End of November: How'd I do with the grocery budget?

In short: I did pretty darn good! Our total food budget is $600 a month, which is $500 for groceries, toiletries, and cleaning products, and $100 for eating out and fast food. We DID get fast food a few times this month. Due to a death in the family, we were on the road a lot and we did get fast food 4 times (2 Sunday afternoon pizzas, 1 trip to Popeye's, and a trip to McDonalds). I'm not real proud of that, but it happens, and I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Honestly... 1 meal out per week is still amazing compared to how we were eating even three months ago.

We ended up spending a total of $635 for the month for food. I'm very satisfied with that number, because I feel like I'm doing a great job of shopping smarter, and I can see the difference in our bank account. We only dipped into the red one time this month, and then were back out within a day or two. We used to hit the red within the first week of the month, and we pretty much stayed there all month long. So scary.

I'm also lucky that we didn't host Thanksgiving, so while I spent $25 on supplies for dessert I brought to the meal, and we spent another $35 on ingredients to cook my parents a meal while we were visiting, it's still probably less than we would have spent for the entire holiday meal. This price also includes a frozen turkey that I picked up for $3 the day after Thanksgiving, to use for Christmas which we WILL be hosting.

All in all, I'm very happy with the stockpile I'm building, and the prices I'm learning to pay for food and other items we use around here. I organized our bathroom stockpile and we have 3 bottles of body wash, 5 men's deodorant, 3 adult toothpastes, 2 kids' toothpastes, 1 bottle of shampoo, and some other odds & ends piled up for the future. I liked seeing it all together, and knowing that nobody would run out of body wash for a long, long time!

My Sunday Rite Aid haul

Let me just say... DRAMA! I realized that I didn't get the full P&G circular in my sunday paper, so I had to run to CVS and use some ECBs to buy 2 papers so I'd have the 2 circulars.

Next I went to Rite Aid and took a while to get my 2 transactions together. Once I checked out with my first order, only $2 +UP rewards printed. Uh oh... I very quickly realized I'd bought the wrong Gillete razors. UGH! That $10 in +UP rewards was worth fighting for, so I very apologetically returned the wrong razors and did another transaction.

After all that, here's my breakdown...

2 x Gillette Fusion Proglide razors, normally 12.99/for sale 9.99

-2 $4 off coupons

1 DayQuil & 1 NyQuil 24 ct., normally 7.49, sale $4

-2 $1.50 off coupons

-$5/$25 coupon

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$11.98

earned $12 in +UP rewards

then...

4x Gillette Clearshield Deodorant, normally 4.99, sale 3.50

- b2g1 free coupon

- $2 coupon (on stick #4)

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$8.50

earned $4 in +UP rewards

**I really SHOULD have done this scenario twice in one deal and used another $5/$25 off the order, making my total around $4 OOP. Oh well.**

Total OOP: $20.48

+UP Rewards earned: $16

TOTAL PRICE: $4.48

I'm not entirely sure how much of this goes towards Gift of Savings... I *think* it's computed by the sale price of your items, but your coupons and the +UP rewards you earn don't count. If so,

I believe that's about $41 towards Gift of Savings, which gets me $5 back. Seriously, this is nuts. How do they stay in business? I am guessing it's just that the people who pay no mind to sales or +UP rewards trump all the super shoppers who really work the deals.

ETA: Well that explains that... GoS this year looks to be subtracting +UP rewards and Rite Aid coupons and possibly manufacturers coupons too. It'll take a lot longer to get to those reward levels! Still worth entering your receipts though. You never know!

Know what was fun today? We arrived home from our lovely Thanksgiving at my parents' house, and my husband said "we need hand soap for the bathroom." I picked up the Rite Aid circular, checked my coupon organizer, and bam, Dial hand soap was on sale for $.99 and I had a $1 off coupon. You need hand soap? Here's some free hand soap. It felt strangely powerful.

If you have a Rite Aid near you, there look to be some good deals to be had starting 11/28 as the Sunday paper will have a Proctor & Gamble coupon insert, which combines with a promo at RA. Purchasing $30 worth of items gets you $10 off at NFLshop.com, and buying $50 worth of items gets you $25 off at NFLshop.com.

