August Shopping in Review

I work on a monthly basis to make all of the meals for our family of three and spend less then $160 per month on groceries.  We have a variety of different meals based on the things that are on sale in the previous months.  We make use of all of the items that we get on sale and with coupons to stretch our money as far as possible.  I try to buy only the items that my family needs and uses on a regular basis or can figure out how to use but I can figure out how to use most anything.  

We have an amazing stockpile of personal care items that I store under the bed in our spare bedroom so we have free shampoo, toothpaste and more.  We have a wonderful stockpile of cleaning items and paper goods which I store in my laundry area and that one might be a little out of control with toilet paper and laundry detergent which has had some great sales.  I keep most of my food stockpile in the kitchen but there is a little in the basement that doesn't fit currently in the kitchen.  My new kitchen has two pantries so the one is for snacks, cereal and ready to eat food and the other is for things that need to be made like rice and pasta.  Currently there is pasta fit into a few other places in the kitchen because we got so much for free but I am trying to keep things together and organized by date so we use the oldest things first.

The summer went by in a blur but I think that I did pretty well with saving money which isn't usually the case in the summer months because I have my friend with me to entertain.  I think that you can see all the things that I got below as proof that I saved lots and got lots of things to add to the stock pile.  All of the transactions in the beginning of the month are broken down in my middle of the month post here.

Aldi $28.58

Harris Teeter $0.08

 Harris Teeter $2.11

Harris Teeter $0.04

Harris Teeter $0.93

Harris Teeter $0.04

Harris Teeter $0.04

Harris Teeter $1.90

Harris Teeter $0.54

Aldi $5.77

Harris Teeter -$1.37

Harris Teeter $2.23

Harris Teeter $0.17

Harris Teeter $0.23

Target $0 (MyPoints gift card)

Harris Teeter $2.64

Harris Teeter $0.10

Harris Teeter $0.63

Harris Teeter $3.00

Harris Teeter $0.48

Harris Teeter $0.09

Target $0 (paypal)

Harris Teeter $0

Shoppers $0.03

Aldi $0 (mom paid)

Giant $1.33

My friend posted that the ice cream was giving $1.30 overage so I knew that I better get to the store fast to get this great deal.  Then my other friend posted that there were peelies on the Mission taco shells to make them $0.99.  Someone in another group posted about free taco seasoning with a new coupon.  I finally made it to the store with all my coupons and ready to get some deals.  I got the ice cream for free and the taco seasoning for free.  The Mission taco shells were $0.99 each and the Chi-Chi's had peelies that made them $0.69.  The overage from the other deals paid for the tortillas so that there was very little out of pocket.  I also turned this in for a Ibotta rebate of $1.60 so it was a moneymaker where I got lots of good stuff!!

Aldi $1.94

We were running really low on milk and I wasn't sure if my son was going to run out one day or the next so I went to grab the milk so that we would have it in reserve.  He has been drinking lots more so we have actually been using it all and I have had to use the almond milk to make bread so that I don't use up his milk.

Harris Teeter $8.10

My last pre-super doubles trip to get Finish dishwashing tablets were $0.99 each.  The Capri Suns were $0.97 each.  The cereal was $0.47 each.  The turkey lunch meat was the best deal at $0.47 each. Even better my customer service money came off to make up for a missing catalina at the beginning of the month so I saved a little more on the deal then I was thinking.

Harris Teeter $4.91

Free Johnson and Johnson baby lotion, Garnier Shampoo, Enjoy Life Chocolate, and Coleman Chicken.  The Pop Tarts were on clearance so they were $0.44 each with coupon.  My big purchase was the $1.97 packages of paper towels because we were almost out.

