Hi, my name is Dorena and I have a confession to make. I am a receipt hoarder! Shh! Don’t tell anyone. I don’t want A&E’s Hoarders to come find me. It is terrible! I can’t stop! I don’t know even know why I keep them, much less still have them! They just get thrown in my purse, then tossed on the counter and then dumped on top of my filing cabinet with all the junk mail. It’s time me and my addiction came face to face. I went into my closet, grabbed every single receipt, set them on the table and took a picture. This may be graphic, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I counted 60 total receipts. SIXTY! I knew it was bad, but not that bad. The furthest date was 4/26/11. That is almost six months ago. Sixty receipts in six months! That means 10 receipts a month. (Dang! I shopped that much?! See- this is good. It’s opening my eyes). Price check! If you want to know how much something costs, just send me an email.
Sadly, our grocery bill is high. For just the 2 of us and every other weekend, the four of us, it’s well over $500 a month! That is ridiculous! I thought (six months ago) by saving my receipts, I could go through and see what I was spending money on the most. We don’t buy snacks and we don’t eat cereal. I figure that’s the bulk of high grocery bills for families today. We do stock up and buy soft drinks at Sam’s, but that can’t be depleting the grocery bill.
My other goal was to see what I’m purchasing that is “convenient” and how I could make it at home, for less. I work outside the home and yes, at times it’s easier to just open the box and start cooking. It’s all a matter of being organized. If you plan for the week ahead, you can have your mixes or breakfast or lunch ready. Obviously, I have a way to go, but if it means it will cut my grocery bill in half, then I’m willing to try. My first stop was to confess. Now I can stop saving them and start going through them.
Here is an example of my price comparison. Store bought coffee creamer vs homemade coffee creamer:
Milk(Sam’s) $2.95 gallon.
There are 16 cups in a gallon, so I divided 2.95 by 16. We are going to round it to .19 cents a cup. The recipe needs 1.5 cups. That would be roughly . 28 cents.
Hill Country Sweet Condensed Milk $1.48 for 14 oz
Total homemade creamer for 32oz is $1.76
I found a receipt where I buy my Hill Country half and half creamer for $3.48 for 64oz. Divide that by 2 to get 32oz and it cost me $1.74.
Basically, it costs me .02 cents more to make my own homemade creamer. I think that I can handle that. It’s worth it. I know what’s in the ingredients when I make it homemade. This was just an example of what I’m going to be working on with my receipts. I hope it doesn’t take me six more months! If I come across any remarkable ideas and savings, believe me, I will let you know!