June Budget Review

I have been doing pretty good this year staying under the low monthly budget that I have set out of $160 per month to take care of my monthly needs for groceries and household goods.  It seems to be getting easier and easier to do with less money.  I feel like it just takes a little more creativity. 

I made quick bread or muffins so that we can have for breakfast or snacks during the week.  I make sandwich bread to make my husband's sandwiches during the week.  I try to cook a few other things from scratch for the week so that we don't have a lot of costs for those things from the store.  The great thing is that I have stuff around the house to make things during the week without having to get more things from the store.  I can always whip up a recipe for quick bread or coffee cake or even some chocolate chip cookies.

By the middle of the month, I had only spent $25.52 and I had gotten so much!!

I had two checkouts at Harris Teeter early in the month.  Where I got a bunch of things at the end of the super doubles including two vitamins for Daddy because those are only a good deal during super doubles.  Total OOP $8.65 which is less than one vitamin bottle so I was super happy to get a bunch of other things too!!

Followed by a quick trip to CVS because I got a $3 ECB in my e-mail.  I was excited to use it to get some tissues that were on sale.  With the coupons I had, I decided to add a bottle of soda for my husband so that I would be able to use all the coupons and still be above $0.  Total OOP $0.57

Then, I went to Aldi's to get a few things while I was in the area.  I checked out with most of the items below for a Total OOP $10.37 (bag of chips missing from the picture) and I got out to the car and saw that the flour was ringing up at $1.59 per bag so we went back in and grabbed three more for a Total OOP $4.89. 

I love the cheap prices at Aldi's but it is hard to keep my little guy from getting into trouble while I actually get to look at everything instead of rushing through the store.  He picked out two different kids of graham crackers and he was over the moon that they had the monkey yogurt.  It was $1.29 so I was excited too because they are usually a lot more expensive.  For those of you that think that they are a waste of money, I often refill the container for a second helping with yogurt mixed with a little juice to thin.  My son usually drinks two and therefore the containers are going twice as far!!!

My next huge trip was my Giant trip but that was no money OOP for almost $100 of groceries.  Do you look at this and say where is there $100 of groceries?  Well, I do but at least it didn't come out of my budget because it would have ruined my month!

Then, we ran out of milk!!  We barely ever had milk before my little man so it is sometimes hard to believe that it is a necessary to have it every morning.  I went out to get milk after putting a little bit of thought into where I would go to get it that would cost the least.  Yup, these are the thoughts in my head before shopping at 9:30 pm on a Saturday night :)  My options were Giant and use up a lot of that gift card so that it wasn't high on my list but it was late and easy.  The other option was that I had a $2 catalina to use towards Harris Teeter.  I also had a rain check to get milk for $2.57 so I was thinking that it would be really cheap.

I went to Harris Teeter and they had milk on sale for $2.97 so I decided not to use my rain check and just pay the $0.97 after $2 coupon.  It was $1.04 OOP

Mid-month OOP $25.52!!!  What?  How did I get everything above for only $25.  I didn't have anything on the list for the second half of the month but I know that I would have a little bit more creative with the remaining things in the freezer to make lots and clear out some room!!


We went to Aldi's to get milk and graham crackers and got a little bit more.

Then, hit CVS on the way home from Aldi's because we were out of vitamins for my little man.

Well, Super Doubles Happened and it all went down hill (or crazy shopping depending on how you look at it).  Here was the first day:

Well, we had a busy end of the month and then we went on a mini vacation so I didn't get any of the other trips up.  Hopefully I will get them up this week but since Super doubles is already over, you guys might not be interested in hearing about deals that you can't get anymore.  But I did use a lot of rain checks so I know that there were a bunch of things that I wanted from the last sale that I didn't get before.

I ended up savings lots and coming in under budget for the month.  I was having a really low month but it did sky rocket with Super Doubles.  Luckily, still under budget with a lot of food in the house.  Hope that you had a great month too!!  Can't wait to hear about what you got too :)

Total OOP $105.47

Total Savings $637.09