Saturday, February 2, 2019

2019 Food & Toiletries Spending......the January Edition


Onward to January's food spending report.......



Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JANUARY 2019.

I have posted January's totals on the Total Grocery Savings Page located HERE and have updated the Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in January.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum.  My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 4-5(4 at home this month). No "kids" under 22.

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ALDI
OOP  $16.82
Value  $30.15
Savings  44.21%

BIG LOTS
OOP  $2.25
Value  $5.00
Savings  55%

MAINES
OOP  $30.08
Value  $64.30
Savings  53.22%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $4.40
Value  $7.96
Savings  44.72%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/BC  $1080.04
Value  $1080.04
Savings  100%

TARGET
OOP  $0.00
Value  $79.79
Savings   100%

WALMART
OOP  $19.89
Qs/Ads  $9.07
Value  $28.96
Savings  31.32%

WEIS
OOP  $367.18
QsAds  $359.09
Value  $726.27
Savings  49.44%

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Target at 100% and Big Lots at 55%.  My worst savings rate was at Walmart at 31.32%.

I shopped at 8 different stores this past month.  

TOTAL Out of Pocket for January.........$440.62
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales.................$501.81
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.........$942.43
TOTAL Savings of ................................53.25%

TOTAL Out of Pocket for January w/R-A.............$440.62
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales w/R-A...................$1581.85
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid....$2022.47
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items.....................78.21%

This closes out the January food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I made a half-hearted attempt to do a eat the freezer down/low spend thing in January but it was derailed by some good meat deals et al.  I went over my regular targeted food budget of $400 by $40.62.  So much for my low spend month! lolz


The monthly food spending savings percentage went down by .17 % in January 2019 to 78.21% compared to the December 2018 78.38% savings average.  Still over a 78% savings rate however so no worries there.  ;-)

With 1 month accounted for, I have spent a Year-To-Date Total of $440.62 on food/toiletries in 2018.


2019 Yearly Total Spent To Date...................$440.62
2019 Yearly Total Value of Items To Date...$2022.47
2019 Total Saved To Date..............................$1581.85
2019 Yearly Savings Total To Date of............78.21%

The average per month amount spent so far is $440.62 in 2019. 

LOOKING AHEAD To February 2019.......

I will again attempt to do a low spend grocery month in February.  This month I'll try harder. It's a shorter month after all so I should be able to keep spending well below $300.
What I won't do is keep my grocery spending so low that I miss out on awesome deals.  We have a fair amount of give in the food budget here and I won't sacrifice quality foods just to see a lower spending total.
But if we were facing a financial problem(need to come up with $$$ for an emergency and I had to pull money from the grocery budget to cover it, etc.)I would definitely think twice about my food spending IF there weren't funds in other categories I could raid first.  While we aren't extravagant with our food spending, I don't like to constrict that spending more than what we are use to since better foods/fresh and frozen produce/etc. costs more but keep us healthier in the long run.  I'd rather pull $ for an emergency from eating out, entertainment, travel or WAM allocations.
I won't buy substandard foods to keep a grocery budget low but I can eat down what we have here already.

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in January?

*  Do you track your yearly food spending?

*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?

*  What are your methods for keeping your food spending in check?

Is anyone out there up for tracking expenditures and trying to spend less but still eat well?


Sluggy

5 comments:

  1. I completely agree, would rather spend money on quality food items that keep us healthy (and I am not talking buying special items like organic this and grain-fed that) and pull from other areas of our budget if we have to. I have to defrost my freezer in Feb, I can't tell you how difficult it has been to bypass a few good deals. I am trying to jam everything in my fridge freezer which is tiny. It doesn't even fit a frozen pizza in it (tall and narrow, so glad I have an upright freezer too). Rather than meal planning I am trying to eat what meat specials we get now so no pre-planning

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  2. I spent $412. I want to try to keep groceries at $400 for the year so I am not doing so well. If I need to raise it we can. Just trying to put as much as possible away for college since my youngest starts this fall.

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  3. Believe it or not we spent under $200.00 but I was gone for 9 days so maybe?

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  4. My food spending was a bit higher last month, but being that I needed to buy food as my fridge and pantry was pretty empty... totally understandable. I absolutely agree with buying quality food. I kept my diet very simple and thus do not need to buy a lot of items.

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  5. The only toiletry item I needed in January was shampoo, well actually it was the beginning of February. I tend to buy kleenex, TP and toiletries all in one shop but they usually last for a couple of months. I don't track my food spending annually though I could as I keep all of my monthly budgets. I just try to stay under $280 per month and in January I had a surplus of $43.00. No coupons. I think that we eat very healthy and yummy food on $70/week for two adults.

    ReplyDelete

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