Grocery Store Breakdown

No, I did not have a breakdown in the grocery store, although I was occasionally irritated by people parking their carts in the middle of an aisle in such a way that others with carts cannot pass them, while the offending person takes an inordinate amount of time choosing a bottle of salad dressing, oblivious. (Yet another instance of people failing to realize that others inhabit the planet. This is a major pet peeve of mine.)

Anyway, two nights ago I made one of my rare major grocery shopping trips. My usual trips involve stopping in when I need something specific or when I'm planning on actually cooking something, and just getting what I need right then plus a few other things, maybe. You know--the kind of trip where you just need a basket, not a cart. (This effectively avoids the above scenario where you can't push your cart around the carts of clueless others. Zipping around with a basket is much more efficient.) Every now and then, however, my kitchen reaches that near-empty point, where I've run out of just about everything and opening the fridge door and peering inside is just depressing. (There's something inherently comforting in looking at a full fridge and disheartening in looking at an empty one--don't you think?)

So, on Monday night, I ventured out to do some real shopping. I planned on spending about $70-80, which may not sound like much to some of you, considering I only do a major trip once every three to four weeks. But, I'm a single, relatively small person who eats out a lot--how many groceries could I need, really? That's the question I was asking myself when I exited the store 45 minutes later, having dropped about $130.

What I failed to remember--what I always fail to remember--is that I am a single, relatively small person who likes to indulge herself, and who also has three voracious animals who seem to never stop eating. Still, in the car on the way home, I wondered how I managed to spend almost twice the amount I had planned on spending. So, last night I got out the receipt and broke down the items I bought into categories, just to see where my money was going. Here are the results, in percentages*:

Cleaning products: 11%
Personal hygiene products: 8%
Sin items (beer, ciggs): 12%
Junk food: 7%
Condiments: 6%
Pet food and treats: 18%
Actual food: 40%

Hmm. I've always wondered why, even after a "major" trip, my fridge always seems to still look relatively bare, and this explains it--there's only about $40 of food in there. Very enlightening.

*Percentage may not add up to 100 due to rounding.