Saturday, December 2, 2017

November Month End Budget Numbers for Groceries and Eating Out

I had a busy beginning of the month with working on getting the deals on turkeys which turned out to be unnecessary later because the Harris Teeter turkey deal kept going the next week with plenty of things that I could have gotten but at least I got lots of things that I will use but our freezer is jam packed and I really need to clean it out (and defrost it)!!  I moved things around but I am looking forward to having lots of food on hand and just figuring out when I am going to use them.

I went a little crazy with a few big trips this month early on but I still had a bunch left after the Thanksgiving break but they confirmed super doubles and I still thought it was plenty of money to make it through but I might have gone a little crazy because of that thought but check out what I got for the month.  The first half of the month had details are here but all the totals and pictures are below.  I got a bunch of things that we are totally going to use for months to come!!  We have almost all the stuff still in the pictures in the house because we were busy using the things we already had on hand.

Giant $3.99




Harris Teeter $34.11




Giant $39.24






Giant $2.60



Harris Teeter $11.10




Harris Teeter $0.27



Harris Teeter $0.19




Harris Teeter $0.17




Harris Teeter $0.17




Harris Teeter $0.17




Harris Teeter $0.17




Harris Teeter $0.17




Harris Teeter $0.44






Harris Teeter $4.08


     

Aldi $4.94

I was super excited to get the low prices potatoes and celery as well as the milk that we needed.  It was a great sale week.




Aldi $2.96

I went to the new store to get a free bag, key chain and when you checked out, you got $5 off $30 for three weeks so I grabbed the last thing on my list.  There were also lots of things to taste which was nice because they were things that I have never bought before!!


Harris Teeter $31.66

I went to get the weekend freebie which didn't come off at the register so I had to go to the customer service desk.  This was a 3 pack which was a big surprise and I got to use a coupon to get an additional $1.50 off my order.
I also wanted to get the last yeast with my last coupon for free.  I saw that they had Hillshire Farm on sale for $2.50 and there were some with $1 meat clearance and I had a printable coupon for $0.75 which made them free.  I got more cranberry juice which I got to turn in for $0.25 Ibotta rebate for any item and $0.25 for cranberry juice.  I went a little crazy getting the Cottonelle deal because they were $3.87 a package after evic special and coupon and I was supposed to get $2 catalina but I didn't get one and customer service said that they couldn't help me.  I have to call the customer service to get my money back :(



Giant $0.16

I got a freebie for the Mrs. Fields cookies which I added to my card.



and then there was a Betty Crocker coupon which I added to my card to buy one, get one free although it was super hard to figure out what was going to come off when I used the coupon because it said free $2.18 on two but then read differently when you opened it up.  It ended up coming off on the shelf price which was $1.69.  There was another electronic coupon for $0.50 off that also came off so the two were basically free because they were on sale for $1 each and I got to use a printable coupon for $0.50 off 2 so I put an extra item in my order to cover the overage.


Awesome deal that I paid mostly just tax with a little pre-planning!!


Aldi $3.26

It was the last day of the sale so I grabbed 20 more pounds of potatoes!!  I can't pass up the Thanksgiving sale price and we love potatoes!



Harris Teeter $1.64 

I got the Dominos Sugar because we were almost out of sugar and I got the free Hillshire Meat and Cheese pack after the meat clearance.



Harris Teeter $0.85

I grabbed two of the Tetley Tea and the Little Remedies Sore Throat Pops which was mostly free except it turned out that the receipt didn't have the Tetley ringing up at shelf price.



Harris Teeter $2.27

I got a ton of things at the store and got to use the $3 for customer service rebate from a missed Catalina from before.  The Mueller pasta, Crest Toothpaste, Chobani yogurt, Pillsbury biscuits, and Perfect Bars were free after sale and coupons.  The meatballs were $0.24 each after sale, coupon and electronic coupon. The Grown in Idaho tater tots were $1.49 and I turned in a rebate for Checkout 51 for $1.00.  The Alexia Tater Tots were $1.79 each.  We needed lunch meat which was $1.89 after sale and coupon.  One of the coupons didn't ring up so I went to customer service to get it back and the Tetley tea didn't ring up correctly so customer service gave me $6.81 for the missed coupon and wrong priced tea so this was an amazing trip all the way around!!!! I am going to get another $1 from the Pillsbury biscuits.



Harris Teeter $0.37

I got Mueller's Pasta, Yakisoba Noodles and Crest for free and only paid tax.


