Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 3

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Here we are over halfway into my mission to cut our grocery budget by $200 this month. I am finding it easier and easier to save money at the store without making huge sacrifices and so I know I will be able to continue sticking to the new grocery budget and maybe even challenge that a bit to get it down even further!  Again I came in under budget and spent just $80.42 between 3 grocery bills. That puts the monthly total at $287.78 at week 3!  

I knew this week would be a challenge because we needed quite a few “big ticket” items for the house like toilet paper and detergent.  I knew this week would be a challenge because we needed quite a few “big ticket” items for the house like toilet paper and detergent so I decided to get a little creative and “shopped” from my fridge and pantry first.   I was shocked at what we already had on hand… especially in our little freezer.

Freezer Inventory:
Meats – keilbasa, 3 chicken breasts, sausage log, homemade sausage from the neighbors, ground chicken, 8 filet mignon, bacon, 4 sirloins, cube steak, 5 pork chops, chicken thighs, 2 cooked chicken breasts.
Vegetables – lima beans, sweet carrots, peas, corn, broccoli, peas & carrots, mixed veggies, cauliflower, tater tots, crinkle fries, chopped green pepper, chopped onion
Fruit – mixed berries, blueberries, black bananas
Cheese – swiss, parmesan, 2 bags of cheddar, mozzarella
Drinks – rum ,gin, tequila, moonshine, Tastefully Simple Ruby Orange Slush, breastmilk
Random – 4lb butter, ice cream, sugar cookies, yeast, pork gravy leftovers, bean & cheese burrito, chicken tenders, taquitos.

Yes… allllll of that fit in this tiny freezer you see in the picture.  I was vaguely aware of the contents but I was even taken by surprise on a few items.  This was more than enough to feed my family for the week if not for a few weeks!  Some things may not be our first choice but we definitely would not starve.  Let’s not forget I still have my fridge and pantry to find additional ingredients and round out the meals!  So where else did I shop and what deals did I get?

First I scoured the internet for deals on toilet paper.  Hubs is kinda picky about this one because of our septic tank and the best deal I could find was through Amazon.  We ordered Scott Extra Soft Double Rolls (36 rolls) for $19.74 shipped. We used subscribe & save, a $1 digital coupon and our Amazon Prime membership to make this item a decent deal. It works out to about $0.55 per roll and I’m pretty good with that price. This purchase will last us a while too so spread over 2-3 months the cost isn’t bad at all!

Then we went to Wal-Mart where I stocked up on toothpaste, new toothbrushes (for our upcoming trip!), mouthwash, deodorant and aluminum foil.  I spent $25.25 here on house/grocery items and saved about $4 using coupons. I have decided I really need to stay away from Wal-Mart though because I spent an additional $35.72 on shoes for baby and a hooded zip sweatshirt for me.  That came out of the clothes budget so technically doesn’t count for the grocery totals!

Last up was Kroger. I used my Kroger card and digital coupons and saved $22.58 to make my total bill $35.43!  Again I saved 40% on my main grocery trip!  I shopped a lot of the mega savings event items and managed to get deals like General Mills cereal for $1.49, Tide for $3.99 and my lovely raspberries for $0.99!  We also purchased staples like milk and eggs.  Kroger is quickly becoming my new favorite grocery store even though it’s a bit further to drive!

Let’s tally up some totals for the past 3 weeks, shall we?  I’ve spent a total of $287.78 of our grocery/household budget.  Without using the tips learned from the Grocery University program, I would have spent $400.65 on those exact same items.   I’ve saved $112.87 so far on the items I’ve bought.  I’ve also spent approximately $162.22 less than I normally would have spent from this budget at this point in the month!  That is a huge savings in my book!

Creative Grocery Savings

So I mentioned in my last post that I purchased 9 various Pillsbury items and got a free gallon of milk on an in store promotion.  Those items were on sale and I used coupons as well (some of which doubled!), bringing the total down considerably.  I think using coupons on top of store sales is an easy way to save but is there another way to maximize those savings?  YES!

Since our grocery ads come out on Wednesday and we only purchase a Sunday paper, I do my ad browsing online.  When I went to my store’s website, I discovered that they offer a section that has printable coupons and then had something called SavingStar.   Basically it’s a way to link your store card to earn cash back on items you purchase.  You just choose which offers to load to your card and then swipe your store card at checkout and you are done – no reciepts to upload!  I noticed that several of the offers were similar or the same as the coupons I had BUT they could be used in addition to the coupons and store sales giving me triple savings on certain items!

So let’s look at those Pillsbury items again…

Regular Retail Price of 9 items: $17.60
Ad Price for 9 items:                       $15.00
Instant Brand Svgs at Register:   -$2.00
Value of Free Gallon of Milk:       -$3.79
Coupons w/ doubling:                   -$4.40
Total Paid for 9 items:                $4.81

Today I received notification that my SavingStar savings had been added to my account.  I received $2.20 cash back related to the same Pillsbury items above. 

