I found your blog on a Google search this evening. My husband and I need to get better about grocery budgeting. One of the things confounding us is how to account for all the paper products, first aid, toiletries, etc. In general, I buy these things at the grocery store but the price and usage of them change much more than the groceries we eat. It also makes the budget very bumpy month to month. Sometimes I can get a good deal on toilet paper so buy as much as we can store. At other times I only buy what we need because I can not get the price I want. Any ideas?
Also, I am hitting the wall with meal planning. My husband requires a substantial portion of lean meat on the table nearly every evening and hates chicken. He does not like anything made in a slow cooker even though it keeps the house cooler. I do not eat the same thing more than once every two weeks when it comes to dinner (I'd rather not eat). In addition, we live in Phoenix, so when it is 110 I have to shop at least twice a week as things perish incredibly fast. Being pregnant, the fish available here is not much of an option due to mercury. The whole food aspect of homemaking is really bumming me out. At least when I didn't have a budget I could just go to the store and come back with whatever was on sale. These days nothing I want to eat is ever on sale.