For those of you just joining me or a reminder for those who have read this before, I have a budget of $160 per month to get all household needs for my family of three including groceries, cleaning supplies, and anything else for the house. With a little bit of work and a lot of cooking from scratch, I am able to do it almost every month. I don't carry over money saved from the previous month or add rebates back into my budget but use a clean slate every month. I do subtract any cash back I get for coupon issues or returns from the store that happen in that month. I keep all of my receipts in a folded piece of paper with the amount spent on one side and the amount saved on the other. I also keep a notebook with the spending tracking listed and a yearly total sheet so that I can see my monthly average through out the year.
Here is what I have gotten and spent so far for February:
Aldi's $20.06
We went as a whole family to the store which was a little challenging and even though I told my husband that we didn't need chips, he disagreed and got two. If you want something spicy, try the salsa chips because they were amazing!! Of course, that being said, I still told my husband that I wouldn't buy him a second bag. Aren't I horrible? The main thing that we went for was milk because we were out. I got three tub butter and two stick butter because we were almost out. We were also almost out of vegetable shortening and it is pretty cheap at Aldi so it went in the cart. There is a sign that their baking powder is seasonal so I grabbed two more because I don't know when the "season" is over but I just learned that you can make baking powder from scratch so I will be doing that when this is all gone. Lettuce was very healthy looking and we needed it for the meal plan and the celery was really cheap so we got more (which we probably didn't need but it does last long and it $0.69). I figure that it wasn't that bad for going with both my husband and son.
Harris Teeter $8.28
We needed turkey and this is what I came out with. The toothbrush was free and the hair color was a money maker. I decided on the Progresso soup which was the light Baked Potato Soup so it seemed like a cheap lunch for me. I also added the Quaker Perfect Portion when I saw that they were on clearance again for $1.49, I checked to see if I had more coupons for $0.75/2 and I did so they went into the cart and ran up the total a little more then expected.
Harris Teeter $1.82
I got more then I was planning but it all worked out great in the end. Two of my evic zvrs didn't come off but they gave me back the money at the customer service desk.
Harris Teeter $3.74
There was a Saturday only sale on milk so I went to get it because it was $2.87 and that is the best price inside the beltway that I can find. The Dixie Crystals was on sale and I had a coupon which made it super cheap so I was excited to add more to the cupboard (even though I was running out of room to fit it).
Walmart $6.15
My husband has an addiction to Ocean Spray juice and blames any sicknesses on the lack of juice. He drank all of his juice again so I headed to Walmart when we were in the area and grabbed a few and big bonus was that they were on rollback (I think that means permenant price reduction and not just sale but I don't speak Walmart). It was little tough because the aisle was empty and I asked the two employees if there was another display somewhere and they didn't seem to understand what I was saying because they told me to look on the aisle after I told them three times that the shelf was empty. Sadly, I even used hand signals (luckily, I didn't start yelling like they couldn't hear me but walked away instead). My five year old said, why didn't they understand that the shelf was empty because we were already on aisle 11 and they didn't have any. We found the end display and I forced two of the Cran-Grape out and the display continued to stand when we left.
Giant $15.17- $5.76= $9.41
There is a reason why I don't go to Giant that often and this was a great reason. There were three cereal on sale for $3 each and when you bought four boxes, you got $6 off instant. None of the things rang up correctly. UGH! I was doing uscan and had to take one off and then I had to get audited at check out. I got the free yogurt with the coupon that I had left over from my previous Harris Teeter trip. The uscan gave me $0.60 off for the pasta and $0.50 off for the goldfish so that is why they ended up in the car. I paid $15.17 at the register. My Giant community credit did not come off and I was really disappointed by I didn't want to put all of the effort that I put in to put the groceries back because it didn't work out right. It was more money then I wanted to spend because I added additional items to get to my total needed for the credit.
Then had to go to customer service to get the money back for the difference on the cereal prices which was $3.76. The lady rang up something totally different and handed me the $3.76 and I gave her a weird look and she said that she rang it up wrong. Seems strange but I got my money back so lets hope it doesn't make an issue later. I looked at the receipt when I got home after putting everything away and saw that something rang up wrong so I went back to get back another $2. UGH! The computer said that she was supposed to give me $2.05 but she didn't give me the change. Oh well!! A bad trip with good deals and a real reason to make sure you understand your receipt before you leave the store so you don't have to make a second trip back.
Harris Teeter $0.47
There was a special price of $0.97 for each one and I had one coupon which I don't know where I got to try to the new Prego flavors and get $0.75/2. The cheese one didn't ring up on sale but I paid my total and went to customer service and they said that I must have gotten the cheese one and rang up the $1.03 plus tax back and I got $1.06 which went in my pocket immediately without fight conversation and I got exactly what the computer said they should give me (see why I shop at Harris Teeter so much more).
Harris Teeter $6.33
On the first morning of Super doubles, I was super excited to get started shopping. I put way too many things in my cart and had to put some back. Glad that I got the deals that I did and can't wait to see what deals are left for the second half of the month!!
Walmart $12.30
To a different Walmart that was near where we did a gymnastics class so we grabbed 6 bottles which were also only on the display and not on the shelf. I guess the world loves the Cran-Grape like my husband. Did I mention that he already drank the other three bottles?
Total Retail $263.09
Total Savings $194.53
Total OOP $68.56
With only 9 shopping days left in the month, I think that I am in perfect position to finish the month at budget. There are a ton of things that we need to stock up on this month so I am hoping that I can get some great deals at Harris Teeter this month with lots of great coupons. How have you done so far this month?
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