Well this month began as a fairly Frugal Affair.
Ok, we took a short getaway trip to Ocean City MD....but we did it on the cheap and thrifty side!
And I stayed out of the grocery stores for two+ weeks....let alone any other kind of store, not counting Rite-Aid of course! But Rite-Aid doesn't really count since they pay ME to shop there and I don't ever actually spend money at that store. 8-))
We were content and happy to be using up some stockpiled and freezer goodies for meals and snacks as the month began.
And then it happened......
Three, count 'em three local grocery stores ran Catalina deals in the last 2 weeks, including that lovely Hormel Bacon Promotion(slurp). Weis Markets had a couple of Cat deals but I didn't even get to that store to take advantage of them....yes, I am slipping in my old age.
This past few weeks, it's like a rare convergence of celestial bodies combined with a lining up of the planets to form a Bargain Eclipse!lol
*Cue the skies opening up and a bevvy of heavenly hosts descending around my head, plucking on tiny harps and raising their angelic voices.....aaaaaah, aaaaahh, aaaaahhh.....
And just like that, I went from a monthly grocery spending total of just under $50 for October to a bloated budget busting total of over $300 for food.
Eeeeek!
I know, I know.....$300 in monthly food spending for a family of 4 is NOT really "Out There" compared to what the average American spends on groceries, but for me, well......it's HUGE!lol
While I budget for food each month, we aren't living paycheck to paycheck and we regularly live well below our financial means.
So when I find great deals on food or anything else we need, I have the flexibility to spend more than I've budgeted and take advantage of the deals without taking the funds from some other expense we need the cash for instead.
Having a little extra cushion of money is a great thing indeed!
I highly recommend it. ;-)
But still.... when you scribble that pencil down to a nub and see $300 staring back at you from your piece of paper, it tends to make you pause, draw a darn big breath and make you light in the head for a moment.
Or is that just me? ;-)
I did 4 transactions at Redner's, doing the ConAgra and General Mills Catalina promotions(each gave a $10 Cat WYB $25 of items). I bought 48 assorted items(from tv dinners to cooking oil to whipped cream to canned tomatoes) and spent $51.59 total OOP. And I have a $10 Cat left to use.
While $50+ sounds high, that was for $293.53 of reg. retail value of food.
That's a savings rate of just under 82.5%(not counting the $10 Cat I have left).
As for my Hormel totals at Price Chopper......
3 bags of Pepperoni
26 packages of Bacon
34 cans of Chili
Equals 63 items
$39.90 OOP + a $7 Catalina left to spend
$222.27 reg. retail price of items
Savings of 82% (not counting the $7 left to spend).
So now I need to apply a Financial Tourniquet to our spending and try to avoid the grocery stores and eat down on this pile 'o food.
Luckily the month is almost over and I get to start with a clean budget slate in 5 days. 8-))
So how is your food spending going this month?
Have you gotten any good deals on groceries lately?
Sluggy
We had the ConAgra deal at Jewel. Den and I ran the same cat 18 or 19 times. He was on a pudding jag. He came home with 52 4packs of Hunt's pudding in one night and then he went back the next night. I ran the spaghetti and cooking oil deal. That was a good one and so was the Healthy Choice soup. That one was a profit. It only comes around in October for us.
ReplyDeleteAnd why is it we feel the need to almost apologize in our blogs for spending our own money? I feel like that too. I have leeway in almost every area of the budget and yet I feel the need to say sorry for stocking up!
And I do feel a bit bad when I spend so the blog is almost like asking for forgiveness.
Good job! Keep up the good work.
But still.... when you scribble that pencil down to a nub and see $300 staring back at you from your piece of paper, it tends to make you pause, draw a darn big breath and make you light in the head for a moment.
ReplyDeleteOr is that just me? ;-)
It totally freaks me out. Our monthly average for this year so far is $205 a month, which isn't bad for a family of 3. But our low month was just $101, so when I go over $300 this month (and I will, on Thursday...ack!), I'm not going to be comfortable at all.
The only consolation is that stocked up on LOTS of meat in October, which will last us a good long while, and was bought at great prices. We also bought a HUGE (institutional size - $35) jug of peanut oil at Sam's in October. I use it almost exclusively for baking, frying, etc., and it will last at least 6 months, in addition to deep-frying our Thanksgiving turkey. Still, I hate putting out all that money at one time.
I wish I had time to delve into the world of Catalinas! Every so often we have freezer problems and I worry I'll loose my stockpile... but we're safe so far and eating it down.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to cut back some this month since I purchased a new PC. I was at the uber-marche the night before last picking up meat for the pup and they had my favorite vegetarian fed chickens on special (use today or freeze), so I picked up three.
When I end up spending "unexpectedly," it's usually for marked down meat/chicken.
There are just two of us and I always figure I'm doing well enough if I keep it below $400. As of today, I'm at $205. And I'm going to try to hold it at that for the month!
"And then it happened......
ReplyDeleteThree, count 'em three local grocery stores ran Catalina deals "
This is when I started laughing out loud. And at work, no less! :)
I do think that this (relatively small) Meow Mix overage/oyno deal I've stumbled onto has actually had me spending more this week. I want to make sure I have enough to cover the overage, and as a result I'm getting extra things. Not that it's all bad -- I took home another bag of groceries last night for 89-cents OOP -- but not all of the trips I've done with this deal have been cut so wonderfully close to zero, so I'm spending that much more than I would have had the deal not been going on.
I wish there'd be a Hormel cat deal here - I'm not into their bacon, but I seriously HEART their pepperoni (and so do the cats)!
I have those moments of utter shock when we spend more than usual, too. LOL! Last month, the grocery bill wasn't bad. I only went grocery shopping 3 times last month, instead of every weekend. We just didn't need anything and I skipped out on the deals to make up for our trip to see Chance.
ReplyDeleteWe can afford to spend more, but I don't want to. LOL!