You'll also be able to submit your receipt towards Rite Aid's Gift of Savings, which nets you a $10 gift card, AND you can then submit your receipt to get a Proctor & Gamble coupon book. Check out the Krazy Coupon Lady for more info and some scenarios.

I give thanks to CVS today!

Good old CVS and their inexplicable ECB 3-day deals! Today I got:

1 Herbasine Shampoo

1 Herbashine Conditioner

1 Colgate Sensitive toothpaste

1 Old Spice Fresh deodorant

1 Eucerin lotion

1 Listerine 3 pocket pack

1 Twix king size

1 Carmex lip balm

1 Advil PM 4 ct.

1 Renpure (sp?) conditioner

All of these items were paid back 100% with ECBs, and with coupons, they ended up paying me $7.30 to take all of these items home. Also the Renpure (sp?) has a rebate peelie on it for a full refund, so once I get that I'll have made $12.29 plus got all of those items. And there were plenty more ECB deals I passed up. Woo hoo!

Happy Thanksgiving to ME!

Mailing in some rebates today...

My mailman will be so excited!

$20 Olay rebate received check 12/16

$10 Sonicare rebate

$11.99 World's Best Cat Litter Money Back guarantee (I wanted to love this product, but the cats track it all around the house and I'm constantly sweeping it up! Ugh... but if you'd like to try it yourself, here's a link to get a free 7 or 8 pound bag) received check 12/14

Other Rite Aid rebates I put in on the site yesterday...

$20 Olay Regenerist SCR

$20 Sonicare SCR- Essence model

$2 Motrin PM SCR received 12/14

I'll continue to add rebates to this post and cross them off when I receive the checks. Hopefully I can track them better this way!

11/30- RenPure rebate offer, $4.99 (CVS 11/25)

Super Sunday Rite Aid haul!!

Olay Regenerist Microsculpting Cream 22 (reg. 29.99)

Olay Regenerist Nighttime Elixir 22 (reg 29.99)

Olay Regenerist Daily Cleanser 7.99

Olay Ribbons Body Wash 7.49

Motrin PM 20 ct. 4 (reg. 5.99)

-------------------

$63.48 (regularly $81.45)

-$19 in coupons

-$2 SCR (Motrin)

- $20 SCR (Olay)

- $20 PG or Olay rebate

------------------

$2.28 OOP

Wahl hair cutting kit 22.49 (normally 24.99)

Sonicare Essence electric toothbrush 44.99 (normally 79.99)

-----------------

$67.48 (regularly $104.98)

-$19 in coupons and tier discounts

- $20 SCR (toothbrush)

- 10 Sonicare rebate

-----------------

$18.48 OOP (and I NEEDED the hair cutting kit, I wasn't buying it as a deal...)

So in final, the regular price was $186.43, sale price was $130.96, and I paid $20.76!

It's shopping day!

And you know what that means... I'm about to ramble on at length about how much MONEY I saved!

Every week I seem to spend less and less, and I love that. Today I hit 3 stores and spent under $100.

Rite Aid

I'm super proud of my RA haul this week, not because I got stuff free, but because I saved money on items I actually need this week. Most of these were on the week's grocery list, and by hitting up RA and stacking coupons, sales, and +UP rewards I did really well!

Rice Chex, normally $4.49

sale price: $2 each plus $1 +UP wyb2

minus $1 printable coupon

final OOP: $3 for 2 boxes ($1.50 each)

Glad trash bags, normally $8.39

sale price: $6.99

minus .50 VV rewards coupon

minus .75 man. coupon

final OOP: $5.74

Ziploc freezer bags, normally $3.99

sale price: $1.99 each

minus $1/2 manf. coupon

final OOP: $2.98

Pull-Ups Night Time, normally $11.99

sale price: $8.99

minus $2 off printable

final OOP: $5.99

Blistex lip balm, normally $2.99 and $1.69

sale: buy 2 for $3

minus $1 manuf. coupon

final OOP: $2

My math is a little wonky here, but I ended up spending $15.06 and getting $5 +UP rewards for next time, so I can count that as $10.06 for the trip! Total savings (not counting the +UP rewards) was $27.31!

Shaws

I spent $65.87, and I saved $17.70 with coupons and $15.43 with store sales. Total savings $32.53!

