This week, I learned the importance of my Saturday Savings posts. Sure, I like to think it helps inspire some of you to tighten down your own grocery budget and all, but the real reason I’ll have to continue is to avoid budget “discussions” with my husband. See, earlier this week I was making my grocery list when Nick advised me to check the budget to see how much I had left. When I checked I just knew that number was off by a good $40! Defensiveness ensued on both sides of the issue and I went to bed convinced I was right, but couldn’t figure out how to prove it. Then it hit me – the blog!
The next morning I looked back on my blog to see when I had shopped so far this month and realized something… I had shopped on July 31st. I had spent $42 at HyVee and the store (or bank) hadn’t processed it until August 2nd, which is why Nick was showing it in my August budget! Sure enough, when I checked our July budget I noticed I still had $40 to spend that month. Mystery solved, thanks to the blog!
Alright, on to this week! Yesterday I got some unexpected one-on-one time with Mr. Ty when he decided to not nap. He was in a decent enough mood, so I asked him if he wanted to go grocery shopping with me or stay home and watch Cars. He chose me 🙂 We hit up HyVee and Price Chopper to buy everything you see below and spent $50.86.
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HyVee Deals: Probably my most exciting HyVee deals were thanks to some high value coupons I had here at home. I’m not entirely sure where the cereal coupons came from, but the pasta coupon was in one of my parenting magazines. Thanks to those coupons I paid just .50 each for the Golden Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch and only .25 for the box of Ronzoni Pasta! The box of Yoplait Gogurt was free thanks to a coupon I received for an upcoming product review and giveaway (you’ll have the chance to win your own, next week here on the blog). Other notables include: Cinnabon Bars for .89 (68% off), Hormel Pork Tenderloins $4.50 each (55% off), OJ for .99 each (55% off), carrot chips (which the boys loved and are much less of choking hazard!) for .99 a bag (48% off) and Green Grapes for .88 a pound (56% off).
Price Chopper Deals: Price Chopper had a great deal on salad dressing and bagged lettuce this week! I bought two bottles of Wishbone dressing for .37 each and got a bag of Dole Lettuce for free (89% off overall)! I also snagged some yummy new teas (perfect for Iced Tea) in the clearance cart for $1 each. Nick made the Acai Mango last night and it was so tasty! (I just noticed the boxes of tea didn’t make the picture – they were from Celestial Seasonings and are Sweet Zinger Ice Acai Mango and Tangerine Orange.) I was excited to see Flat Out Flatbread for BOGO too. Those things make fantastic wraps and pizzas! (If you buy those, make sure they ring up on sale – my checker had to go do a price check because they didn’t ring up on sale.) I also stocked up on some canned fruit for .74 a can and bought a large watermelon for $2.99 and some Kiwi fruit. I was able to make an awesome fruit salad last night thanks to all of the fruit deals this week!
Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $104.89
Total After Sales and Coupons: $48.31
Are you a stocker upper? 🙂 Sorry, can’t think of a better way to ask that. I don’t see a lot of stuff for meals. I am a menu planner…I make a menu, then look at what we have (I try to do both at the same time!) then make my list from there. Sometimes, my list is short, sometimes it is not, then of course there is the stuff that I buy every week…milk, yogurt, bananas, grapes, apples and whatever else we need….shampoo, toothpaste, diapers, etc.. If I only bought the stuff on sale or whatever, my list would be short and cheap too. I’m not saying anything negative here…just genuinely curious how you plan meals for the family…or do you at all? I know you cook but are you one of those cooks who just looks in the pantry or freezer and pulls something out for dinner?
Amanda, I do shop the stock up method. I used to shop and meal plan the same way you do, but I found I saved much more money if I only bought stuff that was on sale and bought more than I needed. As far as meals go, yeah I pretty much look at what I have and throw stuff together. I rarely follow a recipe anymore!