I did the last shopping of the month, and the year today. After 6 weeks on the $25 per person challenge I spent... get ready for it... $131.48! (for two people)

I used to shop like that every week, so I feel I did pretty good on the reduced budget for as long as I did. And, for this trip there were some unusual big-ticket items, like the $27 ham that was on sale nearly half off at $12.65. My husband's hard salami was on sale, there's another $11 (for a month worth of cold cuts)....

This is my 7th week for the $25 per person grocery challenge, and I'm not sure how much longer I can do this. It was fun at first but lately I find myself thinking more and more about about the money. Should I get the 88 cent cream cheese from store A or buy the brand name at store B for 99 cents? Should I get the $1.99 tortillas I usually buy, or the 99 cent store brand which is smaller? Does it matter? Is ten cents worth laying awake at night? I'm making this harder than it needs to be.
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The store sales are not looking that good this week. There seems to be a lot of frozen junk food and convenience products that I don't use, and very little "real" food on special. In addition to the fresh vegetables we need, I'm going to look for sales on fresh spinach, hot cocoa, flour, canned milk, sesame crackers, and frozen fish. I have a coupon for the fish, so if its really on sale I'll get it. Sometimes they advertise prices that are the stores regular price, and put a big sign...

$25 Grocery Challenge for December, week 2

I'm a little late shopping this week because we went out of town with friends over the weekend.

bread 2.79
candy canes .89
barley 1.29
black tea 3.99
orange juice 1.18
orange juice 1.18
grape juice 1.28
grape juice 1.28
tomato paste .59
tomato paste .59
cereal 3.29
crackers .79
sloppy joe seasoning 1.19
ice cream 3.98
cheddar...

I ended last week with $14 left of my allowance to spend on the Thanksgiving turkey. Wednesday morning I went and picked it up, it came to $11.46. I was shocked. I honestly expected it to cost much more. I also had to get milk (again!) and that cost $3.86 with a coupon that was on the carton, making my total for the day $15.32.

I went over by $1.32. I did not count the $40 or so worth of loss leaders I bought the week before the holiday. We did not use any of it in November, and...