Sudbury Farms

I went here only to get some cheap chicken breasts ($1.99/lb) but then remembered that I forgot shredded cheese at Shaw's so I grabbed some. I spent $11.77 and saved $10.84.

Total money spent today: $92.70 ($70.68 saved!)

Menu Planning Monday!

Last week I KNEW we wouldn't be home for 7 nights of dinner. Knew it when I planned out the week. Yet I still managed to plan for 7 meals. So with that said, this week I'm only planning for 5 meals, hoping that'll work just fine. Here's my super exciting Menu Plan Monday breakdown!

Monday: weeknight chili (Cook's Illustrated slow cooker recipe)

Tuesday: macaroni & cheese (rolled from last week)

Wednesday: smothered pork chops (rolled from last week)

Thursday: chicken in wine sauce (Firefighter's Cookbook)

Friday: tacos

This was my set-up for meal planning and shopping planning this morning. Actually, set-up #2: the first set up included a spilled tea accident which explains why you're not seeing a tablecloth. Anyway, there you see scissors, the grocery list we add to during the week, my purple coupon organizer, my netbook so I can check sites for sales & coupons I forgot I had, this week's coupon inserts, my recipe/insert binder, store flyers for the week, and my hole puncher. Phew. Nobody ever said saving money was easy!

The second month of my budgeting adventure is teaching me that I am way, way off on some figures. For instance, gas. I budgeted $60 a month and have spent almost twice that. And Doctor bills... I just assumed that other than the rare office visit co-pay we'd have none, so I didn't budget it in. And this month alone we've spent $330 on medical bills. Oops. $400 for a unexpected flight to Florida to visit family in February... oh, yeah.

But as far as grocery budgeting, we're really doing well. So far this month, $294. Last month, $364. September... I don't even have the patience to do the math but I'm sure it was horrifying. So I can see it paying off, but we're not ending at 0 every month because of these bills I wasn't expecting.

After this month ends I'm going to see if $150/month can be adjusted downwards. Some days, I think we could do it.

It's Wednesday, or as I know it, Cheap Milk Day. Unfortunately, today is the last Cheap Milk Day because the long-range sale at the store (where every day is a big sale on one particular item) ends this week. Goodbye, Cheap Milk Day. I shall never forget you, nor your $2.29/gallon local milk, or your Double Dollar Coupon Tuesdays, or your 44 Cents a Pound Bananas on mondays. I will weep for the loss of you, my sweet pet. I can only hope that your owners choose to let you give me some OTHER great deal in the upcoming weeks... otherwise, I really have no reason to shop at your store.

Sniffle.

So Cheap Milk Day brought me in the store, and Women's Night Out at church kept me there. See, we're having a huge church fair this weekend, and tonight there's a WNO to have the ladies get together and price items and work on various booths. I had won a Sabra Hummus House Party, and I decided that the best use of my coupons and freebies was to bring items as snacks for WNO tonight. I purchased 4 tubs of hummus and 1 bag of Stacy's pita chips, all free with the coupons from House Party. I'll set these out along with more coupons for my church-y lady friends tonight, and I hope they'll love the hummus as much as I do, since it's my favorite brand.

I'm also baking for the aforementioned church fair, but I needed something I could prepare in advance and keep in the fridge, since we'll be out of town for the next two days. I currently have amaretto chocolate cake balls and mint oreo balls chilling in the fridge, waiting for their eventual swim in chocolate coating later today.

So $17.40 down the drain today, though only $7 of it was for my immediate family, and the rest was for church. Can't feel bad about that!

The lesser of... well, a lot of evils.

I've been doing a lot of blog reading lately, mostly blogs about frugal living, or meal planning, or saving money as a family. Today I spent a lot of time reading through 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget. This family of 4 first set out on an experiment to eat only "real food"- no refined grains or sweeteners, no packaged foods with more than 5 ingredients on the label, no deep fried or "fast" foods, only locally raised meats- for 100 days. After that, they decided to re-pledge, but this time doing so on a grocery budget of $125 a week. The idea boggles my mind- that it can really be done that cheaply, and I wonder how far $125 would stretch out here in metro Boston.

