Final Budget Numbers for June Grocery and Eating Out Spending

I think that this month went very well although way too quickly with the end of school and all the things that went with it.  I was hoping to make it to a few more stores to stock up on things that we needed but it didn't happen.  Luckily, I have used the freezer and pantry things really well in the past few months and there was enough to make plenty of food.  The sad part is that we are totally out of my homemade baking mix (like Bisquick but lighter, fluffier and better), ground beef, canned and a bunch more things that we normally have on hand.  We are running really low on canned tomatoes and some other things that are easy fall backs to make meals.  I am going to have to find a ton of great deals and make a lot of food to get us through the transition while I fill the cupboards again.
 
Harris Teeter $8.87

I got lots of free stuff including the shampoo, tea, gum, sausage and pizza crust but I paid for the cheese, olive oil and vitamins.  It was great to get so much for free but the olive oil was about half of the total so it was a lot more then I was planning on when I went to the store but less than it could have been.

Harris Teeter  $1.37

I got a bunch of free stuff like the shampoo, gun, tea, candy, sausage, and pizza crust.  I paid only for the cheese and the Zatarain's rice but I think that I got a little overage with the override on the pizza crust so it was almost all tax!!

Harris Teeter $4.34

My husbands shampoo was on sale and I had a coupon and it was super doubles so I felt like I had to get them.  When I went to put them away, I realized I already had two so we really shouldn't need any shampoo for ages especially with these huge bottles!!!

 

Aldi $32.86

I went mainly for milk and there was only a few minutes to shop so I grabbed as much as I thought we needed.  I got a ton more then I probably needed but it was supposed to keep me out of the store.... I guess it did but only for about 5 days.

Harris Teeter $7.26

I got an evic deal for a free Lara bar so I grabbed one and the last four boxes of Granola Bars on the shelf because there was another evic deal for $1.77 each for 4 boxes.  My son only had two left from the last stock up so I grabbed my limit and all that they had at the store.  Sadly, they are almost all gone and I need to get more already but at least they were low priced.

Aldi $7.26

Went to the store with my son to grab some treats for a pool play date that we had and some stuff to get us through the week.  Although I probably didn't need all the junk food, I was happy to have some special snacks for the pool.  We were out of ice cream sandwiches already after only five days.  All three of us love these nice treats after a long day so they are going quickly with only 12 in a box.  I might have to stop being silly and just buy two boxes!!!

Target $0
($9.26 +5.93= $15.19 used Gift Card)

We went to Target and my son picked out the Pringles for our special treat which we almost finished on the way home.  He wanted to try a new vitamin so we got those and got the regular ones that we had just in case he didn't like the other ones.  I had a gift card so it was no money out of pocket which was a great addition to the budget this month.  I still have more left and I might go and grab some groceries with it but not over the weekend cause it is way too busy!!

Harris Teeter $0.53

They were out of the Mocktails so they replaced it with any Ocean Spray which was actually sort of sad because I had a coupon for the other one so I would have gotten more stuff for free.  I also qualified for the Taste and Tell so I got to pick free peanuts.  There were tons of flavors and if I picked only for me, I would have gone with the salt and vinegar but since I was sharing with my husband, I went with the crabby chesapeake flavor.  YUM!  I splurged and grabbed one of the Kellogg's fruit snacks that were on sale and they had peelies on the front so they were $0.50.  It was a little treat for the end of the school year for his lunchbox.

Aldi $0
(my mom paid for groceries)

She wanted to take us out to dinner but she didn't mention it before she got here so I already made dinner so she spent all that money on groceries for us which we will enjoy much longer then a dinner out.  This was certainly a money saver for us this month in helping keeping us way under budget because this was $48.55.  We will certainly use lots of these things through the month and into next month.

Harris Teeter $7.20

My husband went out to get gas in my car and do a few other errands and night and I texted him that the Gatorade was on sale at Harris Teeter again so he should stop and get some because he was close by so he found 10 (only 9 pictured because one was taken on our road trip).  I didn't take a picture because he took them straight to the basement so this was taken when I realized that I had to add this expense to my list :(  I don't know about you but adding drinks to the expenses make me sad.  I know that he likes these especially in the summer so it was worth the splurge to get them so cheap.

Target $3.96
($64.81 spent on gift card)

I used the rest of the gift card that I had from before on a bunch of things while we were on vacation.  My husband and son were with me so they added most of the items you see including the basketball, Pokemon shirt, Pokemon hat and swim goggles for my son.  My son needed to have goldfish...at least that is what he said.  The bottles were on clearance and I had a coupon so they were pretty cheap at about $3.75 per bottle so I grabbed them.  I am normally not a spray sun tan lotion fan but we are headed to the beach and more and more getting burned on our heads so we are going to spray our heads this summer so we don't have sun burn there!!  I also got my son some fruit which wasn't pictured because it was eaten before getting home.  I was hoping to use my gift card for better spending but this was fun and my son got lots of things that he wanted while we were out and I didn't have to spend that much out of my budget to do it.

Total Retail $428.19

Total Savings $354.54

Total OOP $73.65

Overall a good month and way under budget but the bad news is that I barely got anything for our  beach vacation which was what I was supposed to use the money for.  I am really behind on shopping for it but I am certainly going to make up time with the rest of the time I have left.  The savings look really high because I had an $80 gift card that I counted into savings because I didn't know how to count it and my mother paid for the one Aldi's trip pictured above.  Obviously we wouldn't have spent all that otherwise because we would have been above budget and barely gotten any food for the month.

My normal spending for the month for our family of 3 is $160 but I spent way under that and ended up with $86.35 left in my budget at the end of the month.  I am sure that we will need that for stocking up on things next month as well as getting all of the thing that we need for vacation.

Eating Out/Take Out Spending

We have done amazingly well this month with our spending.  We splurged at the beginning of the month with something we have never done and we bought pizza at the pool with some other families so we chipped in $10 for our pizza, tax, delivery charge and tip.  Normally we just pick up a pizza for $5 on the way there which is obviously much cheaper but we were supposed to go home and we decided to stay later at the pool.  

We were visiting my family and bought a pizza for my son one night which he only ate a piece and a half but we ate the leftovers for the next few days.  The cost was $5.40.  

Total spent for food not made at home was $15.40.  We did get my parent's leftover Chinese food which was a nice treat with no expense.  My cousin also bought some take out pizza while we were visiting her and there was no money out of pocket for us there either.  We went to a pot luck dinner where I made chocolate chip cookies and we got to have pizza.  Overall, I think that we had a lot of splurges on food without the high spending total so I don't even think that the family realizes how little we spent.

We normally budget $40 for our eating out number so with only $15.40 spent, we were $24.60 under budget.  I am sure that we can use that extra money towards our vacation eating out budget.