getting curious about Mary's Gone Crackers. I had asked about them a few weeks ago and got blank looks. I found some (caraway) in the least adventuresome market in my area and bought them to support the expansion of palate. Then this week, our town's teeny grocery store had three different flavors (original, herb, and black pepper). If things don't sell, they don't get replaced. So I'm taste testing them this week too. And I did buy pre-made mashed potatoes, as the ones I had had started to turn. (Nothing says St. Patrick's Day like a slimy, diseased potato! Welcome to America, my ancestors!)

All things considered, it wasn't too much over what was on the list. But. As I unpacked, I found pizza goldfish, which my children do not like but apparently threw in there. ("Too spicy." They love other flavors, but the pizza ones get thumbs down. I TOLD them that. And told them to put them back. Sigh.) And the two steak rolls that their grimy little hands were on in the bin while my back was turned. And the lemonade that holy crow costs way less than the 50 cents each lemons it would take to make it myself. And three Z-bars? We have those at home already! Dang. No wonder my son wanted his own cart. He had his own list!

Total I spent at the store? $136.04. That's a lot for a list of 7 things (ok, 9).

Total for the items on my list? $40.77. Total including items not on the list but should have been (dog food, orange juice)? $74.81. (Dog food and orange juice alone were $20 more.)

Total for kids' splurges? $22.04. Ouch.

Total for my splurges? $37.66. So I suppose this comes squarely back to me.

In my defense: some of my splurges were things like berries, which we will all eat and enjoy and, by all rights, could have been on the list. But for the price of an extra stop, I could have gotten a berry salad for $5 which would have had blackberries and strawberries too; and instead, for the convenience of only shopping at once store, I spent $8.48.

That drive is worth $3.50 to me. So, now I know.