By my age, this should have happened sooner....

So darned proud of myself right now. I'm finally learning (at my ripe young age) how to budget.

$42 in my checking account until my next payday (still 5 days away - hey, don't judge! It's been a busy visitor-filled, Packer-game goin' and Oktoberfest celebratin' month and all my bills are at least paid!) and no (and I mean almost NO) food in the house, I managed this:

For $26.41.

4 cans of varied Chunky/Progressive Soups
1 Lean Pockets (2 breakfasts right there!)
2 other frozen meals
1 nice loaf of light rye bread
1/2 lb. of Cheddar cheese
3/4 lb. of Honey ham
2 cans of cat food (Oy deserves to eat too)
Cat litter - the good, clumping kind (trust me, would have gone without if I could!)
Bag of garden salad
Package of grape tomatoes (both now combined in a big salad bowl in the fridge)
3-pack of microwave popcorn
A 2-ltr of diet Sprite
1 small bottle of wine

Daaamn. :-) Who knew $26 could stretch that far if you're really trying? This will feed me for over a week! [disclaimer: already had milk and cereal in the house. Wine may already be gone.]

I sense my grocery bills becoming much, much smaller in the future (visualizing "The More You Know" NBC PSA rainbow/star now).

*grin*

And now my car's been fed, too, which means I can still get to work and back in order to collect that next paycheck.

Ah, the things that make us proud these days.

(with a special shout out to friends and family; you know who you are) :-)