May Budget Update

I didn't shop a lot this month because we had so much stuff already at home and I was set on trying to use up what we had before going to get some of the things that are our favorites.  It finally paid off because my husband finished some of the other juice that he didn't want to drink because it wasn't his favorite kind.  We ate some of the snacks that were moved to the back of the cupboard and worked on some of the cereals in the pantry.

Giant $0.00

I went to Giant to get my groceries and use my monthly Giant credit and it didn't come off.  I had some Giant gift cards so I used those and enjoyed that I still didn't have to pay for it even though I was a little upset that I drove out of my way to go to the store where the credit worked last time but it didn't work this time!  UGH!!  I thought that I took a picture but can't find it anywhere on the computer.  I got a single serve Coke for my husband who likes Coke when he is sick.  I got a 2 liter of ginger ale and three Ocean Spray Cranberry juices.  We picked up some Gerber bananas for my son which is his only fruit that he will eat.  We still needed a little more money to get to the total so I grabbed a block of cheese that was on sale.  I also bought some milk in a separate transaction to make sure that I didn't screw up the credit and used the gift card for that too

Walgreens $1.32

They just opened a new Walgreens across the street from our CVS and my son has wanted to go in and walk around since it opened but I didn't have a reason until they put that they had eggs for $1.29 and we were out of eggs.  I decided that it wasn't worth the trip to the store to use a rain check and coupon to get them so we went on a little field trip for our first trip through Walgreens while we were waiting for parents to come into town and got some good priced eggs!  We used them when we got home to make bread so I am not sure if I took a picture of just the eggs but I didn't get the oil at Walgreens :)

Wegman's (and Aldi's) $3.20

My mom paid for Aldi's so I don't even have a receipt.  I paid for Wegman's and then my mom pushed money in my bag to cover most of Wegman's so my total out of pocket was so small and we were so busy that I didn't even take a picture of it.  Sorry but it was easier then trying to clean off a counter and stop my mom from helping put away the groceries or really upset her by taking them all back out after I cleaned the counters :)  At Wegman's we got had to get some things so that I could make tacos for dinner because I didn't plan as well ahead as I thought so we got cheese, head of lettuce, and ground beef.  We also got yogurt for my son, yogurt for my mom, Ocean Spray for my husband, Garlic Salt for my son, box of brownie mix for my husband, loose lettuce for mom, strawberries for mom, blueberries for mom, case of mac and cheese for my son,  two rolls of paper towels for my dad and salt potatoes (cause we love them).   

Giant $3.54

I went to Giant for my second attempt to use my $10 credit and grabbed a ton of lunch meat because they were on sale so I saved over $0.30 per package and used the coupon for $1/5 to save a little more.  I got the whipped topping on sale for $1.09 and the Ritz for $2.50 to make it up to the $10 total and my credit didn't come off again!!!  UGH!  I used a gift card to pay for part of it and the rest of the money was out of pocket.

Aldi's $11.43

We drove all the way to Aldi's because I needed oranges to cut up for my son's soccer game this weekend.  Funny that I got signed up for it because my son doesn't even eat them but I said yes that I would fill in the last spot on the sheet even though I already signed up to bring after the game snack earlier in the season.  We went to the grocery store and they were $6 for a 4 lb bag and I saw them last week at Aldi's for $3.50 so I just couldn't do it.  Since we needed milk and had enough time, we decided to drive all the way to Aldi's.  My son got on a Ritz kick the other day so I decided to try a box of Aldi's brand crackers because he ate the other box in less than a week.  These are very close if not identical to Ritz if you haven't tried them.  Super worth it. Plus picked up another bag of Spicy Salsa chips which my husband loves and was almost finished with the other bag.  I decided to get one more butter since we had already used one from the previous trip.

Total Retail $132.00 

Total Savings $112.51

Total OOP $19.49

(plus whatever my mom spent at Aldi's)

I always have such a hard time adding up things when my parents are in town because they like to buy a lot more then I would normally buy and whatever they buy for them, they take with them.  I am not sure if that should add into my total or my savings because we don't get to eat it but some of the stuff they share while they are here and others are only for them like my mom's yogurt and fruit but that means that I didn't have to buy it for her before she came like I try to.  Bottom line, it was a low out of pocket month because of my $25 in Giant gift cards and my parents buying some of the groceries but I would have only bought the ground beef at Wegman's so my total would have only been about $15 instead of what it ended up at!!  Just think if I got the $10 credit at Giant it would be just pennies out of the pocket!  I don't know if I am going to attempt to make another trip to Giant before the end of the month to try to get the credit or just send in my receipts and hope that they give it back.  Overall a great month!!

How did you do???