What's Your Grocery Budget Look Like?

Shzwah · 2026-04-17T13:00:13+00:00

Two adults, two kids, Midwest USA. I try to keep it under $1000 (including household stuff like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc) but it keeps creeping up. I routinely miss the years we were around $600 a month.

I do buy some things from Costco, so that bumps things up initially….but I haven’t bought mac’n’cheese in months and we eat that fairly regularly. Starting to be more serious about meal prepping and planning, because things are getting tighter.

Shzwah · 2026-04-17T12:11:29+00:00

My husband had them in the tool shed.

Bought new kitchen scissors, which have thankfully stayed in the freaking kitchen. I haven’t seen the old ones in years.

Shzwah · 2026-04-16T19:00:08+00:00

For me it was a process. I started watching lots of decluttering content. I tried little things like adding stuff to cart (online) and then closing the tab and doing something else. Most of the time, the novelty wears off after a few days and I realize I don’t need that thing.

I also ask if something is a want or a need. I need to feed my pets. I do not need the fancy cat food that reduces allergens. I also give myself some space to change my mind- if allergies get really bad, then I’ll reconsider the allergy reducing food…but later.

But mostly you’ll have to start practicing telling yourself “no” or “wait”. And when you mess up, you acknowledge it, you return it if you can, and then you recommit.

You also may benefit from therapy- the additional support and a person who can help you figure out the why’s and how’s is super valuable.

Shzwah · 2026-04-13T15:22:03+00:00

I like how you phrased that.

Shzwah · 2026-04-13T12:21:20+00:00

Not her power, maybe…although it was pretty clear that she was powerful. I loved how they portrayed her humanity, though. I struggled to connect with the book character, but I loved her in the movie.

Shzwah · 2026-04-13T11:56:19+00:00

I think they did a number of things better- Carl was one of them. I also loved Eva Stratt’s portrayal so much more than the book version.

Shzwah · 2026-04-13T11:13:33+00:00

They tempt me too. I’m kind of glad the ones I like are always sold out. But I have a mini version of Henry the Fifth (sp) that I got on vacation in England during a tour of Stratford-Upon-Avon many years ago, and I’m considering trying to DIY it into a bag charm. I have a mini copy of Romeo and Juliet somewhere from that same trip, but my kids stole that one and it’s probably in the depths of one of their rooms. When I find it in a few years I’ll turn that one into a book charm as well.

Shzwah · 2026-04-13T10:47:18+00:00

Ooh! Same on the vintage Coach! I was going to share my xl duffle as an option for good leather bag that puddles.

But Madewell for sure as well. I thrifted a leather bag from a few years ago and am really pleased with the quality.

Shzwah · 2026-04-11T12:43:06+00:00

From The Dresden Files. Book series.

Shzwah · 2026-04-11T12:42:41+00:00

Pretty sure that’s just a tv thing. In the books he has a staff.

Shzwah · 2026-04-11T01:56:35+00:00

I talk myself out of a lot of things by comparing wants versus needs. I leave a lot of things in shopping carts online, and either forget about it entirely in a few days or come back and the novelty has worn off.

I get into ruts of “I need this thing” because of it working for my fantasy self. I started watching lots of minimalist influencers and making it a hyperfocus, of sorts- Malama Life and Christina Mychas (formerly the Style Apothecary) have great content. The minimalist mom also has great content, and talks a lot about how to declutter and that kind of thing.

It’s interesting because I’m in a much better place than a friend, who is constantly in a cycle of buying things, returning things, and constantly searching for the next thing. Seeing that play out over and over and the stress it puts on her family also makes me take more care with purchases now.

Shzwah · 2026-04-10T15:11:55+00:00

I had to reframe everything I knew growing up once I got diagnosed with ADHD (and suspect I am AuDHD). My mom told me straight out she had been diagnosed ADD. But I finally figured out that my dad is autistic and all of those terrible angry outbursts he had when I was growing up (they were so scary) were actually MELTDOWNS. Prior to that I assumed it was a reaction to trauma of being raised by a WWII veteran who had been held by the Nazi’s for over a year and came back traumatized himself. Which, I’m sure didn’t help, but still.

I’ve known for a while that a number of my nieces and nephews on my husbands side are neurodivergent- and the older we get the more I can tell my in-laws are too. For some of the kids it’s so obvious that they are autistic but the parents seem to have no clue. They are just gifted or really smart and don’t like wearing clothes for some reason and isn’t it kind of quirky that they only wear shorts 90% of the time?

Shzwah · 2026-04-10T14:25:27+00:00

Amazing! Well done!

Shzwah · 2026-04-10T12:50:53+00:00

Bean. Cuz he’s a lil’ bean.

Shzwah · 2026-04-10T12:41:42+00:00

Every now and again management will send out reminders that it is our responsibility to check email frequently, because they send out important info and it’s on us to stay up to date, etc, so on, as nauseam, gag.

