My goal for this month is to cut our grocery budget by $200. That is a huge amount but we were also spending a huge amount. This week it will probably look like we aren’t doing so hot in the savings department because I spent $134.55… just $15.45 less than my original spending of $150 per week. BUT… we stocked up on some things that *should* save us on grocery costs throughout the month and it’s still a savings for the week! Oh, and I think I should mention that our “grocery” budget includes personal care items. I also should mention, we have taxes here on groceries and it ranges from 5-7% depending on the item so that is included in my monthly budget as well. So what did I buy and what “deals” did I get?
First up was Sam’s Club. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, warehouse clubs can be a great place to find deals. Personally, I prefer Costco but we only have Sam’s in our area. There are deals to be had but you need to really check the prices at your local grocery stores to know if you are getting a good one or not. For example, Campbell’s tomato soup runs $0.79+/can at the grocery store and at Sam’s I can buy it in a 12pack for $0.66/can. We do not make a weekly trip here and generally buy just a few choice items when we do go. So stocking up on a few items for the month, we spent $68.76… ugh… ok let’s break that down a bit with our price so it doesn’t hurt so much…
We bought:
5lbs of 90/10 ground beef – $3.65/lb (6+meals & cheaper per lb than the 80/20 at the grocery)
2 32oz flavored International Delight coffee creamers – $2.03 each (my vice)
3 Classico Pasta Sauces – $1.82 each
2 Simply Orange Orange Juice – $2.94 each
4lbs Butter (in sticks) – $2.87/lb or
2lbs Starbucks Beans – $8.99/lb (Hubs is a coffee snob and this runs us $13/lb at the grocery)
Next we went to Walmart. Yes, I know allll about the evils of Walmart but for things like personal care items, they have the best prices in the area. I spent $6.50 here and saved $4.25 using coupons! (That’s an almost 40% savings!) I will add that going here I also bought things I didn’t need that were *not* grocery budget line items so are not included in the total. This will always be the downfall of shopping in a supercenter type setting.
We bought:
Carefree pantyliners – $0.44 (used $0.50 off coupon)
Stayfree pads – $1.86 (used $1 off coupon)
TRESemee Hairspray – $1.98 (used $2 off coupon)
Caress Body Wash – $2.22 (used $0.75 off coupon)
Finally, we went to Ingles (our local grocery store). We spent a grand total of $59.29 on just grocery items and we saved $31.96. That’s right, we got $91.25 worth of food for just over $59!! (A 35% savings!) I’m not going to detail my entire grocery list here but our savings came from a few places. First, we used our store card to save $25.76. Big ticket items included in this savings were hamburger buns for $0.68, ground chicken for $3/lb, grapes for $1.40/lb and 33oz of olive oil for $6! I used store card savings on some Gerber baby items that were 2/$3 or 3/$4 and stacked that with $1 off coupons bringing those down to $1 per meal or snack saving about $0.60 on each. I also got catalinas for $1 off more Gerber items and $3 off my next shopping trip! (Catalinas are the coupons that print at the register with your receipt) In total I used $6.20 in coupons.
So did I save the 90% that you see on the extreme couponing shows? Heck no! But I do think I learned some helpful tips that will get us to the $400 or less monthly grocery budget. (Thank you to my affiliate, Grocery University) I also think saving 35-40% off is a pretty good first effort.
A few things I have learned from this first venture out?
- The tips I learned from Grocery University have already saved me more than I paid for the download – seriously, go buy it now!
- My local grocery store runs their ads from Wednesday to Tuesday every week so I can plan for my weekend shopping trip by looking at the online ad.
- Running to town to pick up the “big city” newspaper (in our case, the Knoxville News Sentinel) is worth it for the extra coupons they offer.
- I have a ton of coupons for non-food items and not so many for food items – I need to focus more on the food coupons when printing them from online.
- I need to make a price list so I can better judge if items are a “good deal” or not – especially when shopping at Sam’s club. (ex: I should have bought the soup!)
What is your favorite grocery shopping tip? What was your biggest grocery shopping deal?
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