Reading her blog got me thinking about the food choices our family has made in the past couple of months, since starting our budgeting journey. When I was growing up, we never had junk food in the house. A bag of chips was a VERY rare treat, and it was usually gone within 12 hours of the grocery shopping trip. My mother made all of our meals from scratch, and if we had a dessert, it was home made too. I was probably in my teens before I opened a box of cake mix- it's just not how Mom does things.

And so for the past 9+ years of my marriage, I have tried to avoid a lot of processed foods. But this whole budgeting thing has forced me to practically do a 180. A lot of the recipes I make include a can or two of condensed cream soups. I've been buying refrigerated Pillsbury type croissants, frozen pizzas... and many more boxed mixes. So while on one hand the four of us are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables than ever before, I wonder if what I'm saving in money, I'm wasting with "unhealthy" menu choices.

I was listening to a piece on NPR recently where they said "if you want a treat, you can have it, as long as you make it yourself." We've certainly driven down THAT road lately. We've made lots of chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread, and we've even started using the bread machine again. No more ice cream! No more donuts or Munchkins! No soda!

I'm on the fence. Are we OK where we're at, or do I need to balance the menu more? Sure, you can always make your meals healthier... but at this point, do I NEED to? Am I happy with how my family has been eating?

So many things to think about today...

Monday Shopping Day was a success!

I normally grocery shop on Tuesdays, but some appointments tomorrow meant that I needed to do it today instead, with Mia in tow. I was worried how well she'd do, considering that I needed to make 3 stops, but she behaved SO well. It's nice to have a positive outcome!

First, Bed Bath & Beyond for some k-cups (practically the last luxury I have!)

2 boxes of K Cups, with $5 off $15 or more coupon, and $1 off K-cups coupon= $14.98 ($6 saved)

Next, Sudbury Farms, where my biggest purchase was a 8.5 lb pork loin that the butcher trimmed into a roast and chops for me. That saved me an immense amount of $$ over the cuts in the butcher's case, which were labeled at $5.95/lb (and I paid $1.99/lb for the same thing!)= $21.01 ($26.98 saved)

Finally, Shaws, where I do the bulk of my shopping. I had a $5 off catalina from last week, and laundry detergent was Buy 1, Get 2 Free. I also earned my free turkey!! = $81.68 ($35.80 saved)

I still need to make a milk run on Wednesday, but for this week: $117.67 spent, $68.78 saved!

Menu Planning Monday!

It's Menu Planning Monday- let's do this! We have two grocery stores in town. Sudbury Farms (which is a Roche Bros. store) is having a meat stock-up sale, so I'll be heading there for 1.99/lb boneless pork loin, and .44/lb bananas today. The rest of my shopping will be at Shaw's as usual. I do label meals by day, but in reality, we switch them up depending on what's happening every night.

Monday- salisbury steaks (left over meal from last week, since I usually shop on Tuesdays)

Tuesday- bayou roast pork

Wednesday- frozen pizza (woot!)

Thursday- slow cooker weeknight chili

Friday- chicken marsala (e-mealz)

Saturday- smothered pork chops

Sunday- mac & cheese

Monday- leftovers

There were a lot of great coupons out this week, but not many that I'll be needing to shop, so hopefully my short shopping list will help with saving $$ this week. I'm also going to try to run to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up some Chai Latte k-cups that seem to be out of stock everywhere. Hopefully they'll have them... Tom's been mooning over them for a week! Wish me luck!

$66 for $3 OOP at Rite Aid

It's been a really rough week. I did end up buying a coffee & bagel at Dunkin' on Friday night... it was my dinner, and I needed the caffeine for the drive. But other than that and the pizza for lunch the other day, I think we're doing OK, considering.

Oh, and Tom ran to Shaw's to buy some stuff to make his famous comfort food favorite, macaroni & cheese, last night. I warned him I wasn't at all in the mood to cook and even though I suggested Chinese take-out, he cooked anyway. He's such a good guy.

After church today, I'm going to drown my sorrows at Rite Aid, where I'm hoping they'll end up paying ME to shop there. It happens! There are some great Rite Aid deals this week. In case you're curious, here's my plan:

Garnier $5 +up reward when you spend $15 on Fructis, Nutrisse, Herbashine, or Nutritioniste

Herbashine haircolor $5.99

-$3 printable

-$2 video values coupon

Herbashine haircolor $5.99

-$3 printable

- $3 coupon in Sunday paper

Fructis Anti-Dandruff Shampoo $3.99

- $1 printable

- $2 video values coupon

- $1 coupon in Sunday paper

OOP price: .99, earn $5 +up reward= moneymaker!

