I was set to shop better this month and make good decisions to save lots of money. It was my new house resolution to get back into the couponing world again. I am a little behind on getting this week's coupons but I have been doing pretty well even though I am a little over half way past my $160 monthly budget. Hoping that I can do well with my remaining $60 left for the month.
Harris Teeter $41.26
Detailed account of everything if you click on the store and total but saved $82.35! A little crazy with the soda added but got a ton of great deals.
Harris Teeter $41.26
Detailed account of everything if you click on the store and total but saved $82.35! A little crazy with the soda added but got a ton of great deals.
Safeway $1.37
My husband dropped me off at the endodontist to get a root canal and took my son to get a doughnut!! So sorry that I was getting drilled inside of getting a doughnut with them. Found the receipt days later in the side pocket of my car so added it to the folder.
Aldi $24.16
I went to the store with my son and a list that he wrote. He added a few things along the way (so did I). We were lucky to come out as low as we did with our crazy shopping habits during this trip.
I went to the store with my son and a list that he wrote. He added a few things along the way (so did I). We were lucky to come out as low as we did with our crazy shopping habits during this trip.
Shoppers $4.31
I don't usually shop at this store but I had to run in to get margarine because I was going to make chocolate chip cookies. The funny part was I made cookies with a different recipe and I didn't need it. I got the ice cream because it is our favorite and it was on sale.
I don't usually shop at this store but I had to run in to get margarine because I was going to make chocolate chip cookies. The funny part was I made cookies with a different recipe and I didn't need it. I got the ice cream because it is our favorite and it was on sale.
Detailed account of everything if you click on the store and total above but saved $55.43! Half of the total was the toilet paper so I got a ton of groceries for a great deal.
Harris Teeter $14.38
I couldn't resist going back and getting a bunch of the deals on the things that we love and use all the time. We are going to have taco shells and yogurt to last months! I used a rain check to get 4 packages of Land O Frost Turkey for my husband which could last us awhile if I get some of his ham to add with the sandwiches (saving me $7.98). I used another rain check on the 6 boxes Quaker Big Chewy Granola Bars saving $3.90. I got two Old El Paso soft taco boats, two Old El Paso Bold taco shells, one Bisquick, head of lettuce, two Betty Crocker fruit snacks, Perdue Simply Smart Chicken tenders and one 6 pack of ramen noodles. I got to use a $3 off $15 purchase that I had from Wegman's (sad that I forgot yesterday because I had two). Total saved $60.87.
Total Spent $109.59
I got $0.25 for the lettuce in the first trip from Checkout 51 and pending another $0.25 from the last trip and $0.20 from Ibotta. I got $0.20 back from Ibotta for the ice cream and on track to get $7.25 from Saving Star so far this month. That is a total of $8.15 in different rebates for the shopping that I was going to do anyway!!
For the rest of the month, I am going to need to get eggs, ham lunch meat and maybe some more Coke with the remaining budget. I really want to fit in another trip to Harris Teeter after work on Tuesday so there won't be a lot left for the rest of the month but I still need to get Domino's sugar and cheap Pronto pasta and I am sure there are other things that I can get great deals on so I am going through my coupons to see if there are more deals to do and stay under my remaining $50.
For the rest of the month, I am going to need to get eggs, ham lunch meat and maybe some more Coke with the remaining budget. I really want to fit in another trip to Harris Teeter after work on Tuesday so there won't be a lot left for the rest of the month but I still need to get Domino's sugar and cheap Pronto pasta and I am sure there are other things that I can get great deals on so I am going through my coupons to see if there are more deals to do and stay under my remaining $50.
Argh, so jealous of your deal, as usual, LOL! Regarding the information you gave me yesterday, Georgia is at least 4 hours away from me so as much as I'd love to save even more, I won't be making a special trip there any time soon, but it's something to keep in mind in case I ever do drive through on the way home from some trip :) I still don't understand the rationale behind not offering double coupons in Florida, it's not like our food prices are lower than anywhere else to start with, but oh well. At least we don't get snow :)
ReplyDeleteAlison, the bulk of my grocery expenses seem to come from dairy products, proteins, and produce. I *think* I read that you buy meat in bulk (did I dream that? Do you get a quarter of a cow or something?). How do you handle dairy and produce? Or maybe your family doesn't consume as many of those as we do?
