Will I make my grocery budget this month?

Hmmmmmmmmm. Not sure. I guess I didn't think about how tight $300 was when I decided to include things like paper products, personal products and diapers in it. Wow. I have only $17.17 remaining for the next 11 days.

Fortunately, we'll be eating at my mother-in-law's tonight. At my parents' houses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (although I need to bring a shrimp platter which cost $9.99). Then, on the 27th we leave for Texas.

I won't need to do a big shop before the end of the year. I've got plenty of food for the meals, but need some other stuff. Here is my list . . .

Milk -- $2.59
Hot dogs -- $2.00
Graham crackers -- $1.50
Pretzels -- $2.50
Chips -- $4.00
Vinegar -- $2.00
Syrup -- $2.50
Shrimp platter -- $9.99
TOTAL -- $27.08

This also doesn't take into account that we are out of bananas, grapes and almost out of apples. Many of the snack foods are for our trip to Texas to keep the kids occupied. We might have to see if we can get by without the hot dogs, vinegar and syrup. That will cut $6.50 out. We might be able to avoid buying milk too. We've got 1 and 3/4 gallons in the fridge. We should be able to make it on that. That would keep us in our budget. Barely.

My miscellaneous budget is another story. It's gone. And more. If I hadn't done Christmas cards though, we'd be okay. And, I did buy some things we didn't really need. It doesn't include gas though. I've bought about $150 worth of gas gift cards this month. I buy them through my son's school and we get some money back on them towards tuition. We'll use all of that this month with the holiday traveling we'll be doing. We'll spend more than that because of trip to Texas.

Oh well, my budgets were a nice idea. Better luck next month. My goal for 2009 is to not use my credit card (except for things that only take credit card or online purchases). Hopefully I'll be able to make that goal!