Save money by not going to the store?

I suppose most people know this, but I really wanted to share my experiences with our readers today. Here’s the number one way I believe Chris and I could save money in our house and you guys could probably save some too if you have this problem:

Don’t go to the store for one item.

The reason: You will NEVER leave with just one item.

With the exeption of just a couple of times, most of the time when we go to the grocery store for JUST a gallon of milk or JUST a loaf of bread or something similar, we always find ourselves purchasing a lot more than we had planned on buying. Most of the time, we always go without a list when it’s a “quick trip” for just a couple of things and I think that’s where we get in trouble.

Last night we went to Wal-Mart to waste some time while we were waiting for our house to finish being “bug bombed.” Well, we actually needed milk and sour cream (I really wanted to make tacos for dinner the next night). Because we were wasting time we shopped around the store and also remembered that we didn’t have any shredded cheese or Crystal Lite. An hour later and now we’ve bought that plus Halloween candy and vanilla extract. That wasn’t one of the bad times either.

I suppose if we could just hold off until we needed to actually go grocery shopping it wouldn’t be so bad. However, when you’re completely out of milk there can be an issue. I can’t cook a lot of things without milk and every morning for breakfast Chris and I usually make a bowl of cereal…which isn’t so great without milk.

I find another way to possibly avoid the potential problems that can arise when you go shopping for one item is to stick to your guns. Write exactly what you need down on a list and get only that. Keep yourself from getting distracted by end caps and other promotional eye catching products.

Or…just don’t let me do the grocery shopping, haha.