April Month End Budget Update and Eating Out

Normally, I start this section with a statement that our family has set a $160 monthly budget for food and household goods for our family. I shop sales and use coupons and anything else that I can do maintain our monthly budget.  I make most of our bread and treats at home so that we have lots of food to enjoy. This month has definitely seen the rise in creative cooking and making things from the freezer and pantry to make the most out of everything we have.

However, our stay at home order has brought a lot of thoughts up that aren't things that I normally spend a lot of time thinking about.  Do I spend too much time at the grocery store?  Now we are trying to reduce the times out of the house so I have been trying to put in more thought to stocking up on the things that we need to last longer which I thought with a little planning, I would be able to do.  Have you tried to shop less often?  This once a month shopping trip goal is hard to do!!

If someone asked me how many times I went to the store, I would have to say that I have a lot of quick trips and a few bigger or longer trips in a month.  I didn't think that it was way more then other people went to the store.  I have come to wonder if people who say they go once a week really only check out at one store so they have four receipts for groceries for the month.

In the last three months, I went 18 times in January, 25 in February and 23 in March.  Going back and looking for 2019, I averaged 19 check outs every month.  After thinking about it, this doesn't mean that I have gone to the store that many times because many times I do more then one checkout for rebates and to use different coupons but I was amazed.

Check out what I got this month below with the price and the picture.  I think that you will see a lot less trips for the next few months but I am going to have to work a little harder on my planning for what we need.  My biggest problem is that I need to focus on the fact that we are going to be spending a lot more money on groceries because 20 trips to the store isn't going to happen to search for the lowest price and stock.

Giant $20.06

I went to the store to get ketchup because it was on sale and we were out which is a big issue in our house.  I try to stay aware of what we have in the pantry and when we are running low but I guess I missed someone taking the last few out because we were down to no ketchup.  I had been to a few stores last month and not had any luck finding any in stock.  I decided that while  I was there that I would pick up my son's favorite chips because they were on sale (still crazy high pricing).  I also got my husband and son's favorite cereal (way more then I ever spend on cereal and one is missing from the picture because it already got broken into and the box recycled). I also grabbed a Cran Grape because I walked by it on the way to the chips and it was on sale (for more then I ever pay but we were almost out).  Forgot to look to see if they had carrots in the store because I hate the way the store is arranged because I come in to the store in the middle and I was wearing all my protective gear and trying to fit all my stuff in my hands and not use a cart.

Target $0

used Gift Card (my husband got at work)

I went there to see if they had any clearance jellybeans.  Yup, this is what my life has come to!! My husband and my son were out of jelly beans and what would be a normal pop in trip with other errands turned into trying to find parking and figure out how I could walk up the escalators with no hands and then walk around the whole store to get to the back without passing out for heat exhaustion with my mask on.  I got barely on sale jelly beans and decided to do self checkout because they only had two registers open and I forgot to enter my phone number for my cartwheel or scan anything for that matter.  Super bummed because of course there was a discount but do you know how hard that is to do with gloves?  Used a gift card and walked away with candy so going to call it a win.

Safeway $0

used Gift Card (earned from Monopoly game)

I went to the store to get ice cream because it was on sale there and I had the gift card we got for free with our points.  Well, the ice cream aisle was empty but I managed to get a few other things that I had coupons for to get free.  I added a few other things into my cart that I thought my family might enjoy with my free gift card but making sure that I left enough for the ice cream at another store.

Safeway $0

used Gift Card (earned from Monopoly game)

I stopped at the second Safeway and they have some of the ice cream but most importantly, the one that my son wanted.  I got three and one mint chocolate chip for all of us to share.

Lidl $37.90

I went with a long list to try to get at Lidl and Aldi which are across the street from each other.  This was the first time that I have had to stand in line to get into the store because they are limiting the number of people in the store.  It was a fairly quick moving line with larger stickers on the ground where to stand and there was an employee at the front cleaning carts so that we could have a clean one when got to the front.  I was glad that they had lots of stock and my very small cart was over flowing with things...mostly junk food.  I got some refrigerated stuff that got wiped down and brought in including three big blocks of extra sharp cheddar cheese, two blocks of mozzarella cheese, two dozen eggs, a package of pepperoni, a package of lunch meat, and head of ice berg lettuce.  I left all the other food in the garage for 5 days because we didn't need them right away.  I got 9 different bags of chips, box of brownie mix, box of penne, graham crackers, bottle of ketchup, crispy rice cereal and two bags of marshmallows, and clearance jelly beans.  I forgot to write down the juice that my husband had liked and I didn't go into the last aisle so totally didn't even see it but I was happy with what I got.

Aldi $52.83

I went to Aldi and waited in a much longer line with so many people and there were no marks where to stand so you had to hope that other people kept their distance.  I had gone through the list and crossed through the things that I had already gotten and made sure that I kept my eyes out for anything we might want or need.  I went a little crazy stocking up on things we use to try to last a month.  I think that was because I really didn't like the line and I don't know how often I am going to be able to do that store.  For freezer stuff, I got three bags of chicken fries and two boxes of ice cream bars (not pictured because I think my husband put them in the freezer first).  For the refrigerated items, I got milk, 2 dozen eggs, baby carrots, two mozzarella cheese, shaky cheese (as it is known in our house), 5 packages of stick margarine, two tubs of butter and sour cream.  I got potatoes because we were almost out of all those ones that I picked up at the Lidl opening.  I got minced onion because I was out for awhile and keep forgetting but I finally added it to the list.  I got 5 bags of chips (in case all the ones that I bought at Lidl weren't enough).  The graham crackers were purchased to compare to the Lidl ones so that my son and husband could pick their favorite ones.  My husband also wanted bananas so I got him two.  I am certainly going to try a different time next time I have to go and maybe a different location but it was well stocked and I got a ton of things.

Total Retail $225.85
Total Savings $116.84
Total Rebates $0.75
Total OOP $108.26

Moral of the story is that I am not ready for once a month shopping but I did try to plan out my trips for the best.  I only three trips out this month.  I didn't plan enough or add things to the list this month like I did last month.  I am going to put the list on the fridge again and add things when I think of them or use them up.

I have planned out my monthly menu plan using the things in the house but I don't often think about the other small things because I normally pick them up during my other shopping trips so I have to put more thought into ingredients in baking and other products we might need for breakfasts and lunches.  I am working on it but I think that three trips out of the house isn't that bad in comparison to previous months.  I stayed well under budget but didn't actually get anything to help in coming months so this low budget will catch up with us in the next few months.  How are you doing??

Eating Out 

We haven't spent anything on eating out this month because we decided as a family that it was safest and easiest if we stayed at home as much as possible so eating out budget was $0.