I try to be a good planner. Sometimes I procrastinate (like this week) and end up annoyed at myself for spending more than I should.

Normally, I try to plan all of our meals for the month before making a large shopping trip at the beginning of each month. I use an Excel spreadsheet for both my meals and my shopping trip to ensure I’m getting the most bang for my buck.

I make it a game to save more than I spend on my Meijer receipts. For instance, one time I spent about $45 and saved about $75. That’s fun, right?

Well, I haven’t done our meal plan for September yet. It’s been a crazy week, with Luke spending a lot of time at the new church building, working on getting some rooms painted before Sunday’s service.

So, I went unprepared to Meijer today and spent around $30 and only saved about $13. Everything I bought was on sale, but for the first time in months I didn’t use a single coupon. How sad! Next time I will be better prepared. It’s a big responsibility being the person in charge of shopping within a budget!