I have a monthly budget of $160 for my family of
three to get all of our household items including groceries and all
household goods. I work very hard to stay under budget and get the most
for my family to stretch the budget as far as possible. In order to
get the most out of our budget, I make a lot of items from scratch
including rolls, bread, cinnamon rolls, quick breads, lots of homemade cookies and
of
course lots of meals (many from scratch). We eat leftovers for meals on
the weekends usually or on a night that I am too exhausted to cook but I
normally reinvent them with chicken panini, chinese fried rice, buffalo
chicken fried rice and soup to make them seem like an all new meal. I
try to do my best to not have a lot of food
waste so that I can make sure to stretch my budget as far as possible
and use a menu plan to get the most out of everything. If we aren't
going to eat it right away then it goes in the freezer to use later.
Here is everything that I got for the month. I spent most of the money at the beginning of the month so there wasn't a lot to spend for the second half of the month which was plenty fine for me because I went back to work and was planning on being exhausted between trying to get up and get going while still having a summer schedule. I did post all a bunch of different trips with all the details previously so this is more of a summary of what I got.
Here is everything that I got for the month. I spent most of the money at the beginning of the month so there wasn't a lot to spend for the second half of the month which was plenty fine for me because I went back to work and was planning on being exhausted between trying to get up and get going while still having a summer schedule. I did post all a bunch of different trips with all the details previously so this is more of a summary of what I got.
Aldi $9.11
Harris Teeter $10.35- $0.50= $9.85
Wegman's $13.67
Harris Teeter $4.72
Harris Teeter $11.40
Harris Teeter $26.74
Harris Teeter $4.81
Aldi $19.63
Harris Teeter $7.76- $1.91= $5.85
Harris Teeter $9.23-$2.00= $7.23
Harris Teeter $5.23 + $5.23 -$2.05= $8.41
Harris Teeter $5.23 + $5.23 -$3.08=$7.38
Harris Teeter $5.23 + $5.23 -$2.05= $8.41
Harris Teeter $5.23 + $5.23 -$3.08=$7.38
Aldi $0
I had another trip to Aldi's planned for the end of the month which was going to use up the rest of the budget but I went with my mom and she paid for everything. I grabbed a bunch of things that I needed and both she and my son added a lot more to the cart. My list included boneless chicken on sale for $1.49, chicken fries, popcorn chicken (because according to Nathalie it is all we eat is chicken), corn tortillas, Parmesan cheese, cheese, carrots, bananas and potatoes. My mom drinks a lot of milk so we needed a new gallon which she will most likely drink most of it. She was complaining about the price of limes by her so we got three to make lime chicken. She also grabbed pretzel rolls for my husband's lunches because she thought he would like them even though they were $1.99 which I never would have paid for four rolls!! She also grabbed grill spray for husband. My son added white rice and chewy chocolate chip cookies and chips for Daddy (what he said). I added some crackers at the end so that I should have a little more for school starting. I am not sure how much more got added to the cart but it was near $63 for groceries!! Way out of the budget but luckily paid for by my mom and no money out of the budget!
Total Monthly Retail $482.58
Total Monthly Saving $353.93
Total Monthly OOP $128.65
You did very well in August! And thanks to your mom paying for that last shopping trip, you have money leftover, as well! Will you carry that over to September? Or do you put that towards savings or something and start each month with just that month's grocery budget?
ReplyDeleteI don't carry money over to the next month but it normally hangs on to pay for those crazy months that I can't pass up deals but really it stays in the savings account to be used for something that I then shouldn't feel guilty about. I didn't spend a lot on groceries last month so lets go out to dinner and splurge this month :) It is easier for me to just start fresh every month and not feel too good or bad about the last month because there is nothing that I can do about it now :) Moving onward and upward!!
ReplyDeleteWell done! And yes, I do think all you ever eat is chicken because your menus always have mostly chicken dishes on them :) But there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you guys like, LOL! Your chicken is my pasta. I think we have pasta or rice most nights of the week, in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteWe talked about spending the last of your household budget this week, and then your mom stepped in. Wasn't that lovely. Now you have that "cushion" for another time. You are exceptional at stretching your budget with sale items. Way to go.
ReplyDelete