Groceries Are Not Cheap

$15.82 was the cost of items above. That's not a lot of food for that amount. My budget is only $60 for two weeks, that's one forth of it! Outrageous! One of the biggest expenses from this particular trip was the organic cinnamon. It's well worth it because I need it for my raisin & cinnamon baked oat meal and my pumpkin muffins. Nummy!

For some time now I've been following a blog about eating real whole food. (100 Days Of Real Food) I've thought about going organic for sometime, but have come across the idea that it's even better to eat less processed foods. The best combo is unprocessed, organic & local. Unfortunately it's expensive! I read through the original 100 days and then 100 days on a budget. No getting around it, it's a costly undertaking.

So how exactly do I go from a $15 per person per week budget buying what ever appeals to me and is affordable to real food? I don't know. I hope that I can make some starting rules for myself. There is no way on earth I could afford to go complete 'real food' as I would like, but I can try darn it!

First I need to do some major research and price checking. I already started by writing down prices from Target of items I would like to buy. (Or at least fit my definition of 'real food' for the moment.) I've also looked into a local Dairy farm that has milk (obviously), chickens, eggs and beef for sale. It's only about 15/20 minutes from my apartment! That's exciting! Not so exciting is the price $4 for a 1/2 gallon of milk, $4 for a dozen eggs, $10 per pound of cheese? Yikes! What am I getting my limited budget into?

Shopping, or Not

Trip from last month.

I haven't been shopping as much lately. Part of it is because I don't see as many exciting deals as I did a year ago. Another part is all the change in policies. (Rite Aid anyone?) The biggest reason is I'm a little burnt out. I've built up a nice health and beauty stock pile for myself and my Sweetheart. (We don't need anything for a while.) I really want to work on my grocery stock, but with the cash so tight, there is hardly room for extras.

I wonder what direction I should be taking this blog exactly. I started out wanting to write about getting out of debt. I thought a monthly update was good, but I need some more content in between. So my shopping trips got posted. I think I would like to refocus a little on the debt climbing. Not sure how, but I'll give it a shot. Hopefully I'll come up with something soon.

Grocery Shopping!

Vegetable run! June 29, 2011


Time to catch up on this one as well. Again I don't have pictures of everything that I bought nor do I have all my receipts. It's a good thing I pay cash for groceries otherwise I would go way over budget. My major shopping for the past two weeks was done on Wednesday. I'm so glad that I had a day off to start catching up. (Today is baking day!)

They sent out more $10 off $20 purchase! I love cutting the bill in half. I ended spending more because they had the steamer bags on sale for $1. That's my buy price as I haven't seen it go much lower. I managed to hold on to my receipt this week and confirmed that coupon double. At least $.50 and below do. I really should ask CS about that.

Total Price of Merchandise: $42.98
Sales Savings: $10.33
Coupons: $10.90
Coupon Double: $.90
Total Spent: $20.85

This was an expensive trip for the items I got. I bought Turkey Burgers for dinner to have with a friend. I'm happy to say everyone thought they were awesome. $4 for 4 burgers isn't too bad, it's at least cheaper than eating out. (Which Sweetheart and I have been doing far too often lately.) The other big expense is the nutmeg. I want to attempt a better spice mix for my pumkin muffins. (It worked)

Total Price of Merchandise: $33.52
Sales Savings: $1.49
Coupons: $2.75
Coupon Double: $.25
Total Spent: $29.03

I leave a picture of my first use of my bento box. ^_^ I love it!

Monday Madness - Catch Up Time

It's been a busy week and it's time to catch up with all the shopping I've managed to get in. This week looks as if will also get crammed together. I'm so hoping I can keep on top of things better. *fingers crossed*

Sometimes I hate grocery shopping. I love actually going to the store and picking out what I'll be eating. I love being able to choose organic versions of items when possible. (See the Nature's Promise Ketchup?) What I hate is when I get to the checkout. I think I managed to get some good deals (pasta on sale for $1 and a $1/1 coupon = free!), but things add up quickly. For the money I spend I feel as if I don't get a whole lot. I do the best that I can. I could certainly do worse.

Total Price of Merchandise: $43.95
Sales Savings: $6.35
Coupons: $5.50
Coupon Double: $.50
Total Spent: $31.60

Occasionally I'm asked by my parents to pick up some things. I would like more time to go shopping for them, but often I get asked to pick up things only two or three days before I see them. As I only get a chance to visit about every two or three weeks my next visit is when I need to bring the requested items. I didn't do too badly. $47.97 CVS retail price for $25.53 between the sales, my discount & coupons. Not bad for last minute shopping. (This trip was done on June 18th.)

