September No-Low Spend Challenge: Week 4 of The Great Food Fight 2013

 

 

I am pleasantly surprised at how well we did this month on our Grocery Spending. I joined the Great Food Fight In April 2013. Crystal at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff is my motivator.

I don't do spreadsheets so I keep track in a small notebook. Above you can see that we spent $542.00 in Groceries this month. Last month we spent $685.00. This does NOT include personal care or non-perishable purchases. I have not quite figured out what my budget limitations are for those categories but I will be keeping track of them to monitor the purchases.

 

We spent $163.00 in eating out. Not too bad. In August we spent $232.00 in eating out.

Below you can see what was spent on non- perishables and personal care items. Now if you added them ALL together with grocery spending it will come to a total of $642.00, which is still pretty darn good for us.

 

What are our goals for for next month? Groceries, we will TRY to keep the groceries around $500.00. This should be easy because we will be going on vacation the third week of October. In fact, that will definitely affect the grocery budget, won't it?

 

I will still keep track just to see how it all comes out. It should be interesting.

There is also a sub total for our church pantry spending. We designate 10.00 a week to add items to the church pantry. This week I found 7 boxes of Kellogg's cereal on sale at Dollar General.

• How was your grocery spending this month?

CVS Savings

Went to CVS yesterday to get the white albacore tuna that was on sale for 0.98 cents. I also had a CVS coupon $4/20.00 so I also picked up Fish Oil that was BOGO @ $10.99. The Campbell's soup was 0.50 cents with CVS card and the deodorant was BOGO @ $3.29. I also had a CVS coupon $2.00 off two deodorants.
The Manila envelopes I needed to mail some eBay items, they were $3.99. I had another CVS coupon $1.00/$4.00 school supply purchase. So I picked up the binder clips that were clearance @ $1.00. I like binder clips as opposed to paper clips. They can hold papers more securely.

I spent $23.50 with an inflated savings of $32.00.

Grocery Shopping: Update

 Tuesday I went to Aldi's and picked up a lot of produce.  We have been eating salads ( Big salads!) almost every night.   Typically I will buy 3-4 bags of the romaine lettuce, red, yellow and green peppers, cukes, tomatoes.etc.  We have a protein with our salad, usually grilled chicken, grilled shrimp or just sliced sandwich meat (ham or turkey).  

 I also always add kidney beans to our salad.    Another thing I will get at Aldi's is coffee creamer.  This time I picked up two bottles.   And a couple of bags of delicious apples for our lunches and after dinner snacks.

I also went to Winn Dixie to get a few things before the ad changed yesterday.  I guess I should have taken a picture of it because now I don't really remember what I bought.

Here are the totals:
 Aldi:             34.00
CVS              10.00

 Winn Dixie:   19.00
  Total           63.00


  $53.00 For Groceries 9/3
  $49.00 For Groceries 9/2
  $10.00  For Groceries 9/5  (CVS Tuna)
  $31.50 for non-perishable/OTC drugs
  $10.40 Church Pantry
  $153.90 TOTAL



My goal is to keep my GROCERY shopping below $600.00 for September as part of my low/no spend challenge.  Only 25 more days left! :)




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Grocery Shopping: Breaking it Down

Today's shopping includes both grocery and non perishables/personal care items.

Publix:         34.00 (grocery)
Walgreens:  15.00 (grocery)

Kmart:  6.00 (non-perishable)
Walgreens: 14.50 (non-perishable)
Walgreens:  11.00 (NyQuil on sale)

Church Pantry:  13 @ 0.79 each~ Campbell Soup (chicken noodle) $10.40

  $49.00 For Groceries
  $31.50 for non-perishable/OTC drugs
  $10.40 Church Pantry
  $90.90 TOTAL

I still need to pass by Aldi's (they were closed today) and get some produce.  And Winn Dixie had Ground chuck on sale.  Back out tomorrow to pick up some of that.

This 4 day weekend sure gives me a lot of time to keep track of my spending.  I sure hope I can keep up with it the rest of the month. :)



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Dollar General Shopping Trip

 

Even after my excessive grocery spending last month, I still needed to pick up a few necessary items. I decided to go to Dollar General because the stores are small and have what I need AND I don't become overwhelmed and distracted. I can focus on my list and get in and get out. When I go to Publix, I confess I do become distracted with the prettiness of the store and I will buy things I think I cannot live without.

Here is what I spent:

Pyrex detergent pods: $3.50 for a bag of 24

8 pack of coke: $3.75 I take these for lunch

Dial soap: $3.25 for a pack of 6

Conditioner: $3.00 the vinegar rinse was not working for me

Car deodorant: $2.50 for a pack of three ( not on my list )

Noodles: $1.25 last nights beef stroganoff

Coloring books: $1.00 for 2. They were half price and my grandson will enjoy them

Total spent: $20.00

Not bad, but I am hoping for a no spend day today!

 

 

 

Joining The Great Food Fight 2013

The reality of our food budget was not by real. On paper, the food budget was "wonderful"! The numbers were looking good but that is because it was only on paper. Well, I decided to get REAL about our food budget and face the music. My inspiration is from Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff and her Great Food Fight. She and her husband are keeping track of their grocery and eating out spending on a piece of notebook paper tacked on the refrigerator door. You can see an example here.
Here is our notebook paper of shame.... Seriously! I am hanging my head in pure shame and disgust. But, that being said, I am determined to do better for the month of April. After you see the totals that we have for eating out and grocery shopping you can see we have a lot of room for improvement!!

Eating out and grocery shopping has cost us $1166.00 for the month of March. Definitely room for improvement. Our grocery budget included the cost of celebrating my deceased dads birthday ( which made my mom happy) and we did have my mom staying with us so we were buying for her grocery needs too. Somewhat lame excuses, but it is all I got.
We can do better this month by planning a weekly shopping trip instead of every couple of days. Utilize Aldi's more and Publix less.
How are your grocery costs? Are you staying within your budget?