That makes my total cost for those items: $2.61 or about $0.29 per item!  Well really 10 items for about $0.26 each if you count the gallon of milk we also received!  That is an 85% savings!

SavingStar also loads one item every Friday that will be FREE if purchased by a certain date.  Last week that item was Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups – oh the deliciousness!  And yes, the full cost was uploaded to my account so it was FREE!  That just made them all the more delicious!

To see if your store participates with SavingStar just go to http://savingstar.com to check!

Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 2

This marks week 2 of my quest to lower our grocery budget by $200 for the month.  (See week 1 here!) I am very happy to report that I came in well under my budget of $100 for the week, paying just $72.81 between two stores!  That puts us at a total of $207.36 for the month – just $7.36 over my goal for this point. I am confident we can make that up over the next 2 weeks.  So where did I shop and what savings did I get?

First up was Kroger.  I spent $17.56 here.  We generally don’t shop here much, but when I was comparing prices at our local stores they had the best prices for meat.  Hubs requested steaks for Sunday night dinner which was NOT in my budget at all.  There were a couple options at Kroger that I thought I could make work but Hubs wasn’t impressed with those and wanted the $20 steaks instead – these came out of ”his” grocery budget.  In our family budget, we include a “his” grocery budget for items I might have him pick up on the way home and that is not figured into the general grocery budget.  What I did get was a pork loin for $1.99/lb that we will turn into a couple meals of pork chops and a pork roast (total $9.07).  I also picked up a head of green leaf lettuce and a tube of Butt Paste for the little. I used our Kroger card and a $2 coupon for the Butt Paste.  The diaper cream probably could have been purchased for slightly less elsewhere, but we weren’t making another trip.  Overall with the card and the coupon, I saved 36% off the total bill.

Then we finished up our trip at Ingles, our local grocery store.  I paid $55.25 for $93.99 worth of groceries – a 41% savings!  I had 3 coupons that doubled (from $0.40 to $0.80), a few higher dollar coupons ($1+), a Catalina for $3 off the total, and used an in store “coupon” for a free gallon of milk (a savings of $3.79).  The rest of the savings came from using our store card for sale prices.  We stocked up on baby water which was on sale for $0.88/gallon – the first time I’ve ever noticed this on sale and we go through about 1 gallon per week.  We also stocked up on taco shells (3/$2.75 after coupon).  I got 9 various Pillsbury cookies, biscuits, and cinnamon rolls – used 3 coupons that were doubled, got $2 off instantly at the register, and got a free gallon of milk! (with the combined savings I paid about $1 per item)  My “big ticket” item was lunch meat for the hubs that cost $5.50/lb.  The store had a BOGO promotion going and then I also used a $0.75 coupon making them about $2.38 each!

I feel like we did pretty well in the savings department this week!  I would love to reach a 50% or more savings on a trip, but overall 40% is still great!  In total we should have spent $120.89 and spent just $72.81. That’s almost $50 back in our pockets… or to paying off debts! I also have rebates coming from a few smartphone apps because of certain grocery purchases we made!

Today the hubs asked me why we haven’t been doing this all along.  I thought I didn’t have the time. I thought we didn’t have access to coupons we would use. I know now I didn’t have the right tips & tricks in my arsenal to make it happen.  With some new tips and perspective,  a few minutes cutting/printing coupons, and a few more minutes organizing my list and matching up menus, deals & coupons getting this savings is easier than I ever thought it would be.  Why haven’t we been doing this all along?

Asian Lettuce Wraps

So I mentioned that one of my “good deals” at the grocery store this past weekend was antibiotic and hormone free ground chicken.  I have never bought this before because its generally too pricey but this week it was less than the ground beef!  So what to make?  We have a favorite ground beef recipe that I decided might just work with ground chicken.  I was right and it was delicious!  Its similar to a very popular restaurant chain’s lettuce wrap appetizer… so if you like those, you need to try this recipe.

Asian Lettuce Wraps:
1 Lb Ground Chicken
1/2 can Water Chestnuts, chopped
2-3 stalks Celery, chopped
1/2c. Brown Sugar – not packed
1/4c. Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Sesame Oil
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp freshly grated Ginger (can also use 1/4 tsp ground ginger)
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper (the full amount is SPICY!)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger & red pepper and set aside.  Brown the ground chicken with the water chestnuts, celery, minced garlic, salt, pepper and sesame oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Drain the fat and place back in the skillet.  Add the brown sugar/soy sauce mixture and stir to coat.  Simmer for 3-4minutes to blend the flavors.  Serve over rice or wrapped in your favorite lettuce leaf. 
Recipe slightly adapted from Six Sisters’ Stuff.

This recipe also works very well with ground beef and has become a favorite in our house. The hubs actually requests it weekly, although it doesn’t get made quite that often!  The next time I make this I’m thinking of adding roasted peanuts to the mix.

If you make this, let me know if your family likes it!

Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 1

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?