My own CVS shopping was done late this past week. Things just kept slipping my mind. I better not that happen this week. I'm hoping to get in on the Dove deal! (See here.) I also treated myself to the nail polish pictured here. I love the sparkle it has. I got $5 EB Beauty Club reward and wanted to splurge a little. $7.89 for that one bottle! Ah well, I really love the color. Short and simple summary for this trip.

Total Price of Merchandise: $29.76 (Not pictured 3 more Honest Teas)
Sales Savings: $5.90
Coupons: $2.00
Extra Bucks Received: $17.48 (I included the Beauty Rewards even though I actually spent it.)
Net: $4.38, not bad

Last, but not least was a trip to Old Navy. Last year they did a spectacular special on camis for $2. This year it was on tanks. I'm lucky I was able to get in about 15 minutes after they opened. It was busy! I could have gotten 10 total, but only ended up with 9. I actually made a deal with a friend that I would buy 5 for me and 5 for her. She would then go in and do the same if there was anything left. She managed to find me 4 and only one for herself. We swapped tanks and the difference in cash. I love how it turned out, some for me and some for her. ^_^

Monday Madness - Shopping!

I did some shopping yesterday. I wish I had more time other than on the days I have off from both my jobs. I would like just a day to relax, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Maybe in the beginning of August?

A quick stop at Gaint for my newspapers. I would like to just get a Sunday subscription, but it's the same as buying from the news stand. What's the point then? I know that there are a few times a year when there are no coupon inserts. Why waste the money? Unfortunately this usally has me picking up something unexpected. I spotted a 'new' flavor of Greek Yougurt. Yum! Also Hebrew National hotdogs are BOGO this week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to buy up some extra this week. (Depends on funds.)

Total Price of Merchandise: $16.52 (includes 3 Newspapers, not pictured)
Sales Savings: $4.99
Coupons: None :(
Total Spent: $11.53 (W00T!)

Food Loin has sent out more of the $10 off $20 purchase coupons. I've asked a few of my friends in the area if they aren't interested in them I will gladly take them! It's a big help stretching the budget. Unfortunately I didn't get my receipt from my trip. At least I got my change! (And I have a half decent memory)

Total Price of Merchandise: $??.?? (At least $30!)
Sales Savings: $??.??
Coupons: $15.90
Total Spent: $16.72 (WOW! I love this coupon!)

Monday Shopping

Actually one of these trips is from last week. I didn't get a chance to post because in the middle of my shopping I got a call from a co-work and she was sick. Really sick. Could I come in and work her 9 hour shift? Uh . . . sure. Just let me get home to change. I found my receipt from that purchase, but I lost the one from today. How did I manage that?

Not pictured Nature's Promise Frozen Blue Berries.

Total Price of Merchandise: $20.53
Sales Savings: $1.20
Coupons: $2.00 (2 $1 off any Laura's Lean product from the manufacture web site)
Total Spent: $17.33

Lost my receipt, but I remember my total was $30.24. That's almost my entire week of grocery money! The meat & milk alone make up almost half. Hopefully I'm stocked on milk for the next two or three weeks. Too bad I forgot to get myself some bread. I'll just have to pick up some latter.

I've been doing more cooking of late. I made up some pasta with the Philadelphia cooking cream I got a while back. It's so good! Just have to watch how much I eat. Also tried to make a blue berry buckle recipe I found some where. It calls for a crumb topping, but I skipped it figuring the last thing I need to add to it was more sugar. Baked oatmeal is another thing I made this weekend after work. I love baked oatmeal. At the moment I'm trying to find good deals on oatmeal so I can keep making it. It's great for a quick breakfast.

Monday Madness and Then Some

Mondays are turning out to be my day to run around everywhere. At least when I don't have to be at work until 3pm. Running around for most of the morning and then working latter in the evening means I don't have much time for posting. Tuesdays are a 'break' for me as I usually am working at my part time job and cook something for dinner. Wednesdays are often early mornings with cleaning to do in the evening. Thursday being a long day means no posts until latter. I like the idea of being able to have a routine. It's nice. Now if only I can keep it that way for a few weeks. Anywho . . .

Today I have some extra time so I thought I would share some of my shopping trips this week. Okay, two of them are technically last week, but I'm putting them here anyway. Target is always a strange sort of fellow. I still haven't figured out if overage is a normal thing or not on coupons. I wasn't planning on any at all this time because of all the adjustments made last time. I'm happy with the result. I needed to use up my Nivea coupons and Sweetheart desperately needed some Benadryl.

Men's Nivea $3.19
Women's Nivea $2.03
Benadryl 100ct $11.29
Total Before Coupons: $16.51

$3/1 Men's Nivea
$3/1 Women's Nivea
$1/1 Benadryl (found a manufactures coupon booklet for allergies at CVS)
Total After Coupons: $9.51 (actually $9.46 because the coupons created a negative tax of $.05!)

