February Month End Budget Update for Groceries and Eating Out

February is the shortest month which should mean that it is a great month but it is often that idea that gets me into trouble.  I shop for my family of three on $160 per month budget to include all household products including groceries, paper goods and cleaning products.  I shop sales, use coupons and do as much as possible to save as much money and spend the money wisely to feed our family for the whole month and months to come with the items that I buy at rock bottom prices.  We spend $40 per month on eating out so that both budgets come to $200 total.

Before couponing and budgeting, I could have easily spent this on what trip to Target so don't think that I am any different but I make choices to make meals from scratch, meal plan, save on groceries and more so that our family can do other things to have fun as a family.  This month we decided that we would have fun going snow tubing and in March we are going to the local college basketball game and a trip to see family far away.  We get to look forward to our fun family outings.

The month started off with the great super doubles which had me spending a little early in the month. If you want to see the break down of my different shopping trips for the first half of the month, here are all of the trips that I made then.  I got some great deals and stocked up on hot sauce, crackers, more spaghetti, rice, sugar, oil and Finish dishwasher detergent.  These are all staples that we use a lot and will go to great use over the next few months.  We got some fun things with the Pringles, Pop Tarts and soda which were some rare treats that we are enjoying a lot.

All of my trips are pictured below with the amount spent but breakdowns are only included for the second half of the month trips so that you aren't reading all day.  If you want to see the breakdowns of the other trips check out my first half of the month shopping trip post.

Harris Teeter $9.09

Harris Teeter $6.72 - $4.59- $2.05= $0.08

Harris Teeter $3.02

Harris Teeter $2.57

Harris Teeter $2.38

Harris Teeter $2.24

Harris Teeter $2.35

Harris Teeter $14.46

Harris Teeter $7.36

Harris Teeter $0.95 

Aldi $13.48

Harris Teeter $1.05

Harris Teeter $4.05

Shoppers $0.08

Giant $0.71

 

Harris Teeter $5.80

I went to the store to get the granola bars for $0.97 which was an evic special.  They only had three boxes of the ones that my son liked and I decided to get one that I thought would be a treat.  He doesn't like them so I probably should have just gotten one for my husband.  I got three boxes of free tissues after sale and coupon.  I got two Clorox Wipes which were on sale and there was a coupon and then an Ibotta rebate to get them for $0.04 each

Giant $0.10

I went to Giant to get the freebies which were the Man Cave sausage and the Chobani.  The Chobani free item came off and so did the other coupon for $0.50 off so it was a money maker.  The Man Cave sausage didn't so the customer service person had to override it.  I was under because of the Chobani overage so I grabbed the Hershey's Bar which was $1.  My total was higher then I was expecting because of the unplanned overage and I changed my plan quickly.  There was a coupon to get $1 off any of the Coconut limited time items so I grabbed the seltzer which was only $0.59 so I ran and grabbed that even though the man behind me was probably irritated by me.  Customer service had to come over twice but I was happy with my total and I was glad that I stuck with the transaction even though I was a little disappointed with how difficult it is for me to check out at Giant.

Harris Teeter $1.14

I got the weekend freebies of the Wheat Thin Chips and the Chobani flips.  I also wanted to get the $0.50 Juicy Juice after sale and coupon.  I met up with a friend and she reminded me to get the Arla cream cheese because of the free evic coupon so I parked my cart behind her and ran to the dairy section to grab it and came back to check out.  My friend had gotten all of the things on belt and we were talking when another customer carrying a basket stuck her basket in between our carts and told me that she was there because me.  I told her that we were together and pulled in together so I wasn't sure how she was in between us.  She mumbled something about long lines and not enough cashiers which really wasn't true because there were plenty of registers open.  I told her that if she was in such a hurry that she could go before me.  She got upset and grabbed her stuff and made the customer service check her out.  She got her stuff bagged and left at about the same time as us so I am not sure why she couldn't just wait but I checked out and left shortly after her.

Aldi $28.66

I went to get a few things that we were out of or running out of.  This was my big Aldi run for the month with getting lots of things.  I made the oyster crackers into my husband's garlic Parmesan crackers which should probably last awhile.  We have already started using almost everything in this trip very quickly because we didn't have much backup of anything left.  I probably could have gotten a little more but I got the bare minimum because I really didn't know where I was for the month... silly me for not adding it up because there was plenty more room in the budget.  Although I did fit it in with other errands and had to keep it all in coolers until I got home anyway.

Harris Teeter $0.00

I didn't think that I would be able to go to the store over the weekend but I got to stop on Sunday evening on our way home from snow tubing and my son helped me find everything and checked out by himself.  I guess he did really well because there wasn't any tax for some reason.

Wegman's $25.54

I went to the store because I added up all my receipts and realized that I was really below budget and we needed a few more things to get us through the next month so I figured that I would jump on the chance and pick up ground beef and my son's favorite mac and cheese.  We were also low on Cran- Grape and lettuce so I grabbed them too.

Total Retail $932.59
Total Savings $682.37
Total OOP $125.11

Eating Out

We went Snow Tubing which was moved from February 11th to February 25th but I knew that we were going to be out for awhile and we would probably stop for food so I saved our eating out budget for then.  We went to a fun little restaurant on the way home and got lunch with friends.  The total was $25.65 for the restaurant.  That is all we spent for the month eating out so below the $40 budget.

Super glad to come in below budget in both groceries and eating out and not really sure how I did it.  Although I know that menu planning helps me a lot to know that I can get dinner on the table with things in the house and know that I don't have to grab anything take out if we don't already plan ahead for it.  Working on the plan for March and hoping to get lots of deals to do the same next month too.  I hope that you had a great month too!!