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Sunday, January 2, 2011

December Budget Results.....Food and Toiletries Spending


Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2010.

I have posted December's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2010 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in December.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(4-5 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 14.

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP $19.45
Value $68.63
Savings  71.66%

BIG LOTS
OOP $5.70
Value $11.90
Savings  52.11%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $80.26
Qs/Ads  $73.88
Value  $154.14
Savings  48%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $5.00
Value  $15.45
Savings  67.64%

GERRITY'S
OOP  $47.85
Qs/Ads  $51.36
Value  $99.21
Savings  51.77%

REDNER'S(does not double coupons)
OOP  $70.38
Qs/Ads  $33.34
Value  $103.72
Savings  32.15%

RITE AID
OOP  $23.03 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads  $2.044.01
Value  $2,067.04
Savings  96.19% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

UNI-MART(local minimart/gas station)
OOP  $3.50
Value  $3.50
Savings  0%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $35.64
Qs/Ads  $52.18
Value  $87.82
Savings   59.42%

I don't track Rite-Aid's +Ups here, nor CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons".   I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.  Rebate money/gift cards will be considered 'income' & will go into the Food/Toiletries budget, offsetting the Out of Pocket. Cash will go immediately into the Budget kitty, while Gift Cards will be calculated in when spent.

REBATE CHECKS RECV'D. IN DECEMBER
Google Ad Revenue....$102.35
Pinecone Research....$6.00
Rite-Aid SCR(various months)...$66.90

Subtotal........$175.25

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
MyBlogSpark Safeway Gift Card...$25.00
VISA Preloaded (Giveaway win)...$10.00
Rite-Aid Oral Care....$5.00
Rite-Aid GOS Certificates....$40.00

Subtotal....$80.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$255.25

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Tim McGraw CD.....Giveaway win
Hamburger Helper....Giveaway win
Fun Serving Dishes....Giveaway win
Pyrex Dish & Marinade....Giveaway win
Fiber One...Free Box Coupon
Rachel Ray....Free Dog Food Coupon
Food Should Taste Good Chips....Free Coupon
Rite-Aid Glam Bag Offer....Free Bag and Samples

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%, The Bakery Outlet at 71.66% and The Dollar Store at 67.64%.

TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$274.82
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$2,335.59
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$2,610.41
TOTAL Savings of...................................89.47%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$175.25
TOTAL Out of Pocket After  Rebates.........$99.57
TOTAL Savings of....................................96.19%

This closes out the December spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
I went over my budget for December by $25.  With all the extras bought for the Holidays(soda, baked goods, appetizer type foods, etc.), it's no surprise I went over a little.  When you add the rebates received in December toward the food spending my out of pocket goes down to under $100 which is awesome!

What's ahead for 2011.....
I need to sit down with Hubs and analyze what went well and not-so-well in 2010.  Then I can decide if I want to publicly track our Food/HBA spending on the blog in 2011.
If you want any input on this, please leave a comment.
And stay tuned for further developments.....

With all 12 months of 2010 accounted for, we spent a total of $2,291.67 on food and toiletries in 2010.  That's an average of $190.97 per MONTH or $44.07 per WEEK after rebates for a family of 4-5 adults/teens + 2-3 pets.

Not only did $2,291.67 allow our family to eat well for an entire year, it also supplied our local food bank with 4 large food/hba donations during 2010, supplied a relative with approx. $500 in regular retail value of food during the year and we sold some excess items at a local flea market and banked $700!
So really, after putting $700 cash back into our pockets, we 'spent' about $1,600.00 Total for the year!

How did you do in December with your Food Budget?
Will you be tracking your food spending in 2011?  If so, what is the method you will use?
Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress in 2010!  By sharing our struggles and efforts we can help each other stick to our budgets and learn to be better guardians of our resources.


Sluggy

5 comments:

  1. Sluggy, you are such in inspiration! Your OOP is amazing and I am really impressed on how low your spending for the year was! Keep up the good work! I think maybe I will be more diligent in tracking our spending to try and follow your lead.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really enjoy hearing the minutiae every week and wish you would continue to give us the information. Better and more couponing is one of my goals this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our grocery spending (food only, no HBA, home or pet items) for December was 226. Not great since I thought I was doing a pantry challenge. Just not a good idea to try that in December. Our average for the year was $223 a month. I haven't tallied our HBA or household, but I can't imagine it was too high a total since we are making our own soap, cleaners, etc.

    Yes, I am going to continue tracking. I've been tracking, either publicly or privately, since 2001 and I'm not going to stop now; I think tracking is what keeps us in line with our budget.

    I am considering just putting a box in my sidebar this year with each previous month's total listed and a current month's total updated each week. I probably won't write posts about it other than a brief mention in passing. I see it as a tool mostly for myself and only for others when they are interested in taking a look.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your totals are awesome. I can't tell you what I spent in December because I didn't track. But you have inspired me to do it for 2011 and I am going to try to track it all. I found free softwars online to do it. So thanks so much for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Frances--Thanks for the nice words....;-)
    I highly recommend item-by-item tracking, even for seasoned shoppers/savers. I go back over my charts/lists and can still find where I spent unwisely or too much. I'm so Pretty just downloaded the MINT dotcom application and likes it. I'm more low-tech myself and just use a calculator, notebooks and a pen.lol
    Just do whatever works for you.

    Practical--Well if you thrill at minutae, keep visiting me!lolol

    AnnieJ--I love your sidebar idea to track your monthly grocery spending! Maybe I'll steal that....hehehe

    Precious--I'm glad I could help inspire you. The Mint dotcom Ap comes highly recommended by the way...
    Gee, aren't we all so nerdy?lol

    ReplyDelete

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