Shopping for Good Deals

For once I actually got up early and hit the stores to find some good deals. Our local Kmart was participating in the Super Double coupon promotion, where coupons for up to $2 will double. I picked up some lotion, cat treats, candles, oral hygiene products, and band-aids/gauze (about $30 worth in total) for $1.50

I hit up CVS for this week's freebies, more school supplies, some headphones, and mini first-aid kits. I also stopped off at the local grocery store to get some almost free air freshener (the sort that spray every so many minutes, for only $.29/ea - normally $12.99). I also picked up a few essentials, namely kitty litter and some stuff for the dog. 

Including the scoop of ice-cream that I stopped off for on the way, today's total was around $25. Not bad, and that leaves me with $25 left for other groceries for the rest of the week (and the pantry & fridge are pretty well-stocked right now). 

Of course, that says nothing about the $65 spent eating out this weekend. Or the $100+ at the home improvement superstore... 

June Grocery Budget

Aside from restaurants, groceries have been the biggest source of unnecessary spending. For just the two of us, our typical weekly grocery bill was $100-125, depending on how many personal care items (shampoo, toothpaste, etc.) we threw in the cart. 

We'd have a good mix of food, from healthy produce to convenience items and everything in between. We tended to buy name brands for many items - soda, cake mix, lunch meat, chips, cereal, cleaning products. We had a few things that we would only buy the premium brand - ice cream, hot dogs. And then we'd buy store-brand for other things - frozen vegetables, flour & sugar, bread. 

I noticed that certain grocery stores (especially the local chains or smaller box stores, like Kroger) tended to be more expensive. If I did a full week's worth of shopping, the bill at the checkout would be $25-50 more. Many of their items, even with a sale price, were more expensive than the everyday price at some of the other (bigger) grocery stores in the area.

I tried several months ago to reduce the weekly grocery budget to $50, and I failed miserably. I could make it for two weeks or so spending only $50 a week on groceries, but then we'd have run out of all the useful food in the house, and I would have to stock up on essentials (noodles, baking stuff, canned foods and sauces), produce, and/or meats - so we'd end up with a $150 or $200 grocery bill, and it would all even out to around $100/wk. 

It took some practice, but I've gotten better about balancing out the grocery bill. I peruse the weekly sales circulars looking for good deals, I buy a newspaper (or two) on Sundays for coupons, and I've cut out many of the convenience foods (prepackaged portions of chips & cookies, baby carrots, etc). I've also had to get creative with some dinner meals.... 

For the month of June we're actually going to come in under the grocery budget. I'm still shooting for an average of $50/week, so $200/mo. As of today, we're at $146.70.  I'll probably go pick up a few things this weekend (maybe $30 worth?), but it'll definitely be less than $200!