I think the area in GA is really far away too like out in the islands and not near where you might actually drive through to go on vacation if I remember but now you can plan your vacations to head to the Harris Teeters :) Kids can go to the beach and you can grocery shop :) I went on vacation to SC once and I was so excited to go to the Krogers because we don't have one here. It was one of the fun highlights of the trip (other than the beach and spending time with family). I really don't understand how different areas decide on how the coupons work but I am glad to live in a place that doubles (sorry) because it works out really well for me.
DeleteI have never bought in bulk for meat except to say that I make a huge purchase of chicken and cut and cut and cut until I don't want to see chicken again but that is more because I hate cutting chicken and I would rather do it all at once. We have never bought a cow or anything else. I just buy on sale and stock up. I had hoped to find some sort of local farmers market or something that would be cheaper then the grocery store but haven't found one close yet so we just use the grocery store for just about everything!! How about you??
I just use the supermarkets for everything. I was tempted to get a CSA share at one point, but I don't like not knowing what I'll get in advance and the prices here don't seem to be very advantageous compared to buying produce in the stores when they're on sale. I redeem the $0.25 from Checkout 51 on bananas every week, and I participate in the Driscoll's Consumer Panel to earn coupons off Driscoll's berries when I take the surveys from their packaging. I usually buy whatever produce is on sale at Save A Lot and/or Aldi as they have the best prices in my area. We have pick it yourself blueberry farms galore around here but their prices are the same or higher than at the supermarket so I don't bother. I'd love to grow my own fruit but I haven't been very successful. We have an orange tree that survives despite me (!) but the oranges aren't very good. My neighbor lets me pick his and his grapefuit too but it looks like we'll only get 3 grapefruits this winter. I think his tree is dying. I'd love to have avocadoes, mangoes and Japanese plums but I wouldn't even know where to plant them on our property so I don't bother.
DeleteSaving on dairy is hard, mostly because we use a lot of it: cheese, yogurt, milk, kefir... I love cheese so I could spend my whole budget on just cheese without batting an eye! I do buy the 8 oz blocks of cheese from Aldi and shred it myself instead of buying shredded cheese because it's cheaper that way. Since we don't have double coupons, the dairy prices are usually fairly high here. The only way I save on those is with coupons/sales combinations or using gift cards from our credit card rewards programs. The ECBs that I get from CVS by buying milk can't be redeemed on milk so I use them to lower my cost when I get cereal, eggs, or nuts since those are items I often buy at CVS.
As for meat, I usually buy it when it's on manager's clearance (Save A Lot, Winn Dixie, SuperTarget) or if there's a loss leader at Aldi or Save A Lot. I do belong to Gold'n Plump and JustBARE chicken's eclubs so they email me coupons once a month (usually, I haven't gotten anything this month yet) and I try to use them at SuperTarget in combination with sales or manager's specials when they have them. Right now I'd love to buy other cuts of beef besides ground beef, but it's so expensive, even when it's discounted :(
Several years ago I used to buy salmon and scallops fairly often but these days they're too expensive! Salmon used to be $4.99/lb on sale but now it's a good sale if I can find it for $6.99/lb. Forget fresh tuna. Publix used to sell "tuna chunks" for $4.99/lb (uneven pieces after they cut their tuna steaks) but I haven't seen those in years. That's too bad because those were delicious, pan fried with a few spices. Yum! We're 90 minutes away from the ocean and we rarely eat any seafood :(
I looked at some of the CSAs too but it is to hard when you don't know what you are getting for me too. I think that I do better like you with checkout 51, ibotta and others to get the small rebates adding veggies. Aldi is usually my go to on those things but I get some green beans and snow peas at other stores around and I buy exactly what I am going to throw into the meal that week so that it doesn't go bad.
DeleteFor meat, we are normally only buying chicken and ground beef because we don't get anything more expensive than that either. I try to mix up what we are having with those ingredients but we don't do seafood so that makes it easier. I have looked at the price per pound even when discounted and couldn't bring myself to buy any of the other things at the store.
We don't get the milk deal at CVS here because I think that it is against state regulations but they often have deals where you buy four cereals and get a free gallon of milk. I used to do that one a lot but recently I have only been buying it at Aldi because that has been the only deal going. I do love cheese as well. We buy the blocks at Aldi and shred our own. My husband also loves Blue Cheese which I like to get at Trader Joes because the blue cheese is tastier (means I can use less) and bigger but I have gotten it the last few times at Aldi. Next month, it is the first thing on the list :)