Thursday, March 9, 2017

February End of the Month Budget Update

I was set on staying under budget this month.  I might have gone a little overboard on that mission with my first three trips to the store in the first three days of the month but I start to get worried when I do too many trips too quickly because it usually means that there will be a big trip that will throw me over.  The great news is that I didn't have a bunch of trips to the store.  Here are the pictures for you to check out what I got this month:

Trader Joes $6.95



Aldi $16.72



Giant $6.15


Harris Teeter $7.13

My husband told me that we were down to our last two boxes of my son's oatmeal because he makes it for him in the morning.  I was super glad to get this awesome deal for free yogurt, free soup and the many deals to make cheap oatmeal.  I got an evic deal for $1.97 limit 4 and the other two were $2.50.  If I bought 5, there was an instant rebate for $3.  I bought 6 so that I can use three $1/2 coupons.  I didn't even do the math until afterwards but buying 5 boxes would have been a little cheaper per box but I knew that it was a great deal at $1.15 per box instead of the shelf price of almost $4.


Aldi $23.28

My last trip of the month which was put off as long as my family would let me because I was trying to recover from another sickness but we were starting to run out of things.  I got pretzels, thin wheat crackers, saltines, turkey and oyster crackers because we were out of all of them.  The eggs were $0.59 and there was a $0.10 Mobi Save discount so I figured it was a good price even though we still had 10 eggs at home (although I wasn't sure how many I had because I didn't check).  I grabbed milk, butter, cheddar cheese and chicken because they were things that we were running low on and they were good prices. 


Target $32.60

We mostly went to get medicine but we ended up picking up presents for birthday party we have coming up and some snow clearance items for building an igloo if we ever get snow.  Not all of these things are household goods but I am going to throw it all in the budget for lack of anywhere else to put it and the majority of the spending was on the medicines.



Total Retail $152.50
Total Savings $59.67
Total OOP $92.83

Super excited to say that I ended the month well under budget and under the $100 that I was trying to spend to save from last months overspending.  There were things that I am sure that I could have picked up some more deals but we got everything that we needed for the month including the things that we ran out of before.  I didn't use the vinegar, salsa, garlic salt, frozen chicken, oatmeal, soup or yogurt yet but it isn't like I have a crazy stockpile of these things but replacing things that we used up.  I got great prices and we will certainly use everything in the months to come.  I found that barely any of my shopping actually gets used in the month that I buy it because I am working with what I have and planning ahead.  

We started making my shopping list for March and I currently need potatoes, rice, lettuce and chicken fries. I don't know what else we will be getting over the month but searching for the best deals for the coming months.

How did you do this month??  I hope that everyone is under budget!

4 comments:

  1. Great job catching up to your budget, Alison! It almost was serendipitous that you were all sick, that kept you out of the stores!

    I was also under budget for groceries, but spent just as much eating out, which is fine. We did a lot of socializing this past month and we had things to celebrate as well. We like celebrating with food that I don't cook :)

    I'm going shopping today and I don't feel like going so I don't expect that I'll get great deals. As a matter of fact, I already know that I'll go over $50 since I need to replenish several items that fall in the $2.50 to $3.50 range at Aldi so it adds up fast! But at least I'm much more aware (and frugal!) than I was even 3 years ago when I spent $120+ per week while calling myself frugal, lol.

    Have a great day and good luck in March. I hope you find lots of great deals!

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    1. Those big ticket items do add up quickly. I know that when I go to the store and add just a few things to the cart that we might not need but just in case that it tilts the scales quickly in the other direction. The great news is that we did great with eating out. I am not sure that I posted that. I wanted to eat out to save on cooking more then once but I stuck to being very strict on everything just to be safe!!! I am sure that there are tonsof different spending levels that people are saving more money then they were spending before but we know that it can be done with very little and it is hard to go back to spending so much more on groceries instead of getting creative. Time for me to get creative on what to bring to a pot luck tonight without going to the store :)

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  2. Well done on coming under budget! You got some great deals! Sorry to hear you were sick, though. Hope you are feeling better.

    I came just under budget in February, by a few cents! So, starting off March with a budget of $75 and I should come under budget.

    Hope you do well with the March budget, too.

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    1. Awesome that you came in under budget although the few cents always has me a little nervous because I am not always good at figuring out what I am going to spend when I am at the check out. I hope that March is going well for you too :)

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