Wednesday, March 2, 2011

February Budget Results.....Food and Toiletries Spending


Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for FEBRUARY 2011.

I have posted February's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2011 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in February.  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 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 15.
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CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $94.73
Qs/Ads  $76.62
Value  $171.35
Savings  44.72%

RITE AID
OOP  $8.67 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $1,286.63
Value  $1,295.30
Savings  99.33% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

WALMART
OOP  $2.69
Qs/Ads  $.55
Value  $3.24
Savings  17%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $25.47
Qs/Ads  $7.50
Value  $32.97
Savings   22.75%

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 FEBRUARY

Admiral Nelson's....$4.00(one of the few alcohol rebates valid in PA)
Kellogg's Toy Cash...$10.00
Pinecone Research....$3.00
Rite-Aid SCR...$29.00
Subtotal........$46.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
Subtotal....$0.00--How sad is this?lol

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$46.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Chef Boyardee.....Free Ravioli Q
CoffeeMate....Free Creamer Q
Egg Beaters....Free Item Q
Herbal Essence 'Poo...$1/1 Q & Free Item Q
Karo Syrup....Free Item Q
MegaRed....Free Supplement Sample
MyBlogSpark/Pillsbury....Free Apron/Pen/Recipe Booklet
P&G....Q Booklet
Yoplait Yogurt....Free Item Q

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%,  Carone's at 44.72% and  Weis Markets at 22.75%.  I barely shopped at 4 stores in February.lol


TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$122.89
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$1379.97
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$207.56 before Rite-Aid
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1502.86 with Rite-Aid figured in
TOTAL Savings of...................................91.82%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$46.00
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$76.89
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$1425.97
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1502.86
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................94.88%

This closes out the February spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
I set out to spend half my allotted Food budget for Feb. which was $125.00.  I managed to come in under that total even before adding my cash rebates into my allotted kitty.
We substantially ate down the freezer and some stockpile.  I did manage to refill the freezer space up with free ice cream from Rite-Aid in Feb. and I processed the last of the pumpkins into puree for the freezer.  Besides the ice cream and cookie mix from Rite-Aid I did very little stockpiling of food in February.  The HBA/Toiletry haul from Rite-Aid is another story altogether!lol  I see a Garage Sale in my near future once the weather warms up.....

What's ahead for March.....
I think I'll try for another Low Spend Month with the Food Budget. Nothing as severe as $125 though, but something like $200.  If some good 'Stockopportunities' come up in March(it IS National Frozen Food Month, is it not?) I will abandon my Low Spend Goal for that.  Either way, I'll be shooting to keep the food spending under or at $250 for the month. 


How did you do in February with your Food Budget?
What are your challenges for March?
Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress!  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

4 comments:

  1. I think the best part about shopping drugstores is that I rarely need to go to Walmart! I see by your totals, that is the case for you too ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. As you can probably gather from my posts in Feb, I did not exactly do a spectacular job of coming in under budget. But it went okay (considering I had a shorter month to work with - LOL!).

    We did manage to eat down more of the freezer, and now I have to figure out how to afford re-stocking it. And this time, not with pierogies!

    "GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
    Subtotal....$0.00--How sad is this?" -- this is very sad, and deeply disturbing.

    Very nice month!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Stockopportunities"-Best word ever!!!!
    I think we are going to try and eat down what we have in the freezer and cabinets. It is super full.
    And once again, why can't I have a Rite-aid?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good job! Challenges for March for me... Put up with my brothers a$$ness... Oops! Did I say that out loud?
    Buy enough groceries for two extra people and an extra dog in the house...
    Pure craziness. If I can keep sane until the end of March, then I guess I'll have met my goal.

    ReplyDelete

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