I usually avoid grocery shopping at all costs because it takes about an hour and I often spend more money than I was expecting to. Also, going by myself is kinda dull ha!

HOWEVER, today I decided that I needed to go get ingredients for dinners as well as snacks/breakfast for work. For the past few months, I have not been cooking much and buying pasta or frozen dinners daily, which is a bad habit. So, I made a list and went pretty soon after coming home – I would have gone straight from work, but I needed the reusable bags and wanted a snack first. I was on a mission to find the cheapest things that matched my list and not to add any impulse buys.

As I was driving over, I decided that I wanted to pay with the cash I received for babysitting last weekend (which meant my budget was about $100). I didn’t try to tally the food as I went, but just had it in mind for when I got to the register.

Right when I walked into Ralph’s, I became inspired because one of the dinner ingredients was on sale for buy one get one free 😮 It was as if the world was giving me a great start for a reason. I was smiling as I found the things on my list, and picked up some 99 cent/lb Spaghetti Squash (also on a major sale!!)

Dinners this week include: chicken tacos (with avocado, green bell peppers, and shredded cheese); spaghetti squash (with shrimp); zucchini pasta (with frozen veggies and a cream sauce); turkey burgers (with corn on the cob); and turkey chili (done in the crockpot with turkey burger patty meat and lentils).

The last fun find was salami-wrapped provolone 😀 I had meat and cheese slices on my list, but then I saw that these were on sale and there are 8 in each pack so I bought two! I am going to love eating these as a snack at work.

As I mentioned earlier, I had a budget of about $100 in mind so I would not have to spend too much from my paycheck. Wait for it…

The bill was $96 dollars!!!