Grocery Roundup, Feb 26, and a PS on camp

Before I write this week's grocery roundup, I have to tell you what Josie said when I talked to her about not going to that camp. It was late, and I went into her rom (she has no set bedtime - as long as she's in her room, she can stay up as late as she wants, although we do occasionally have to remind her at about 10:30 that it's time to turn out her light soon) to talk about what we had decided. She agreed that it was ridiculously expensive, and then asked, 'Is that more than it cost when we went to Hershey Park for my birthday last year?' (We live an hour and a half from Hershey, so it was a day trip.) I cracked up! Hell, we could go to Disney for a week, airfare included, for $2k! When I told her that, her jaw dropped. I guess that it just goes to show that kids, no matter how smart they are, lose all track of how expensive things are once the cost gets over $100 or so! We decided that since she already is signed up for two weeks of 'fun' camp at the most awesome camp in the world we'll maybe do another week at the community college as a reward for all her hard work / to make up for the crappy year she's had, and maybe let her go to the sleepaway camp run by the regional goup that the church we attend belongs to that comes really highly recommended (and is pretty cheap, I believe). That will keep her busy, get her much the same experience, and yet keep her in a place and with people that will more likely share our values and, um, not be horrendous snobs.

That having been said, on to the grocery roundup! This week, savingswise, was abysmal. I have come to the realization recently that with the winter doldrums at their peak, I simply cannot make myself spend a lot of time cooking or even thinking about cooking, so I've been buying several frozen meal kits recently, and have been a lot happier. Unfortunately, they are almost all made for two people, so I have to buy two, and then sometimes I only cook half of the second one, since the kids won't eat two adult-sized portions. Still, that means $14 a meal, plus the bread or whatever else I make to go with it. I will have to return to more basic cooking soon, but really, I simply can't at the moment. Blah.

I have also returned to shopping weekly rather than bi-monthly. I was simply having to drop in for doo-dads and produce too often, and it was leading to extraneous purchases I wouldn't have made otherwise. This way, I'm in and out in less than an hour, which when I was doing two weeks' at once, was impossible.

Coupons Used: 17
Coupon Savings: $12
Bonus Store Coupons: $5
Club Card Savings: $13.34
Total Saved: $30.34
Savings Percent: 14%
Gas Points: 40

I'm telling you, people, coupons have been slim pickins lately. There have been a lot for things that I don't use, or pages where there aren't coupons at all, but rather advertisements for sales at various stores, or for take-out places. When my laptop was dying last week, I was too worried about losing everything I had to bother getting coupons online. Now that the new laptop is set up, it's time to download the coupon printer and start again, because 14% savings is pathetic compared to what I've gotten in the past. I really want to be more in the 25-30% range.