More Shopping and Eating for the Month!! Did I go overboard???

I got a ton of things at the beginning of the month which I went into detail here if you missed it.  Below are the totals and the pictures for the whole month on everything that I got for the month.  I think that I got a lot and got some great deals but I might have still gotten a little too much for the month.  I guess that happens with vacation and a crazy long month. 

Harris Teeter $7.93 + $8.30= $16.23



Aldi $11.54

Wegman's $29.60

Aldi $5.56 - $2.04= $3.52

Aldi $2.75 - $2.96= -$0.21

Harris Teeter $6.82

Weis $13.11

Aldi $13.71

First Half of July Total Retail $228.86
First Half of July Total Saving $134.54
First Half of July Total OOP $94.32


Harris Teeter $36.42 + $1.12= $37.54

I went to the store because I had a weekend only deal to get free HT Popsicles.  I didn't make it to the store until Sunday afternoon and I was amazed to find they still had some.  Super excited but surprised!!  My son and I ate one each on the way home! YUM!

My family wanted to go together so that we could pick up the ice cream flavors so that I wouldn't have to do it over the phone.  I was also glad to find the tortillas for $0.99 and my husband was excited to find the HT brand pop tarts for $1.  My son's favorite deal was getting the granola bars for $1.67 so we bought every one on the shelf even though I didn't have coupons.  We bought the two boxes of Cocoa Pebbles for my son which were on sale on my card for $1.87 so I used a coupon for $1/2 and then there was a rebate.

Before I left, I went on Homemaking Mom to find out what other deals I should pick up.  I got some free Hormel Rev Wraps so I picked up three and my husband picked up three.  I got free salad dressing so I picked up three and my husband picked up three.  There was also two Annie free mac and cheese microwave bowls because I only had two coupons.  I love coupons and sales that make things free and I love even more when I have someone else and more coupons to buy more for free. 

I put in lots of rebates when I got home to off set it.  I got $2.10 through Ibotta including $0.25 for the granola bars, $0.80 for both Cocoa Pebbles and $0.25 for any item.  I got $1.00 rebate on Mobi Save for the salad dressing.  I got $0.75 back from Checkout 51 for the Hormel Rev Wrap.  I got $3.85 back for the stuff that I bought which is a pretty good day for me in rebates.  The great bonus is that I used at least 13 coupons to get Swagbucks money back in addition towards my next gift card purchase.

Aldi $21.96

I went to Aldi knowing that I had a limited budget left for the month so I quickly write a list and added up the amounts for everything on the list which put me under my budget.  When I was at the store, I grabbed two bags of chips, two blocks of cheese, package of lunch meat, 10 lbs of potatoes, chicken fries and popcorn chicken.  If I paid closer attention to the freezer, I would have seen that I only needed the popcorn chicken but the other won't go to waste by any means.  The lines were long and the women let me go in front of her because I was carrying everything because I was too stubborn to get a cart.  The lunch meat was the only thing that I added to my list while I was in the store so I knew that I would still be under budget when it was all totaled but I still held my breath.  Woo Hoo!!  I added correctly and got put of the store with my few bags of groceries.

Harris Teeter $20.00

I saved a little money in the budget to get some deals with the Harris Teeter sale and weekend freebies but it wasn't nearly enough!! Although I got some great deals.  I got free Oreo Cookies with the weekend promotion.

I also got free Ramen noodles, free Bratwurt (reduced meat clearance), and free Knorr Rice sides.  The chicken breast were on sale for $0.88 per lb if you bought $25 of groceries.  I wasn't sure how it was going to count the groceries but it is usually before coupons but after sale prices so luckily it worked out okay.  There was a electronic deal for the Jif Peanut Butter to be $1.77 limit 4 and it happens to be one of my favorites and the season to stock up on peanut butter even though I don't have any coupons.  I got the Newman's Own salad dressing on sale for $2.50 less $1 electronic coupon, $1 manufacturer coupon for $0.50 and then put in the $1 rebate for Ibotta.  I got the Purell for a back to school gift for the teacher because it was on sale for $2.50 and I used a $1 coupon and did the $1 Ibotta rebate even though the Checkout 51 offer was gone.  I bought margarine for $0.99 each which wasn't on sale but we are out.

My crazy deal that I wasn't going to splurge on was the Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches which were shelf price of $5.49.  They were on sale B1G1 which really means they are half off.  I printed a coupon online for $1.50/1 or $3.00/2.  There was a deal on Ibotta to get $1 limit 2 so I went for it.  I paid $1.25 each and got the rebate back so they were $0.25 after rebate.  I figured that if I didn't take this deal then we would never try them so it was worth a try!!  We haven't gotten ice cream at the pool yet this year or from the ice cream man so this will be our special treat for way less then we would spend on them.

I went to the store mainly to get the Coke because we are totally out (okay my husband was saving his one last one for an emergency) and they were finally on sale buy two and get three free.  They are normally priced $6.99 so it works out $2.79 per case which still isn't the greatest deal.  I am going to start being better about searching the deals as soon as my little guy is back to school.

The deals ended up being a little bit sweeter which I didn't realize until I got home because the cashier didn't ring up the Brats but only the coupon off the front so I got the $3 off the Brats without the $3 charge for the Brats so I ended up getting $12 off the total purchase.  I was totally upset for going to the store knowing that I was going to go over budget but I knew it ahead of time and only bought what was on the list... adding in the Brats.  I turned in $4.25 in Ibotta rebates too so that was a great bonus too.

Second Half of July Total Retail $246.29

Second Half of July Total Saving $166.79

Second Half of July Total OOP $79.50

Over budget by $13.82 but I still think that I did amazing this month.  I did great turning in rebates for tons of things so I got back $2 through Mobi Save, $1.75 through Saving Star, $2.50 through Checkout 51, and $12.95 through Ibotta which is $19.20.  This is a huge jump up from last month where I turned in $1.15 to all of the sites!!  Of course, it might mean that I am getting too many things that aren't good enough prices in the store but after I transfer everything to Pay Pal, it will all work out to more money.

I am totally blaming the overage on vacation because it usually brings us more over budget then this so I going to call it a win and see how much food I bought this month for so little.  

July Total Retail $475.15
July Total Saving $301.33
July Total OOP $173.82

Eating Out Total

For the first half of the month, I had the Papa John's unexpectedly high total for $38.00 and the McDonald's purchase at $3.99.

My husband bought my son a snow cone at a swim meet which I knew he wouldn't eat for $2 but I thought that my husband was going to eat it when my son didn't....he said that he didn't remember that my son didn't like them.  We had a discussion that we wouldn't be buying them in the future because they don't have a lot of flavor and although they look like they should be cooling, ice cream would be better!  He doesn't ask for a lot of those impulse food purchases so it was worth the $2 for him to try it and not be mad that we were saying no.

 I did get very tempted by the call of pizza at the pool instead of making dinner one weekend but I resisted.

Total $43.99 OOP for take out which is only $3.99 over budget which I would call a win for a vacation month for sure. 

Hope you guys had a good month as well!!!