Year Without Walmart Update

Sooooooo, I was doing so good. From January to about May I didn't go to Walmart but I think one time? Well, I have gone about three times over the summer. Twice because my father (who I drive on errands because of his vision) insisted on going. But at least once I went on my own volition. I admit, I was lured by the back to school prices. I happened to be in Mississippi where the state tax is lower and had an opportunity to be child free during back to school shopping. I was weak, I caved. But I did save...

Overall, it's not been hard to avoid it. I use Target, grocery stores, Amazon (GREAT prices on  Gluten Free foods if you need them! Organic too.) Wal-Mart is fairly easy to avoid.

Will I go back to shopping there when this experiment is over? Probably. But probably not at the frequency I was before. I buy less STUFF by not going there because I focus on locally owned grocery stores. I'd rather put my money in a family owned local business than a huge conglomerate. I'm blessed with a variety of stores to choose from, I realize not everyone has that choice. I appreciate the deals WM affords people, I just wanted to see if I COULD do it. Admittedly, it's not easy and I've not gone COMPLETELY without shopping at WM, but I've done pretty good.

Thanks for following my journey! I'll do a final update at the end of the year.

~~Amy

Year Without Walmart Confessional

I caved...I made it to February!! But I've had one cave on my Year Without Wal-Mart.... I knew it would come to this. My Dad needed to go to Wm and I knew it would be hard to withstand. I actually would have made it through the entire store if not for three things:

* Rice cakes. Eli eats these like crazy and I was out. At my last grocery run to Winn Dixie they had NO regular rice cakes, only the tiny small ones, and he only eats the White Cheddar regular rice cakes. Walmart had them...so I caved for my baby.

*Reese's Puffs and Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch cereals.....Harrison has been asking for those and apparently they are 5 bucks or so at most 'regular' grocery stores. So when I walked by them at 2.98 a piece...yeah, I couldn't pass it up.

So those were my weaknesses....other than that I have held strong and not purchased anything else at Walmart!! So I consider it going well!

Now if I can keep my Dad out of there and encourage him to go elsewhere, I'll be okay! One slip up in 6 weeks isn't too bad...I'll keep plugging along!

For the record I've not noticed a major difference in the cost of our groceries. We are still getting the food we normally do (other than the above things I  mentioned). I use coupons when I have them for items I need, I shop at Winn Dixie for things on sale to get the fuel perks. Overall, not noticing a huge difference in life without Wal-Mart.

Interesting...



~~Amy