September grocery "exercise"

It occurred to me recently that I don't know how much money I spend on groceries for us; I think it might be well over $100 (maybe even $150) per week.  Couple this with the fact that I throw away an excessive amount of food and I'm sure I spend way too much on food.  This bugs me to no end, so I've decided to do something about it.

Photo courtesy of Flikr user Dan4th.

For September, I am going to save all of our grocery store receipts.  This is a fact-finding exercise and, as such, my intent is not to change my spending habits while doing it.  At the end of the month, I plan to categorize and tally up the receipts to see what I'm spending our money on.  [I'm not sure how accurate it will be because Tara's having jaw surgery soon and she won't be eating normally (and I'll be eating from the cupboards), but it'll be a start.  I may continue the exercise into October, if need be.]  

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ben_onthemove.

After I've done the receipt exercise, I need to figure out how to stop throwing away so much food.  Easier said than done, of course, but I think I probably buy too much with good intentions of using it up, but end up letting it go bad.  I already know that I should be planning out our meals and shopping instead of just going to the store and finding interesting stuff to buy.  Hopefully, after evaluating my spending habits, I'll have some insights that will lead to some changes.