Target, could you kindly make up your mind? I think you should allow the overage as your competitor Walmart does. (Makes sense to me.)

Saturday night I decided to try out a new store: Food Loin. It opened up a few months back, but I hadn't been in to see the prices at all. With another grocery store right across the street does it really make sense to drive 10 minutes out of the way? (Yes, I'm spoiled with the grocery store being across the way.) A $10 off a $20 purchase is enough to entice this girl.

It wasn't super spectacular or anything. They don't double coupons or have a big ad. Some prices are slightly high than my normal store and others are slightly lower. (Comparing the prices of items I normally buy.) I was happy to find my Fruitables juice boxes on sale 2/$4! I've never seen them on sale, ever! Now priced at $2.75 for the lowest price I ended buying a few of these on the spot. Also ended up with some frozen veggies which ended up with me spending a bit more than I intended for this particular trip. It did save me from having to store at my regular store on the way home. (Needed veggies any way.)

Total Price of Merchandise: $44.41
Sales Savings: $7.00
Coupons: $10.00
Total Spent: $27.41 (Not to shabby)

I've stopped at Gaint a few times this week. First I needed my newspapers for the coupons. Second my parents have a cat and had coupons to buy up some cat food cheap! More than happy to oblige. Had to be quick about it as they expired on Monday. Also there's a special deal at Gaint on Oscar Mayer Sub deal. (See here.) I was more than happy to take advantage of. Few more coupons from a co-work and run it again. (Didn't take a picture of that one.)

Merchandise (Including 3 Newspapers): $17.31
Sale Savings: $1.39
Coupons Savings: $.35
Double Coupon: $.35
Total Spent: $15.22

Merchandise: $24.81
Sale Savings: $3.87
Instant Savings: $3.00
Coupons Savings: $15.00
Total Spent: $2.94 + $.18 tax = $3.12 (Parents will reimburse me for kitty food!)

While I managed to get something for the Kitty, I couldn't get in on a deal for the girls. Petsmart is running a special on some dog treats that paired with sale & coupon are free. (I forget which blog I spotted it on.) They were completely out and none in the back. I inquired about getting a raincheck. They do rainchecks! I'm very happy about this. It has to be in an ad flier & a manager needs to sign off on it. I'm hopping I will be able to get some in the next deliver before the sale is over, if not I have a raincheck. (As long as they come in before the coupon expires.)

Freebies!

When my Sweetheart went to Giant to get my weekly newspapers he found some free coupons! Why people just left all this lying around is beyond me. So I went & made a special trip just with these. Too bad they were out of the Breath Rights. Sweetheart could have used those last night. The vitamin water Q wasn't for a free product per-say. Giant does have vitamin water on sale this week for $1. I thought I would give it another try as it was free. (I haven't liked they in the past at all.) As an added bonus I found a coupon for free OJ! They were out of that as well, but I have some time to use up the coupons.




The pasta wasn't free from Giant, but from Weis. They have it on sale for $1 & I happen to get a $.50/1 Q which they doubled to $1! Sweet!

Quick Trip To Gaint

I normally don't post to many of my grocery store trips. I usually go about once a week or once every two weeks depending on how well stocked up we are. Just picking up some basics this week: bread, cottage cheese, bananas. I ended up with more produce because Gaint has a $1 off $5 produce purchase. While there I looked for Wholly Guacamole as they are offering a $4/1 coupon which makes for a really cheap product or free. The Wholly Queso was BOGO @ $4.99 and I found $1/1 peelies on them. FREE! W00T! so lunch is consisting of veggies dipped in the queso and an egg.

I don't buy Tropicana, but Gaint sent out coupons in the mail for a free one if you make a $15 purchase this week. I'll take free. There was also a coupon for free Eggo Waffles, however I'm still working on the last batch. (See here.) If you were lucky Gaint had double coupons in their flier inside the Sunday paper. That means $4 to me! Also I picked up the Pilsbury bisckets that are $.53 each. Gaint is participating in the Catalina when you buy 6 you get a $3 off you next order. Sweet! Six small cans for $.18!

The reason I'm posting is I was surprised when I rang up at the self checkout for $38.xx before coupons. I am almost never that high, ever! Turns out if there are special deals were you must buy in bulk to get $ off it will not show up until your done with coupons at the self checkout. Same goes for BOGO. After all was said and done my total came down to $13.81. ($13.81 - $3.00 cat = $10.81!) *dances* I love couponing.

Free Aqua Pods Finally

Last week the 8pk aqua pod were on sale for $1 each at Gaint. Unfortunately they were out all week! I checked on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. I even asked if they could a few packs for me. Got a call Thursday that they didn't get any in, repeat on Friday and I didn't even bother with Saturday as I had to leave for early for work.

