Well, I totally BUSTED my food budget for the week and the month! I just couldn’t help myself, there were such good deals at Publix and Kroger that I wanted to make a run. Notice I said “wanted”, not needed. If I had been better the first week of the month, and not overspent at Costco, in particular, I would have been much better off.
So, my first lesson learned is… start of the monthly grocery budget on the right foot – in the black! I think it sets the tone for the whole month. If I tend to spend a lot more one week and try to do less the next, I am learning I don’t do well. There is a reason I spend roughly $40 per week and not $80 one and $0 the next.
I made three trips this week: Walmart, Publix and Kroger. I didn’t get any pictures of my runs, but if you guys think that would be fun, I will try to start doing that each week. Would that be helpful?
First off, there is a reason I don’t go to Walmart (especially on a Saturday), and I was reminded of it when I went. I went was to return a large caddy that broke, and I figured I would use some coupons to get a few things free in the process. I only spent roughly $6 OOP for items below:
$1.50 Wheat Hoagie Buns – day old
$.90 Loaf Homemade bread – day old
3 lbs bananas, marked down to $.31/lb
2 Johnson’s Buddies Soaps – FREE
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda – FREE
My trip to Publix was much more fruitful. I had a TON of coupons, in fact, I had to pick up one thing that didn’t require a coupon so I would have 21 coupons and 21 items (register won’t let you pay out if you have more coupons than items). My total before savings was $ 59.12, I saved $ 36.71 and my total OOP was $ 22.41.
Here is what I got…
2 – Juicy Juice
2- Egg Beaters
2 – Pam Sprays
2- Snuggle
6 – Rotel (Free!)
2- Nestle Cookie Dough
Free Paper Towels (Penny Item)
Sunday Paper
2- Adam & Eve Organic Juice Boxe 3-packs $.49/ea
6 – Jars Beech Nut BabyFood
Lastly, I just had to hit the Kroger Mega Mix n’ Match Sales Event one more time, because the cheese was such a good deal! This is where I didn’t do so well in sticking to a budget (even though I was already WAY over), I picked up a few items that we did need – but maybe not right now, and I found them 50% off (sippie cups and pizza cutter, added about $6 to my total, ugh!!). I also found strawberries at $.99/lb and 4 packages of marked down whole wheat bread hoagies/buns.
My total before savings was $ 78.54, I saved $ 39.79 and my total OOP was $38.57.
4 lbs strawberries $.99/ea !!
4 – Whole Wheat Buns/Hoagies – $.99 marked down
2 – Nabisco Crackers Mustard
4 – Kraft Singles & Bars
Pace Salsa
Philly Cream Cheese
Fiber One Bars
3 – Kroger Brand Shred Cheese
Sippie Cup/Pizza Cutter
Grapes & Tomatoes
Turkey Pepp
marshmallows
dry milk (for breadmachine)
My shopping overview: Week of January 25th
Publix: $ 22.41
Kroger: $ 38.57
WalMart: $ 6.00
Total: $ 66.98
Over Food Budget for January: $ 57.74
(Ugh…I did horrible this month!)
How did you do? Whether or not you posted your purchases for the week, please take a moment to post about your shopping week. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don’t have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your ideas in a comment.
I’ve been so excited about this whole concept that I stocked up on several things I use ALL the time, which was great, but I also blew my budget by not coming up w/ a budget in the first place! I have been trying to nail down a budget for months now (for everything, not just groceries) and the project has become my albatross…but I’m still working on it. However, we have been low or out of a lot of budget busters (formula, cereal bars, diapers, chicken) so a lot of my expense was there. I’m going to try to buy only milk and produce during the ENTIRE month of February. Hopefully I can stick to it.
I had a pretty good run at Publix, but I made some rookie mistakes. The first was I forgot that you don’t have to buy 2 items to get BOGOF, so now I have 2 big containers of mayo that both expire in July. Time to start making casseroles! I also made an impulse buy of sushi (5.99) which I didn’t need.
Here’s what I got:
2-Kraft mayo
6-Quaker granola bars (fave kid snack but pricey so I took adv. of BOGOF)
2-turkey pepperoni
1-Pam spray
30-Earth’s best baby food (I’m trying to get in the habit of making my own baby food, but sometimes I really need the jars on hand so I thought I’d stock up while they were BOGOF, plus I had one Food Lion competitor coupon and 3 $1 off 10 MFC).
2-Hunt’s diced tomatoes
4-Publix whole chickens (0.89/lb.) – this was roughly 1/2 of what Kroger’s price was last week
2-Egg beaters
4-Oscar meyer hot dogs (BOGOF)
1-Similac formula (I was very proud of myself here b/c I was able to beat my everyday low Costco price and got the formula for 0.75 Unit price (Costco is normally 0.81). I used a $3 off cpn from Publix’s Yellow Adv. Flyer and a $3 off Food Lion competitor cpn.
My total before savings was $155.44. My savings was $61.43. My out of pocket was $94.01 Not great, but I’ve been spending $200+ per grocery store trip.
I also went to Kroger, but this ended up being a “want” rather than “need” trip. I made a huge mistake when I saw 2 salad dressings on sale, remembered I had a cpn. for it, found the cpn. then FORGOT to give it to the cashier. Ugh! Anyway, I got things that we will use…just not things we need ASAP.
1-Armour frozen meatballs
4-Green Giant steamers (I used peelies on the bags in combo w/ other MFC I had)
1-Gerber baby oatmeal (used Catalina from last trip…but still pricey)
4-Lean cuisines
2-Suave shampoo
2-Wheat Thins
2-French’s mustard
2-Kraft cheese cubes
2-milk (1/2 gallons were on sale for cheaper than price of 1 gal)
2-Kraft dressings
Total cost before savings: $61.13 Total Savings $30.51 Total OOP $30.62
I didn’t get a chance to do any bargain shopping at Publix or Kroger since I spent all $60 at Kroger on Monday for essentials. Nothing I needed was cheap. ARGH. I tried to do a CVS deal on Soy Joy bars. According to Thrifty Mama blog, they were buy 6, get 6 ECB. That was not the case for me. Luckily, I had a CVS GC to pay for the OOP, and my kids LOVE the bars.