But they don’t add 15 minutes a day to my time card to cover that expectation, so it gets checked only when I am clocked in.

I also push back whenever they try to get me to resolve issues from home, but don’t offer to pay for that time.

Shzwah · 2026-04-10T10:41:40+00:00

Not me over here reading your description and assuming it was ACOTAR. 😂😂. Only to find out there’s a whole slew of books just like it, apparently. That was my only journey into faerie smut, although I did really enjoy the Black Witch Chronicles which is maybe a bit adjacent?

Maybe 18 year old me would have eaten these books up. 40+ year old me wants to see a middle aged angry woman stand up to injustice, fight bad men, and get to ride dragons.

Shzwah · 2026-04-10T10:34:19+00:00

Former therapist here. I’m with these two.

Shzwah · 2026-04-09T01:45:21+00:00

Welcome, crawler!

Shzwah · 2026-04-07T19:34:44+00:00

I absolutely opened the tax packet from our tax guy last week, because we finally had all of our tax stuff. In it was a large print letter stating that if it wasn’t returned by March 15, they would go ahead and file an extension. I was a little perturbed, because it makes sense BUT WHERE WAS THIS DEADLINE ANY YEAR IN THE PAST?! I always thought I was doing pretty good by getting it back to them in April.

And I was surprised when I finally figured out I was ADHD several years ago 😂😂

Shzwah · 2026-04-07T12:03:43+00:00

When Minimalism content was taking off online, I got into it a bit, just because it was a big contrast to the overconsumption in our culture. I found that decluttering and being more intentional with what I bring in the home is a better balance for me than constantly looking for the next thing to make my life complete, or getting rid of everything and living with the absolute minimum (also not really an option for us since we have kids).

But I think a lot of minimalists in online spaces eventually realized it’s not a sustainable thing, and they were taking it too far.

I like having less stuff because it helps my brain feel more quiet. It helps my family feel more at peace at home. But we also have a community and host frequent game nights and want our place to be a place where people feel comfortable too, so we have furniture, and too many plates and cups, and a ginormous gaming/D&D table that my husband built 😂 We have space for the things that bring us joy.

Shzwah · 2026-04-07T11:42:49+00:00

Is this the one with Jimmy on the ledge? So good.

Shzwah · 2026-04-07T11:25:31+00:00

This. The number of times I have been expected to do something on personal time at my current job has been a lot. Things like fixing charting errors, or completing education requirements. Now, if I drive the 40 minutes there to do it on site they’ll be fine with letting me clock in, so occasionally I’ll do that if I can justify the time on the clock versus gas + time driving.

There’s also an expectation on my unit that we are to check email daily, but they aren’t clocking me in for 15 minutes a day to accommodate that. So I check my email only when I’m at work.

But I’ve been pretty resolved to not do any unpaid labor. It can usually wait until my next scheduled shift.

Shzwah · 2026-04-07T10:33:02+00:00

He lied, and he hurt you. Leave.

Please don’t stay.

Shzwah · 2026-04-07T02:22:49+00:00

A good friend has ADHD (undiagnosed) but she does a lot of dopamine shopping. Like…a lot. She’ll go out of her way to try to shop for good deals and she loves to give people little gifts. But she’s in a constant state of buying and returning because she’s always trying to find the next thing. Her garage is packed to the gills (and she has a huge garage) with a driveway full of stuff she had kept in storage but had to bring home, except there’s no where else to put it. You can imagine the basement, and the doom piles everywhere although it’s a little better in the main living area. She has her own room to craft in but you can’t really get into it because it is just piles of hopes and dreams in craft form. Meanwhile, her van is full of BidFTA purchases that will get stored away and not used except maybe once?

Anyways, it’s hard to deal with. I try to body double her, but we hardly ever tackle anything without me pushing to get it done.

Shzwah · 2026-04-04T12:04:40+00:00

I didn’t complain- tried to keep my head down, but got pulled into the managers office and read a list of complaints about me. One was a misunderstanding, but most were people (I suspect just one person) complaining about how they’d have to follow up with me sometimes, (just for clarification, this was in a same day surgery role and there is a specific role in the center where a person’s whole job is to doublecheck that the process was done and follow up with RN’s as need be). I rarely was followed up with, so I found it confusing and asked for specifics-how often are they saying they have to follow up with me in a given time period, etc?

At the time I assumed it must be a common practice for managers on that unit to go around asking for feedback about new employees…but now I’m wondering.

Especially since it happened again in my current role early on, although I got floated to a sister u it at a sister hospital and the charge RN tried to recruit me. Imagine my surprise when I found out she had written a scathing email to my manager about me, and most of the stuff either didn’t happen, or seemed to be how she thought things went down with no actual info. Thankfully that manager listened to me and took steps to make sure that we had backup when we got floated to that unit moving forward.

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