March Month End Budget Update

My monthly for all household goods is $160 for our family of 4 including groceries, paper goods, cleaning products and anything else for the house.  I usually try to make a list of the things that I am going to look for during the month but this time I was not sure what I was going to be getting this month.  I even got a few posts up with all the deals during the month that I got but in case you misses them, here is what I got and what I spent.  Even though I bought a lot of treats, I think that I did pretty well getting in under budget.

There was on Aldi trip that my mom bought some stuff for her and stuff for us and spent around $30 so that was a nice cushion to add to the inventory without adding to the budget.  She can't stand when I take pictures of the food because she just isn't a blogger so I didn't get pictures of the food but I know that it included some more margarine tubs because my husband was overjoyed that they brought back the butter that he likes.... my likes to get anything that my husband wants/needs so we have 4 extra to last through the next few months.  Everything else that came into the house is pictured below.

Trader Joes $5.41

Waited forever to get more blue cheese because I could never make it to the store but then I realized that it might be the best solution for the horrible looking celery that I was so over priced at Aldi (which of course went on sale as soon as I got this).

Target $10.40

Used a $50 gift card that was a present and spend money on overage with lots of purchases including Easter basket items and some food for the pantry and medicine for all of our maladies. 

Aldi $17.05

Grabbed my bag of potatoes for the month and lots of grocery treats like tater tots and cocoa rice cereal.  We needed rice, baking soda, oil and popcorn chicken so those we easy decisions to get in the cart.  The most exciting was the old margarine might be back.  I bought one and my husband was so excited that my mom went back and bought him like 4 more later.

Harris Teeter $11.95

I went for sugar and got much needed tissues, shortening and more.

CVS $0.27

Candy for the Easter basket with the awesome CVS coupon and my mom paid for one of the transactions because she was totally upset that I was going to put $0.27 on my credit card.

Target $29.96

I also got a little cherry pie because I know that my husband used to love them as a kid.  We split it because it is almost 500 calories for one of those things!!  Good news is that it wasn't nearly as good as I remember so I don't think that we will need that for another 10-20 years :)

Target $32.14

Went for the Cranberry juice and was way more excited by the eggs at $0.49 per dozen!!  Grabbed Ritz and Goldfish for my sick little man both with Cartwheels too.

Harris Teeter $30.49

I was going to the store to get sugar mainly which was on my to do list all week.  Then I got the most awesome deal ever... $1.77 per 4 lb bag (limit 2).  Are you looking at the picture and wondering how I ended up with 6 bags??  I had a rain check to get them buy one, get one free so I paid $1.77 for the first two bags and $2.00 for the third bag and the other three were free.  I used three coupons for $0.65/2 (which doubled) so they ended up being $0.27 per bag!!!!! Love when rain checks work out!

I got another package of Lipton tea bags (shelf price $1.39) which had an electronic coupon for $0.40 off and I used a coupon for $1 to make it free.  I should get $0.40 back from saving star making it a money maker.  I got the Can't Believe It's Not Butter which was on sale for $2 each and I used an electronic coupon for $1.50 and manufacturers coupon for $1/2 so it was $0.75 each and I will get $1.50 back to Saving Star making it free.

The Smithfield Sausage was on sale and had meat clearance stickers on it so they were $1.00 for a roll.  I normally buy Jimmy Dean because there are sales, coupons and more but these were actually cheaper this time.  I got a few other extras including the Alexia Tater Tots (my husband's favorites) on sale and with coupon for $1.99.  The edamame was $0.87 so that is a super yummy treat some night when I can't get dinner on the table fast enough and we are hungry.  My favorite was the ricotta which was $2.49 so that I can make some lasagna with it and the sausage.  There was a deal on the Ocean Spray cranberry juice for $1.47 limit 4 so even though I had already grabbed 33 at Target this month, I figured that I would get these 4 since the price was even better than Target.

Not pictured because my husband put it away on the way in the house (thanks for carrying the groceries but I almost had a heart attack that I some how left it at the store after paying for it) is the two packages of Quilted Northern toilet paper.  The shelf said it was on sale for $6.99 but it rang up $7.85.  Instead of doing a price override, the nice person who was training my cashier gave me $2.00 off so they were $6.85 less $1/2 coupon.  It worked out to $0.53 per roll which isn't a great price but not a horrible price either.  I hate paying for toilet paper but we are now stocked up for another little while with 24 new rolls. 

Aldi $19.96

I just couldn't pass up the pricing on the produce this week because it was rock bottom.  I was going to get two bags of potatoes because they are on sale for $1.69 for a 10 pound bag and I only have 3 potatoes left in my cupboard from the bag I bought at the beginning of the month but I went a little crazy at the store when they brought me out a whole new pallet of potatoes and I grabbed three.  I also grabbed super cheap $0.49 baby carrots because I ate the previous few bags very quickly (last one was purchased by my mom and not pictured).  Yellow onions were $0.69 and so was the celery so I figured that I would cut a bunch up and freeze them because that is a really low price and ends would end up in stock.    Bananas were $0.18 per pound so the whole bunch was $0.50.  I also got some great looking asparagus for $1.29.  

I got a package of lunch meat so that I don't have to worry for the coming week for my husband's lunch.  We were out of milk so I grabbed that for $1.99 sale price.  I grabbed two packages of oyster crackers to make the seasoned crackers for my husband's lunch.  More special treats with chip to have with salsa for my husband and ice cream for my son.

I don't usually shop at the store on the weekends because I try to jam as many things into the week as I can so that I have the weekends with my family but since we were home all week sick, it was the best day for me to work in while my husband stayed home with my son.  There was a lady who left the quarter in the cart for me to use as she was returning the cart.  I said thank you so much and got my free cart.  I emptied the groceries into the car and this couple waited farther up the aisle and I wasn't sure what they were doing.  They waited incredibly patiently (cause I had 30 lbs of potatoes) and came over to give me a quarter and take my cart to use for themselves.  She apologized and told me that she didn't want to frighten me by coming up to my car.  Ummm, I have been out all day shopping so that is great that I don't have to walk all the way back to the store so thanks to all the nice weekend shoppers out at Aldi this weekend!!

 

Total Retail $354.10

Total Savings $199.47

Total OOP $154.63

There are so many things that I can get in a month and I really never know how it is going to fall but I bought over $65 in cranberry juice this month because of the great prices so I hope that my husband doesn't go through it all too quickly but if he drinks two a week it should last into the summer months but I probably can't get him to stretch it past July. 

How did your month go?  Did you get any deals that you haven't seen in ages?