July End of the Month Shopping and Eating Out Totals

I have kept our family of three on a monthly budget of $160 for over 6 years.  There are some months that are a little up and some months that are little under but my yearly totals always work out to under budget.  I try to stretch the money by shopping sales and using coupons.  This month was no exception but we took vacation this month so I spent a lot less time in the grocery store.  Sometimes that works out well because I don't spend a lot money and other times it works out badly because I spend too much when I am there.  What I buy in a monthly changes based on the sales and deals that I find and I stock up on things to get everything at the lowest cost.

In more recent years, I have started tracking out eating out spending which I try to keep under $40 per month.  I track our purchases here and if our eating out spending goes too high then I try to cut back on grocery spending to make up for the difference.

Check out below what I got for the month and how much I spent on each transaction.  There is a breakdown for all of the transactions except those that I did at the beginning of the month because I broke them down here.

Harris Teeter $2.04 

Harris Teeter $0.06

Harris Teeter $0.06

Giant $0.00

Harris Teeter $18.42

Harris Teeter $0.06

Harris Teeter $4.51

Harris Teeter $0.31

Harris Teeter $1.36

Giant $6.96

Harris Teeter $0.03

I printed out coupons and had them in my folder so I was excited to find the yogurt on sale to make these free even though they weren't labeled on the shelf.

Harris Teeter $20.19

I went a little crazy on this shopping trip but I got three free yogurts which I ate already.  I grabbed bananas, lettuce and corn on the cob.  There was a deal on the bacon and I had a coupon but it rang up wrong so I ended up getting lots of money back at customer service so they ended up being $0.95 each.  I grabbed stick margarine because we were totally out.  I got all of the Quaker Big Chewy bars that they had on the shelf because they were on sale for $1.67 which is a great price.  In my biggest splurge, I bought the ice cream deal where you bought $15 of ice cream then you got $5 off.  The Ben and Jerry's was on sale in my evic for $2.97 (and my son has started a new love of them) and the Magnum bars were on sale for $3.34 and I had a $0.75 coupon to make them $1.84 (and my husband loves them).  They worked out to a super low price and a great treat for us.  I also used my catalina from my husband's Giant transaction to get an amazing total.

Giant $0.05

I got a free container of ketchup with the online coupon that I saved to my card.  The shelves were empty and there was a cardboard display that had this so I grabbed it.

Shoppers -$0.01 

I went to the store to get the freebie from last week and they were out but I got a rain check.  I went back with my rain check and my new freebie loaded to the card.  I got both and the total was $0.09 in tax so I gave the cashier a dollar bill.  He said something about how the computer wasn't working with the total and he gave me my change so I counted it in the car and he gave me 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 1 nickel and 1 penny.  I know that everyone is adding the money in their head but it was $1.01.  I think he accidentally gave me back an extra dime but I wasn't going back in the store to give him back his dime.

Aldi $7.60

I went to the store to get milk but I was a little hungry so I probably grabbed more then I needed to but all things that we need and will use.  I use the oyster crackers to make garlic Parmesan or ranch crackers for my husband's lunch or snack.  I also got more crackers for me.  We were down to our last bag of chips and I grabbed some more salsa because it is what goes with the chips.

Harris Teeter $7.74

I went to get my weekend freebie and the deal on the Always pads.  They aren't my favorite ones but you get what you get with the sales and inventory.  They were on sale for $3.99 and there was a coupon for $3/2.  There was a deal that you got $3 off if you bought 3 instantly.  I went with four items and two coupons for it was $7 out of pocket and then I turned it in for $2 rebate from Ibotta and $0.25 any item rebate and a second $2 rebate from Ibotta.

Aldi $5.31

I didn't get turkey the last time I was at Aldi because I was thinking about going to Harris Teeter to get it because my husband prefers theirs but I didn't so I stopped back by Aldi's and grabbed ice cream sandwiches because we were almost out.

Total Retail $361.65

Total Savings $286.96

Total OOP $74.69

I did kind of amazing this month with lots of things that I got but lots of savings.  I was so far under my budget that even I was amazed.  I tried to think of more things that I needed to get and the only thing that came up was more Cran Grape.  Then my husband told me where he moved the storage too without my knowledge so turned out we didn't need that either.  I turned in $22.25 in rebates so that is a huge chunk of money back on my very limited spending.  I used lots of catalinas to get away with lots less spending then normal.  

I dug through the freezer and there is lots of food in there and the pantry to get us through the rest of the summer until I can make it to the store more regularly when my son goes back to school.  As long as remember to take food out to defrost and find enough time at home for baking, I will make it through August with flying colors.

Eating Out

We were out on vacation which we try to maintain the same budget for eating out as we do every month which is $40 but we normally go over.  We spent $57.66 so just a little over.  We didn't plan on any more eating out for the month and didn't do any more.  The great thing is that  being under on my grocery budget usually makes up for the difference and that was the case this month.