Nivea Bodywash $1 +up reward when you buy 1

sale price $3.99

-$3 off 1 Nivea Men's bodywash printable

OOP price: .99, earn $1 +up reward = free!

Osteo Bi-Flex $2 +up reward when you buy 2

sale price: b1g1 free

-$3 video values coupon

-$3 printable

-$4 coupon from this week's Sunday paper

OOP price: varies, earn $2 + up reward (and I'm going to roll all my other +up rewards to this)

ETA: I did it! I ended up sending about $5 out of pocket and walked away with a $2 +up reward and $69 worth of stuff, all stuff we'll use. So a total price of $3, $66 saved.

Want a free pack of Extra Dessert Delights Gum? Go to their Facebook page!

It's been a rough day. We got take-out pizza for lunch. Our first meal "out" in 35 days. Oh well.

Where we used to live, there was only a CVS. I could drive about 20 minutes to find a Walgreens, but I certainly didn't have a Rite Aid nearby. A year or two ago I heard of people playing "the CVS game" or "the Wags game" and using store cards, weekly sales, store coupons, and manufacturers coupons to get freebies. I was impressed by the savings I saw but I didn't try it myself.

Since we've moved, and have a Rite Aid right down the street, I've been paying way more attention to these kinds of deals. Yesterday I got a great deal on an 18 pack of Tide Stain Release:

$5.88 (sale price) -$2 manufacturer's coupon - $1 +up reward= $2.88 out of pocket

There are lots of sites out there that will do the legwork for you and tell you how to get the best deal at Rite Aid (or lots of other stores) every week by combining coupons and sales. I like For The Mommas and her deal lists for Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens. I'll warn you, though: just because it's cheap or free doesn't mean it's worth your time! Sure, I can use a clearance sale plus a coupon to get some Shakira perfume for only .50... but why would I?

Just a friendly tip for you tonight, since my dinner didn't go over well and my kids refused to eat it because "it looks gross" and it DID look gross! My poor, poor children.

It's shopping day!

I combed through the freezer and made a list that I posted on the fridge door. It made it a lot easier to plan meals based on the items I have on hand. At 2 stores I spent $91 and saved $25 with coupons.

And then... then I decided to pick up Toy Story 3, which came out today. I had an $8 off coupon for a specific version of the movie (BluRay & DVD combo) and I had to go to FOUR STORES until I found one that 1) had the version in stock and 2) would accept such a high coupon. I ended up getting it at Target for a total of $16.99, which was cheaper than it would have been at any of the other 3 stores, so it all worked out in the end-- other than the gas I used!

When I realized Tom wouldn't be home for dinner tonight, I changed plans and the girls and I are just having frozen pizza. We'll save North Country Stew for another night, and the recipe definitely looks good so I'm excited. I've also planned to make some pizza dough in the bread machine for calzones later in the week. I haven't used the bread machine since we moved from our house into the apartment last year, so I'm looking forward to getting it back out and getting fresh bread back on the table.

it's Menu Planning Monday!

Normally I pick & choose which e-mealz we'll do for the week, but this time I'm going to "shop from my freezer" and make recipes that rely on meats we've already got on hand. I'm thinking we'll be able to shop fairly cheaply this week, thanks to my awesome parents who brought a bunch of groceries with them on their visit this weekend. Between that and the well-stocked freezer, I'm crossing my fingers that the grocery bill will shrink this week.

Monday: chicken pot pie (defrosting right now)

Tuesday: North Country Stew, garlic bread sticks

Wednesday: Creamy Herb Pork Chops, mashed potatoes, creamed corn

Thursday: Slow Cooker Burritos, yellow rice, salad

Friday: Taco Calzones, salad

Saturday: I Ain't Chicken Chicken, roasted potatoes, some veggies

Sunday: Salisbury Steaks, sugar snap peas

We need a milk run today, but I'm doing the big shopping tomorrow... and gorging on Halloween candy in the meantime!