Harris Teeter $16.96

I grabbed the cereal for $0.50 and the granola bars.  I thought there were rebates but I looked on my phone later and I think that the Cascadian Farms one might have expired so I was a little bummed.  Although there was $1 on the Annie's cereal so I don't know if I get $1 or $3 for the three boxes.  I got the corn for 5/$1 which will be tasty.  Trying to decide if I should freeze some on the ear or cut it off to save some of the wonderful summer goodness for later!!  I also got a bag of corn because they were out of peas which I really wanted but they were on sale for $0.88.  I went for the big 2 lb bags of chicken nuggets for $3.99 which is a bigger bag then Aldi's for the same price.

Harris Teeter $16.58

One last trip to the store and got a few remaining deals but I thought that there was a few good deals that I couldn't pass up.  The Barber Chicken was free after coupon.  The Pillsbury Cinnamon roll ended up being a money maker because they overrode coupons and it ended up being $1.24 profit.  I got cereal for $0.50 each.  The Tetley tea was $0.39 each.  The Stonefire Naan was $0.49 each.  The Dawn was $0.50 each. The Tide was on sale for $9.97 less $2 coupon doubled so they were $5.97 for the 100 oz bottle.  I really didn't need more Tide but it was a great price and I was well under budget for the month.

Shoppers $0.04

I went to get the freebie for me and decided on this one.  I melted some cheese on top and dipped in some tortillas.  It was pretty tasty for lunch after bringing it home.

Giant $5.81

I went to get the freebie frosting and decided on getting the Cranberry Juice because it was on sale for $1.88 if you bought three.  I also grabbed a banana for my husband.

Shoppers $14.47

I went to Shoppers to get the soda deal and didn't read the fine print under the buy 2, get 3 free but it said that I had to have $25 purchase.  I wasn't sure I was even going to do the deal because of the total required purchase which I only do to get the turkey because it always ends badly.  I grabbed the two freebies and tried to find out what else there were in deals in case I could get the total up and then use coupons to get it back down.  I had a coupon for one of the freebies to make it $1 profit.  I grabbed the cereal free and there was a $1/2 electronic coupon that made it a profit.  The yogurt was $1 each and there was a printed coupon and electronic coupon to make each a $0.20 profit.  The Snickers were $0.25 each after coupons.  The Ritz were on sale for $2.50 and my husband asked for them so I decided that the overage would pay for them.  The soda deal came off and then I gave them the coupons and it ended up to be a pretty good deal since the pricing is less then Harris Teeter shelf price.

Total Retail $979.76
Total Savings $861.38
Total OOP $118.38

At the beginning of the month, I thought I only turned in two rebates for any items so only $0.50 back in rebates so far for this month.  I started getting the emails from Saving Star on money back on different items and actually have $13.10 in rebates in for the month!!  I was super excited to see how many I got for the items that were already amazing deals.  There were few through Ibotta but I considered this a big bonus savings and was very excited!  I am hoping for lots more through Saving Star to hit soon but you just never know with them.

I used my gift card and PayPal money to go even further with my budget.  I actually paid my wonderful friend Christine with PayPal for all the transactions she did for me so it was even $3.70 less out of pocket but I am counting it so that it doesn't get even more confusing with my out of pocket for the month!!

Eating Out

We got take out from Little Caesars Pizza in Pennsylvania for $5.30 and fountain soda from McDonalds for $2.12 on the way back from our trip during the first half of the month.  Our total was $7.42 and we all enjoyed the amazing pizza which came with free cookies and free refills on our soda which is a great price for dinner for three and we had no waiting.  During the second half of the month, I took my son to the splash park with a bunch of friends and they were getting ice cream which was a crazy high $3 each.  He told them that he had ice cream at home and he was fine if they got some and he didn't because he never asked if he could get any, I broke down and bought him one. Then my dad came to town and we bought Chinese food because they were closed for a month and he didn't get it the last few times he was in town and that was $40.65.  My son had a coupon for a free pizza from his summer reading program so we got it the last day of the week which was also the last day of the month and it was $0 which was great because we were well over eating out spending for the month.  We ended up at $51.07 for the month.  It is great that the grocery budget ended so much under budget so that we saved overall for the month.