Weekly Shopping tally

First off, check out my new "Calling Card". I got 250 for just the shipping at Vista Print. If you find one around town, let me know!

Ok, Weekly Shopping breakdown for 6/8 - 6/13

I spent:

$3.67 at Albertsons

$9.95 at Yokes

$8.94 at Rainbow

Total Spent: $22.56

I saved:

$41.79 at Albertsons

.30 cents at Yokes

$10.10 at Rainbow

Total Saved: $52.19

That was just for groceries, I also shopped at Walgreens this week but most of the stuff I bought there were cleaning products. At Walgreens I spent $20.36 but I saved $41.76. Over twice as much as what I spent.

Even if I count the Walgreens, Im still under the $50 'guideline" this week.

Leah

Weekly Shopping Diary 5/31-6/6

This week I spent on groceries:

$1.98 at Rainbow Grocery Outlet

$6.50 at Walmart

$4.34 at Albertsons

$10.03 At Safeway

$7.43 at Rosauers

$20.38 at Yokes

Total Spent: $50.66

I Saved(combined store savings and MFRs):

$2.10 at Rainbow

$10.34 at Walmart

$18.93 at Albertson

$16.07 at Safeway

$8.10 at Rosauers

$41.43 at Yokes

Total Savings: $78.10

Not to bad really. My husband just informed me that he "forgot" to tell me that he had brought home 2 Corned Beef roasts that they had marked down so that adds, at my best guess since I dont have the reciept, about $5.00 to the total spent.

Still not bad. Im thinking I can probably take a week or 2 off from shopping as the freezer is pretty stuffed and we got a summers worth of cereal, coffee, canned and boxed food. I plan on doing some freezer cooking and get a supply of easy to heat and eat dinners on hand for the summer.

Leah

Week 4, how did I do?

Pretty Darn Awesome!

This week I spent:

$43.33

I Saved:

$171.31 in store savings, via sales prices and store coupons.

$57.79 in Manufacturers coupons ( I know, kind of a weird number but it was because I had 1 coupon that was for .99 cents)

For a total Savings of: $229.10

Awesome!

Leah

Week 3, how did I do?

This week we really blew the $50.00 or less, but not in a bad way really.

I spent:

.58 cents at Walmart

$4.40 at Albertsons

$85.41 at Yokes

$2.94 at the bread Outlet

Total Spent: $93.34

I saved:

$12.00 at Walmart

$8.60 At Albertsons

67.43 At Yokes

$4.04 at the bread outlet

Total Savings: $93.07

I must back track to explain. We were all well and good at being at $50.00 or less this week. But then, my husband happened apon a really good deal on Rib-eye. Considering we were out of that particular item in the freezer, we could not let it pass. He spent $49.80 on 12.5 lbs. of Rib Eye (you can do the math on that) Anywho, we got 15 steaks, the ribs, and about 1.5 lbs of Stew/Stir fry meat from that. When you break that down, you have 7 steak dinners, a nice stir fry or stew, and ribs for 2 people...9 meat entrees. $5.53 per meal....for 2 people. Go to the Outback Steakhouse and try to match that!

And its not like we eat like that every day, this is a once a week, maybe twice a month meal.

Otherwise, I have been battling what I thought were just allergies for the last month, but at this point have come to the realization that I have a particularly nasty sinus infection or possibly ( YIKES) the dreaded H1N1 flu, so I will be calling my Dr. on Monday to get some Amoxicillian, or what ever he will give me to get this done and gone. All I can say right now is that Im sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Leah

Getting my head around this aka thinking outloud

I have been matching up coupons with sales for about 18 years now, some years better then others, and not as aggressively as I have been in the last 3 weeks, but over time I have developed a shopping habbit that not only includes buying the items that we currently need but also purchasing items I know we will need when the price was right on them. As a result, I started this with a well stocked pantry and nearly full freezer. I still have canned goods and Hamburger helper I paid .50 cents a box for last fall when Yokes and Rosauers had their annual Case sales and we still have frozen chickens that my husband paid .79 cents per lb. for when the store he works at got stuck with several cases of it that they needed to get rid of it.

Which got me to pondering a bit, thinking about how the $50.00 per week budget is really working out .

Many of my purchases this week were for food items that we wont be eating up this week, like the Suddenly Salad, the salad dressings and BBQ sauce, the bag of potatoes and the 4 lbs of cheese and 5 cases of Pop I bought, so how do I factor that into a weekly budget when those items will be used over the next several weeks? What about the Rib Eye my husband is bringing home today? Its going to put me over the $50.oo for this week, but considering that he is a meat cutter and will probably get 2 steaks out of each pound he brings home we will have several steak dinners in the future at $2.00 per steak, how does that factor in? How about the fact that the only thing I purchased this week for tonights meal is the salad, salad dressing and eggs, we already had the hamburger for the meatloaf Im making and the french bread was free anyway.

