I’m not sure why it’s been working this way but I’ve been able to go shopping two weeks at a time lately (with trips to Costco in between for milk).
My weekly budget is $65 (two weeks is $130) and I spent $138.78 EEEK!
So – that means I was over budget by $8.78. However, I did have to buy a lot of my son’s food and snacks this week. After many weeks of experimenting, we’ve determined that it is cheaper (and so much easier) to buy his bread and a few snacks at the health food store vs making them at home. We are out and about frequently and need to have something quick and simple to grab to take with us. He’s gluten-free so that means basically none of the regular snack foods are safe to eat. No pretzels, no graham crackers, no cheerios…
We eat a LOT of fruit so I want to let him have something crunchy, dry and easy to transport when we are out of the house for the day. He also LOVES bread. I know we could get by without it but he really likes his PB & honey and turkey sandwiches so we buy the GF bread, too. All of this cost me about $34 that I can’t get coupons for and is never on sale. It will last 2-3 weeks (maybe a bit longer). The good news is that I can get milk at CVS this week and won’t actually be “paying” out of pocket for it.
I just want to gripe a little bit about one thing…COUPONS!!!
Or rather, the cashier at our local Hy-Vee who picked today and me to be picky with! I sometimes just wish people would take pity on me – with my two small kids (one of whom is screaming) and my huge cart full of stuff.
I had 2 coupons for dog food (Purina One) and bought a different variety of Purina One than was shown on the coupon – primarily because they only had the variety shown in a tiny little bag and I wanted a bigger one. So, take note, I wanted to spend MORE $ so I picked a LARGER, HIGHER $ bag and he told me he wouldn’t scan the coupon. I said, “oh…well you know it will work right?” and he just said “yes, but I won’t do it”.
You know what?? I bought the dog food across the street at Price Chopper!
Okay – so enough of my whining…buck up and follow the rules!!
Here’s my shopping trip and some photos:
(5) 6-ct Yoplait FiberOne yogurt (coupons)
(3) 4-ct YoPlus yogurt (coupons)
(2) Folgers Cappuccino
3 Eggo Nutri Grain Waffles
(1) Vans GF waffles
(1) pack coffee filters (for cleaning)
(8) Lean Cuisine meals (coupons+sale)
(3) tubs Farmland All Natural deli meat (coupons+sale)
(2) bags dog food (only about 8lbs) to get us by for a couple of days until we can get to CostCo or Target (coupons)
3 lbs oranges (sale)
4lbs bananas
4lbs sweet potatoes
(4) 1/2 gals of milk (it was cheaper this week to buy it in 1/2 gallons – but we will still go to CostCo to get another 2-3) (sale)
(1) pkg flour tortillas (sale)
(2) pkgs sliced mushrooms (sale)
2 jars pasta sauce (coupons+sale)
(2) 14 oz cans crushed pineapple
(1) 32oz jar applesauce (we usually make this ourselves but we’ll be super busy with packing for the move so I opted for the quick solution!) (sale)
(2) lemons
(1) loaf Sara Lee bread (ditto)
(1) pkg GF hot dog buns
(1) pkg GF flax bread and GF white bread
(2) boxes GF rice crisp bars (like granola bars)
(1) pkg GF pizza crusts
(1) 6-roll pkg paper towels (sale)
(1) 24oz bag chocolate chips
Yep – I think that looks like two weeks worth of food!! Not a lot of savings on individual items but since we are stocked up pretty well and I’m getting better at making food stretch further. It’s a good trip! The goal is $300 for the month…so I think that will be pretty easy.
