Food & Toiletries Spending......December Update & Year End TOTALS

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2014.

I have posted December's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2014 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
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 3(2-3 at home this month). No kids under 18.

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BIG LOTS
OOP  $14.10
Qs/Ads  $12.28
Value  $32.83
Savings  46.55%

K-Mart
OOP  $1.06
Qs/Ads  $46.23
Value  $47.29
Savings  97.76%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $46.60
Qs/Ads  $25.45
Value  $72.05
Savings  35.32%

P&R OUTLET
OOP  $14.99
Qs/Ads  $17.84
Value  $32.83
Savings  54.34%

RITE-AID *(see below)
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/+UPs  $1,121.41
Value  $1,121.41
Savings   100%

SAM'S CLUB
OOP  $39.67
Value  $78.50
Savings  49.46%

 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $48.53

Qs/Ads  $29.18

Value  $77.71

Savings  37.55%

TRADER JOE'S
OOP  $64.04
Qs/Ads  $29.90
Value  $93.94
Savings  31.83%
 

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $211.88

Qs/Ads  $247.18

Value  $459.06

Savings  53.84%
 

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, K-Mart at 97.76% and P&R Outlet at 54.34%.  My WORST savings rate was Trader Joe's at 31.83%.

I shopped at 9 different stores this past month.  I tried a few places I don't go to often as it's not in my regular routine.


* Let me explain how I spent ZERO at Rite-Aid for December.  The actual OOP(aka Out Of Pocket)spending was $15.55 for all of December.
But I had a shampoo return that netted me $8.04 back in December, as well as a return of $12 for some Aveeno products in November & a $5 refund for some +Ups that didn't generate, also in November.  All combined, this netted me $25.04 back in cash or on gift cards.   I applied $15.55 of that cash/credit back to my Rite-Aid spending in December, making my OOP $0.00 for the month.
I still have $9.49 to carryover into January 2015 to cover that much of OOP spending at Rite-Aid in the new year.

**  My TOTAL out of pocket for December food/toiletries was $440.87.
However I cashed out my Saving Star account(where some of my electronic coupon savings are deposited-I don't count these coupon savings until it's cashed out)and was able to deposit $40.04 for the year into our bank account, thus offsetting $40.04 of food spending.  This brought my OOP spending from $440.87 down to $400.83.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........** $400.83

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$1,600.34

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$2,001.17     

TOTAL Savings of...................................79.93%
TOTAL Savings WITHOUT Rite-Aid.............54.44%

This closes out the December food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

While I didn't stay under $350 for the month, because of the additional of my Saving Star funds into our bank, I was almost under $400 for December.

The monthly savings percentage went up(up is good)by 24.22% in December to 79.93% compared to November's 55.71% average.  Without counting the Rite-Aid amounts the savings rate went down slightly from November's amount (by 1.27%) to 54.44%.
Just slightly down.  I can live with that.  ;-)

The savings percentage went UP for the year by 4.10% after adding December's numbers in. 

Total spend on food/toiletries for 2014 after 12 months.....$4,989.49.

The average monthly food/toiletries spending for the year after adding in December's numbers is down a bit to $415.79 for the year from Novembers subtotal of $417.15.   That's $1.36 down from last month's year-to-date spending total.
Down is good in this case......

GRAND TOTALS for 2014

2014 YEARLY OOP SPENDING on Food/Toiletries........$4,989.49
2014 YEARLY VALUE OF ITEMS BOUGHT.........$12,101.56
2014 YEARLY SAVINGS of................$7,112.07
2014 SAVINGS PRECENTAGE on SPENDING..........58.77%


THOUGHTS on 2014...............
If I don't say so myself, I kicked ASS on food spending in 2014!
I wanted to keep the yearly total at $4800.  I went over that benchmark by $189.49 but I'll call this a good year even so.
Under $5K for ALL consumables(except "adult beverages" & eating out)for a household for an entire year is awesome.

 

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 December?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  If so, how did you do in 2014?
 

Sluggy