Now I saw on some other blog (I can't remember which one) that the aqua pods are also on sale this week for $1! Why is this so exciting? Buy 3 packs of deer park (or associated brands) get $3 off you next order. FREE! No coupons necessary. Sweet! I happen to have $1.50 off two deer park water (specifically the aqua pods). These coupons beeped, but the cashier happily pushed them through.

In addition I was excited to see that the Schick Hydro Raisers were still $3 off regular price, which left the 3 blades at $5.33 each. I had two $5/1 coupons making them $.33 each. I was really regretting not getting them last week. I have a feeling the free raisers might be done for a while.

To make things easy I grabbed my favorite packing juice, Apple & Eve Fruitables! Regularly priced at $2.50 each I had $.50 coupons which doubled to $1.00. So my four transactions went like this (separate transactions for my regular groceries which included the raisers):



3 Aqua Pods 8pk (11oz each) @ $1.00 each = $3.00
Apple & Eve Fruitables $2.50
Total Before Coupons: $5.50

$.50/1 Apple & Eve
$.50 Gain Double
$1.50/2 Aqua Pods
$3 off your next order
~first one from buy 6 Pillsbury refrigerated dough get $3 off you next order
Total After Coupons: $0.00 FREE!

Received:
$3 off you next shopping order

Repeat above!

FREE EGGO!

If you haven't heard, you can score FREE EGGOS at Giant Food Stores this week. Check out For The Mommas here to see the details. This deal is only good 'til Saturday, better hurry!

Shopping Trips!

More shopping trips! I love shopping when I can get great deals. The only time I really hate shopping is when I go to buy clothing. I loathe clothes shopping. *gerr* Any who . . . Here are some deals I picked up this past week and on Sunday. I’m a bit disorganized as I worked all weekend, so I seem to be missing a receipt. This is not good in that it had some Kraft items on it I would have used for a rebate. *sighs*




These were outside my door before I even went shopping on Friday. Saturday I received a sample pack from Always "Being A Girl" website.




The grand total was just under $10 with coupons from Giant. I also received a $3.00 off your next order for the purchase of the scrubbing bubbles spray. This is the one with missing receipt. Where did it go?




I managed to score the 100 calorie pack deal again from target. Also received a $5 gift card. Total came to $6.18. ($1.18 if you take out the gift card.) Not to shabby.




My standard CVS trip. The shampoo is actually a CVS brand, even though it doesn't say that. I used a $1.00/1 CVS hair care to get it free. The lip gloss & deoderant were free after coupons and extra bucks.

Always Check Your Reciept!

Yesterday was a reminder to myself to always watch the price as an item get rung up. it was just a small filler grocery visit of orange juice, bread and fresh fruit. While there I always check the price of a few items, because not every sale at the grocery store is advertised.

One of my favorite kind of hot dogs if Hebrew National. They're so good! Unfortunately they are also on the expensive side, $4.99/7 hot dogs. YIKES! According to the tag they were on sale for $3. At the register it rings up at $3.99. My sweetheart runs to double check and be sure we didn't make a mistake and then we have a confused clerk looking through the sale flier only to see several other brands of hot dogs on sale. (Unadvertised sale!) Another clerk (a supervisor perhaps?) runs back to check on it. We were correct in reading the price tag and because it rang up incorrectly we got it free. SCORE! A favorite item for FREE! It pays to keep a close eye on the register screen as you get rung up. ^_^

A stop at Weis markets made a good deal for Wacky Mac pasta. I like the name and the colorful noodles. A 10/$10 sale is awesome when paired up with 2 $.50/1 and 2 $1/2 coupons. Six bags of pasta for $2! Sweet!

My trip to target was not nearly as fruitful. Jergens has a $2/1 coupon at coupons.com. There is a short form to fill out (it's listed as an offer). The coupon does not specify any size restrictions. This usually means you can get a trail size for free. They don't have it. *growls* They also didn't have Kraft Homestyle deluxe Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, which I got a manufactures coupon from Kraft's First Taste. Nor did they have Kraft's 100 calorie cheese packs.

I am happy to say they did have some other items I was looking for. In my transaction I bought:



4 Nabisco 100 calorie pack cookies $10.16 (4 different kinds, $2.54 each)
Bic 7 count pens $.99 (found a bonus size)
Kraft Mayo w/ Olive Oil 12oz $2.64
Total Before Coupons: $13.79

2 coupons Nabisco BOGO $5.08 (via facebook for liking their product, $2.54 each)
Coupon Target Free 100 calorie pack wby 3 $2.54 (Target.com)
Coupon Kraft Mayo w/ Olive Oil Free $2.64 (Kraft's First Taste)
Coupon Bic stationary product $1.00 (Bic.com)
Coupon Target Reusable bag $.05 (just bring in a reusable bag, first time I've done this one)
Total After Coupons: $2.48 (Good deal.)