I need a new way to approach this.

Okay, we NEVER pay full price for meat, my husband makes sure of that. Its also nice to know before hand what is going to be going on sale in the meat department because we can check the freezer and see if it is something we are going to need. If not, we dont buy it (unless it gets marked down even more because the store is getting hung on it).

In the summer when the garden is going we dont buy very much produce either - thats the whole point of having a garden in the first place, why should I spend $1.99 on a bag of salad when I spent less on the seed packet that will give us salad all summer?

Maybe for us, its not a matter of having a weekly budget as so much as keeping track of what we buy, how much we spend and how much we save. I have started a spreadsheet to keep track of this with. Based on the last 3 weeks, I have spent $138.64 for groceries that have not only fed us during this period but will continue to feed us for several more weeks. I have saved $158.35 by purchasing these groceries while they were on sale with coupons.

Here is my new strategy:

• Continue to create a weekly menu. This is a new concept for me but I am finding that it works extremely well. Based on what I already have I can shop the sales for what ever additional items I need to complete that meal. Bonus, Im also remembering to take what I need out of the freezer ahead of time AND Double Bonus, it has effectively put a stop to the daily question of "Whats for Dinner?"
• Continue to aggressively match up coupons with sales for items that I know we will have need of in the future. Keeping in mind that periodically I will go over $50 a week but that the additional spending will be spread out over future weeks.
• Never pay full price for something if it is absolutely un-neccessary!
• Continue to track the spending and savings on a spreadsheet.

As this is my new strategy I will most likely have to tweek it as time goes by but I think it is going to work better for us and the already established shopping habbits we have. Im still going to try to keep the budget at $50 per week or less, but if I go over Im not going to beat myself up about it. Im going to view it as a guide line to curtail any impulse shopping. And on the weeks when we do better, it will be bonus money for the savings account.

Leah

Week 2, how did I do?

This week I spent:

$12.07 at Fred Meyer

$4.16 at Target

$4.11 at the Wonder Hostess Bakery Outlet

$19.43 at Yokes

Total Spent = $39.77

I Saved:

$2.99 at Fred Meyer

$16.59 at Target

The Bakery Outlet is harder to figure out, I bought 1 loaf of whole grain white bread for $1.62, ($2.99 in Yokes)

1 loaf of whole wheat Bread (comparible to Snyder's Hearth brand, $3.99 in Yokes) for $1.49.

1 package of Peanut Butter Cremes for $1.00 (comparable to Nutter Butters $3.79 in Yokes)

Savings at the Bakery Outlet = $6.66

$31.55 at Yokes

Total Savings = $57.79

So, this week I actually met my goal of spending $50.00 or less. Happy Day!!

Leah

Week 1, how did I do?

I did not achieve my $50.00 goal this week :(

Here's the break-down:

2.58 at Walmart
18.28 at Yokes
1.99 at Albertsons
36.42 at Safeway

Total: $59.86

Sooo close...

But, I did save significantly :)
6.00 at Walmart
27.73 at Safeway
3.40 at Yokes

Total savings = $36.63

Plus, I have 1 $10 Catalina from the Safeway Living Well Promotion that expires 5/16 to put toward next week.

The Best Finds:

Kraft Salad Dressing at Walmart was .08 after coupon

Sierra Mist 2 liter bottles at Safeway, purchased 4 at .99 cents each, used the B1G1 coupon from the internet (wish those were still around!), it deducted $1.69 for each coupon so I got 4 bottles of pop for .58 cents, making them .14 cents each.

1 bag of Quaker rice snacks at Safeway, Free after coupon! Thanks http://www.frugalchicliving.blogspot.com/ for pointing this one out :)

6 Boxes of Rice a Roni at Safeway for $4.00, .66 cents each.

4 packages of Mission Tortillas at Yokes, They accept grocery competitor's coupons so I used the Albertson's coupon for .97 cents each, with my 2 Internet coupons for $1 off 1 package making each package .47 cents each. I realize I could have probably gotten 2 free packages but when I thought about it more I decided that .47 was still a great deal considering we eat Tortillas on a regular basis and they do freeze well. Unfortunately, those coupons are no longer available either :( There is something wrong with the Mission Foods website.

And, a good deal of the stuff I bought at Safeway were actually stock up items so I wont have to pay full price for them when I need them for quite some time. Plus, I have a refund for $2.29 to send in too.

So, all in all, for my first attempt at this I guess I didn't do to terribly bad :)

Leah