September Month End Shopping and Eating Out Budget Update

I work to maintain a monthly budget of $160 for all of our shopping expenses including groceries and other household needs.  I shop sales, use coupons, and combine anything that I can to get the price prices for the items that my family uses.  I stock up on many things so my shopping trips don't always look like other people's trips because I have cases of toilet paper in my stockpile and many bottles of laundry detergent which should last me a long time.  I have a cupboard of pasta, rice and noodles when I get them for cheap or free.  I only get the items that I need when the price is right instead of going out every week and paying for the items that we need for the week.

Below are the things that I have gotten for the month with the amount spent on each transaction.  The transactions at the beginning of the month have more details in my beginning of the month post here.  The end of the month transactions are all broken down here.  I try to tell you how much each item cost so that you can see how I spend my budget.

Aldi $15.10

Harris Teeter $6.39

Harris Teeter $8.05

Harris Teeter $11.66

Harris Teeter $9.30

Harris Teeter $17.48

Harris Teeter $1.82

Wegmans $15.21

Safeway $0

Aldi $7.26

We were out of some things so I ran to the store and they were out of milk which was the most important thing on my list but I got these the rest of the list.

Aldi $2.45 

My second milk stop and it is more expensive at this store which makes me remember why I don't go to this one because it is just a little bit closer.

Harris Teeter $14.95

My weekend deal was the Cottonelle toilet paper which was $3.87 or $0.32 per roll which I got even though I already had a bunch.  Deals are harder to get more recently so anything lower then the $0.75 per roll shelf price is good even though I haven't gotten my stock up price of $0.25 per roll in ages.  There was a freebie of microwave rice which was in a cardboard stand in the dairy section so I was glad to find it.  The lunch meat was a great price at $3.99 and I used a coupon to get $1.50 off so it was $2.49.  I went to get the $0.19 tea and they changed the package again but super excited to add two more to the stockpile that was dwindling because of lack of coupons.  I was excited for $0.97 sugar because I only have two sugars left in my pantry.

Target $0

I used my Swagbucks to order a gift card and went into the store to get my son's vitamins.  We tried a bunch of others but these are the only ones that he likes and it looks like Target has discontinued the one so we might be in trouble again soon but I grabbed them.

Giant $7.71

I went in to get the freebie Duncan Hines cake. I found a bunch of Cheez Its with $1.50 off 2 coupons.  There was also electronic coupons to make it $1.50 each so I got 4 boxes.  I also got one Gerber bananas for $1.35 because there were none at Target when I went.

Aldi $5.59 

I was out again went to the store to grab some more.

Harris Teeter $4.61

Aldi changed the butter that my son has liked for years and it was a little bit of a crisis so I went to a few stores and ended up getting three choices so that we could do a side by side taste test.  I got the Old El Paso Enchilada Kit for $0.39 after sale and coupon.  I got the Eggland's Best with a coupon I found in a magazine for $0.50.  I used a rain check to get a free Kinder Egg.  My favorite deal was the frozen pizza Taste and Tell so we are going to enjoy that for dinner.

Harris Teeter $3.87

We used up all the potatoes we had and the lettuce so I got new at Harris Teeter because it was cheaper then Aldi.

Harris Teeter $3.32

There was a deal on Dixie Crystal sugar and a printable coupon to get them for $1.07 each. Another good addition so I have 9 bags of sugar.

Aldi $10.84

I got a new tub of margarine so that we can use this in the taste test and this is the winner so grateful that this huge thing won't go to waste.  We were also out of milk, ice cream sandwiches and bananas.  I got an extra bag of chicken fries to put in the freezer for next month.

Total Retail $473.63

Total Savings $328.02

Total OOP $145.61

I was excited to come in under budget for the month and get lots of the things that we needed and a bunch of fun things.  In addition, I got back $14.75 in rebates from Ibotta and Saving Star.  I also got back a bunch of points for Swagbucks and Fetch to earn gift cards.  Best news is that it is way better then last month where I was way over budget!!

Eating Out and Take Out

I went out to lunch with my parents and they paid for our salads which were a tasty treat but mostly because we were out and they wanted to do more while we were out instead of going home.  We went out as a family to my son's favorite restaurant and ordered a pizza and salad for everyone to split and my parents bought it.  We went to an event at school and my son got a shaved ice for $4.  We got Pizza Hut take out with a free cheese breadsticks so it was only $8.47.  Total eating out spending for the month was $12.47.