Harris Teeter $11.18

I went to the store to get a few key items like the free Mueller's pasta, Celentano Cheese Ravioli, Crest toothpaste and Oral-B toothbrushes.  The shelves were already empty on many of the items like tea and Yakisoba noodles.  The deal on the Crunchmaster crackers ended up to be better then expected because they were on sale for $2.24 each and I had a coupon for a $1 which doubled but some electronic coupon also came off on each bag so they were a $0.76 money maker.  I also got to turn them in for a Checkout 51 rebate for $1.  I also wanted to get the KidFresh deal because I gave one to my friend before because I couldn't remember why this one was such a good deal.  They were on sale for $3.50 each and I had a coupon for $1.25 off two which doubled making them $2.25 each for these chicken nuggets.  I got $1.50 catalina back from the purchase which doubles during super doubles on my next purchase.  I turned them in and got $1.50 from Checkout 51 and $3 from Ibotta so another money maker.  My favorite deal was the Alouette cheese which was on sale for Buy 2, Get 3 free with a shelf price of $5.99.  I used two $1 coupons and three $0.75 coupons which took off $8.50 so they were $3.48 for all 5 of them!!  I also got to turn it in for $2 back from Checkout 51 and $5.00 from Ibotta so it was a super money maker.  I finally found the Dinosaur Oatmeal which was on an evic special for $0.97 each.  It didn't ring up and I went to customer service and they gave me one free and fixed the price on the second which is why my total is lower then I thought.

One of my last additions to the cart was the Finish dishwasher tabs which was $2.79 after sale and coupon because we have been low on dishwasher detergent for awhile and I haven't had coupons to get anymore.  It makes these $0.14 per load instead of $0.26 so it is some savings at least but not the best deal that I have ever seen for sure.  There were probably going to be more on the shelf later in the sale but I don't like putting off anything because you just don't know.  Most of my coupons had to be overridden so it took awhile to checkout but I think that it was well worth it with my savings.




Harris Teeter $4.98

The medicine was on sale for $5.99 from $7.69 which was the shelf price.  I had a $1 coupon which expired on that day so I got them for $3.99 each and then I used the $1.50 catalina from the KidsFresh purchase which doubled.  We will certainly use these this cold season!!



Aldi $1.53 

Our milk was past the date so I was hoping to stop at the less expensive Aldi and the price went up from $0.98 where it has been for a long time to $1.49.  I probably shouldn't have gotten it knowing that I was over budget already but I was passing by and thought it was going to be a little lower priced but still not a crazy price for milk.

 

 Total Retail $790.12
Total Savings $627.45
Total OOP $162.67

I don't think that it was too bad being $2.67 over budget but I could have stayed under budget if I didn't go crazy on the last day of the month!!  This super doubles is certainly leading to a few good deals that have overfilled my pantry.  I have to go through and clean out everything and try to rearrange things but my pasta stockpile is overflowing and since it is one of my son's favorite foods, I know that it won't go to waste!!  

I put in rebates for the month and I have already gotten $22.90 from Ibotta, $5.50 from Checkout 51 and should have at least $2.14 from Saving Star when ever those finally clear.  Lots of money back to get used for some Christmas shopping!!

I have gotten most of the things on my list but I do need to go to Wegman's and get some flour and ground beef which should be my biggest purchase in December and Aldi's for chicken fries and popcorn chicken with my $5 off $30 purchase.  

If I can get some of the baking and cooking done that I haven't had time for, I know that we will have tons of things for the month of December.  I probably need to make the time to clean out my pantry again and get it organized because of the influx of soup, stock and pasta which all go in the same cupboard.  Here is hoping that moving things around finds some room that was otherwise missing.  Part of the meal plan is done for the month but I need to finish it up now that I know about basketball practice and some of the time that family is going to be in town.  

Hope you had a great month and are ready for another one going into this busy season!!

Eating Out


I was tough last month and held strong to not eating out until we traveled and then we grabbed the most economical option that made my son's night.  We had Little Caesar's pizza in the car through Pennsylvania for dinner because the trip was taking forever.  Total spent eating out was $5.30.  Although my son was not deprived from having pizza because we had Domino's at his end of season soccer party which was a treat from the coach and he had Papa John's at a birthday party and Little Caesar's at a family gathering purchased by grandparents so this was a pizza heavy month any way.  Super happy that we came in well under our $40 budget especially since I was a little over the grocery budget.

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