November Month End Shopping and Eating Out Budget Update

I work hard to stay under my $160 monthly budget every month using sales, coupons and gift cards to get the best deals to stock up on.  Getting to the end of the year means that I know how I am doing for the whole year which has been a little bit higher then I have been in past years.  I am also above the average for both monthly grocery spending and take out spending.  The great news is that I already had a turkey in the freezer for Thanksgiving so I wasn't out looking for the deal on that this month.  The bad news is that the local paper only including Smart Source inserts and the prices of groceries increasing means I haven't been getting as many deals in recent months. 

I just realized that I didn't get the end of the month budget review posted earlier because I kind of missed the month ending.  I know that I was at the store a lot at the beginning of the month and not as much at the end of the month because of the holiday and family visiting.  The beginning of the month posts are broken down in my half post here so I removed the descriptions here but left the picture and the amount spent on each transaction.  All of the transactions from the second half of the month have the total spent, picture and the break down of what I got at the store.

Better late then never for my November shopping totals!!

Wegman's $2.03

Wegman's $2.03

Wegman's $23.82

Harris Teeter $13.09

Harris Teeter $0.61

Aldi $15.04 

Harris Teeter $11.38

Aldi $4.48 

Harris Teeter $5.65

Wegman's $3.04

Harris Teeter $0.61

Harris Teeter $0.61

Harris Teeter $0.61

Harris Teeter $0.41

Harris Teeter $0.61

Harris Teeter $0.61

Harris Teeter $0.61

Harris Teeter $0.61

Giant $2.04

There was a weekend deal to get cereal where they were $0.99 each and I had a coupon for $1 off 3.

Giant $2.04

I had a free coupon loaded for the bread and the cereal was on sale for $0.99 each but there was a coupon if you bought three boxes.

Harris Teeter $9.02

We were out of potatoes and iceberg lettuce so I got them here because they were cheaper then Aldi.  I got the turkey lunch meat on sale and my friend printed me a coupon because I used mine and couldn't print anymore.

Aldi $11.70

I was out of all of this and decided to run to the store to get  marshmallows for Rice Krispie Treats and celery for the Thanksgiving stuffing.  We needed shortening for the deep fryer.  We were out of cheese and bananas so I got some of them.

Target $0

I went to Target and used a gift card for these and got a little Christmas gift with what was left of the gift card.

CVS $0.08

I was super sick and went to the store to get medicine.  They gave me a coupon for $1 off Softsoap and I got a $1 ECB so this was free.  I got $3 back in ECB and I didn't make it back to the store to spend.  I hate doing that but I am so much out of the game that I am going to just call it a win on the one soap.

Harris Teeter $15.35

We went to get soda and we had to go to two different stores before we found the ones that we wanted.  It didn't seem like too hard of an order but the first store was out of all Fanta and the we almost those the second store was out of Sprite but my husband found it on an end cap.

Aldi $0

My parents went to Aldi to get a few things and ended up throwing in all this stuff for us so it was a great bonus grocery shopping trip that didn't come out of my grocery budget.

Total Retail $376.89
Total Savings  $250.81
Total OOP $126.08

Amazing stock up month with 70 boxes of pasta and 40 pounds of flour.  I also got a lot of meat which has been enjoyed and frozen to enjoy later.  I made a bunch of pumpkin and chili to freeze to add to my stockpile.  Love having quick meals in the freezer in case there isn't time to make dinner.

Eating Out

We got Pizza Hut for $8.47 at the beginning of the month and enjoyed some yummy pizza.  We got another pizza later in the month for $8.47 ad then again the next weekend for $8.47.  My parents bought us Chinese food which was a yummy dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day with even more leftovers to use in fried rice.  I took my parents to First Watch for lunch while we were out shopping and they super enjoyed it (looking at the calendar it was actually December but still including it).  Best part is that I used my gift card so it was nothing out of pocket.  Total Spending $25.41 spent for the month