It feels like I fell off the bandwagon this week. I went over my $55 weekly budget and spent a total of $76.80 at three stores. The first one was Aldi, where I went to buy an Easter ham on Saturday. I spent $14.01 there. Then I went to a local store on Tuesday to grab some loss leaders and spent $14.72 (I say I'm not going to bother going, but $0.98 milk gets me every time!). Still not bad, and I thought I could still stay on budget, but I spent more at Roundy's this week and didn't save as much as usual.
I did three transactions at Roundy's and doubled 15 coupons, plus I used a $2 OYNO catalina and a free milk catalina from last week. I spent $48.07 and only saved 55%. I don't know what went wrong, and I looked over my receipts at the store, but everything looked right. Disappointing. I must not have been on my "A" game.
These items were free: Danonino x2, Lunchables x2, and Vitamin D milk.
These items were $1 or less: Old Orchard juice x8, bread x5, Ortega enchilada sauce x4, Peeps x2, Yoplait Whips x7 (I only meant to buy 6), Fiber One yogurt, bananas, and pudding x3.
I also bought 3 lbs. of hamburger, 4 more gallons of milk (yes, that's a total of 6 for the week!), 3 lbs. of apples, Flintstones vitamins x2, whip cream x2, vegetable oil, trash bags, and Tide (I found a coupon from last Sunday so it was $2.97).
I did just notice that I got charged for one too many Old Orchard juices ($1). I only bought 8, but there are 9 on my receipt. Oh well. Hopefully next week will be better (and under budget!).
Print Your Coupons Here!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Weekly Groceries--OUCH!
| Posted by Jessica-MomForHim at 8:51 AM | Labels: Couponing, Weekly Groceries |
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5 comments:
So you count detergent and trash bags in your weekly grocery budget? I count only food purchases and have a separate account for those other household things. Just thinking maybe if you didn't count those other things you'd be closer to budget, lol, just trying to help you feel better about the week!
when you shop, i dont see you buy alot of meats. does your family not eat alot?
You are right, if I didn't count those items, as well as the vitamins, I would be under my $55. I counted them because in all fairness, I did use them to get me to my $25 threshold for doubling coupons (at least the ones at Roundy's).
We mostly eat chicken, ground beef, ham, deli meat, brats, sausage for lasagna, and sometimes pork ribs or something similar. So we do eat meat several times a week, though we have meatless meals, too.
When I buy a ham (like I did this week), we eat a little of it and freeze the rest to take out in portions for several meals later. I usually buy 3-4 hams a year, I think.
I buy everything else when it is on sale, and usually I buy more than one package if there is room in the budget. We use some right away and freeze the rest. I have a lot of chicken in my freezer right now and some brats, and I have a smaller stockpile of beef as well (I brown it and freeze it in portions).
Another thing I do to save on meat is not use quite as much as a recipe states (if it is in a casserole). So if it calls for 1 lb of ground beef, I use about 3/4 lb. No one notices and the meal is still plenty. So when I buy a package of meat that says 2.72 lbs, I call it 3 lbs and divide it equally to freeze. Make sense?
Granted, my kids are small, so they don't eat a large amount of meat (yet), but rest assured, we DO eat meat, and my husband prefers to have only about 2 meatless meals a week or so (though he is agreeable and doesn't complain!).
Love your blog and think you do an amazing job with your coupons every week. Being a frugal, couponer also, I was surprised that you purchased trash bags this week. I NEVER buy trash bags and think they are a wasteful purchase. I always have a plentiful supply of plastic & paper bags to use as garbage bags, even though I use reusable bags the majority of the time to do my shopping. I have always tried to be as green as possible and think that is one way of reducing consumption that many people overlook. Thanks for your great blog - I really enjoy your content!
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