End of November Grocery Spending and Eating Out Summary

I maintain a monthly budget of $160 for groceries and $40 for eating out to keep my total spending under $200.  I work to shop sales, use coupons and any deal to get the most groceries under my budget.  I have a lot of thing in my pantry, fridge and freezer so I am trying to make a dent in those items and not spend as much time in the grocery store this month.  I normally use the majority of the November budget for two turkeys but I already had one in the freezer so I only got one and my spending was pretty low this month.

Below are the pictures and descriptions of everything that I got with my budget this month.  The purchases at the beginning of the month are broken down here but all the pictures are shown below.

Aldi $3.32

Aldi $18.16

Shoppers $0.10

Giant $32.40

Shoppers $0

My son was in charge of picking out his special treat and paying for it and it ended up free without any tax.  He was pretty excited and the lady at the register was excited for him too!!

Aldi $4.08

I needed potatoes and I knew that they were going to be going on sale with the holidays so I asked my husband to stop and get 30 pounds because it was so heavy and my shoulder was killing me.  He got three bags and one of them had a gross potato that was yucky so I had to go back and return it and get a new one so I got $2.04 back and a free bag.  Of course, I told my husband to check each bag which he said he did but I was happy with my 30 pounds of potatoes for $4!!!

Aldi $10.81

My husband and son went to Aldi in Manassas because there were out there watching a friend play in a soccer game.  There are much cheaper prices out there but I totally forgot what I needed so they grabbed a bunch of things that we will totally use.  We were out of tortilla chips and almost out of corn shells.  The tub margarine is $1.39 close to the house and $0.85 out there so $2.70 savings with that stockup.  The Nacho chips were $0.75 so my husband grabbed those and my son told him that he wasn't allowed unless he called me to ask.  I think that was the answer my son got when he asked but it made me laugh still!!

Aldi $5.20

I went back to the store again and returned the  potatoes and got the ice cream that was requested and celery because it was on sale for $0.99 which is way cheaper then it has been.  I used all of the remaining one to make stuffing so it will come in handy for fried rice and more.

Harris Teeter $30.40

I went to the store the day before Thanksgiving.  I missed the sales for the week and it was the last day so I was a little surprised that it was like Black Friday in the busiest mall because I don't normally head to the store then.  I had to wait for another car to pull out to get a spot.  They were out of one of the sodas that I wanted but grabbed lots more of everything including the baking soda that was $0.19 each.  I was trying to put all the sodas back into the cart and packing the bags with cranberry juice but I guess the coupon didn't scan.  The cashier lady said this doubles to $1 right and I said yes.  She said how many did you get 4 and I said yes and then she put the credit on and I didn't pay attention but she gave me $4 instead of $2.  My distraction was easily seen because I left my cell phone on the thing by the cashier and the guy behind me in line had to point and tell me.  I am obviously not cut out for holiday grocery shopping!!

Aldi $3.57

I went to the store to return the turkey that we had because my husband said that it was gross and the expiration was December 24th so I brought it back and got a free replacement.  The money was then put back towards my grocery total so I didn't have to pay as much.  They have been out of Extra Sharp Cheddar so I got another block of Sharp Cheddar cheese just in case we need it because we are out of cheese.

Giant $0.10

I went to get my freebie yogurt that was loaded on my card.  They were out of the flavor that I wanted so I was thinking that I was going to head to another store but I asked and they went into the back and found it for me.  I got the Cheerios free after printable coupon and there was an additional electronic coupon that gave me $1 overage so I got a box of cake mix to make my son's birthday cupcakes.  He really likes store bought cupcakes so I try to make them for his birthday since I make everything from scratch the rest of the year.  So sad that those are his favorite!!

Shoppers $0

I got to save my freebie on Friday and got to get it today before it expired.  I figure that we will save it for a party but great for free.

Total Retail $252.07

Total Savings $143.93

Total OOP $108.14

I wasn't feeling really well this month so I didn't get to the store to get a lot of deals.  I had plenty of food in the house to work through and still came in way below budget.  We currently have a very full fridge and freezer which I am trying to work my way through things before getting more but hoping to finish lots of things before getting more deals.  Frozen food month is in March so I try, usually without a lot of luck, to empty the fridge before there are more sales.

Eating Out

We took a family trip at the beginning of the month and we bought pizza at Pizza Hut for $22.40.  We were running errands and stopped at Panera to get some treats for all of ours.  I had a gift card which paid for all of it.  We went to Pizza Hut again (my son's favorite new place) and spent $10.60.  Total spent was $33.  We only had $7 left for the month for eating out. My parents came and took us out to my son's favorite restaurant and then bought Chinese the next day.  I feel like we ate out too much this month but that might have just been me!!