Saturday, March 31, 2018

2018 Food & Toiletry Spending.....March Edition



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



Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MARCH 2018.

I have posted March'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 March.  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 3-5(4 at home this month). No "kids" under 22.

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BIG LOTS
OOP  $14.25
Value  $20.49
Savings  30.45%

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $13.00
Value  $45.29
Savings  71.30%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $37.86
Value  $61.69
Savings  38.63%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PP/BC  $546.86
Value  $546.86
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE
OOP  $33.89
Qs/Ads  $9.77
Value  $43.66
Savings  22.38%

TARGET
OOP  $0.00
Value  $72.79
Savings  100%

WEIS MARKETS
OOP  $302.62
Qs/Ads  $358.27
Value  $660.89
Savings  54.21%

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Target at 100% and the Bread Outlet  at 71.30%.  My worst savings rate was from Shursave at 22.38%.

I shopped at 7 different stores this past month.  

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$401.62
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales...$503.19
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.........$904.81
TOTAL Savings of ................................55.61%

TOTAL Out of Pocket for Feb.....$401.62
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid....$1451.67
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales.........$1050.05
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items........72.33%

This closes out the March food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I had wanted to stay at or under $300 food spending for March.  Then I realized that feeding four adults "well" was sort of not very doable where I live in March for $300.  I can't grow my own veggies right now and even shopping strategically using sales, Qs, rebate apps, etc.   With the currents price of foods and the lack of deals(no cheap eggs at Easter is a travesty!)and the lack of good Qs, plus $300 doesn't allow me to stockpile or take advantage of "deals" much.  Sure we could eat like kings in March using my $300 budget and emptying my stockpile, but come June the larders would be empty.
So I have resigned myself to upping my food budget to $400 at least until the two kids move out permanently.
And I am good with that.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 2.22% in March 2018 to 72.33% compared to February's 74.55% savings average.

With 3 months accounted for, I have spent a Grand Total of $1261.72 on food/toiletries in 2018 which is a 76.05savings rate for the year so far and averages out to $420.57 spent per month in 2018.

* I have realized that of the two stores in town, I do better savings wise at Weis over Shursave.  But Shursave is more convenient(closer to the house and not as big/crowded).  So I'll try to focus on Weis but use Shursave if we need something specific or last minute or if they have a great deals on particular items.

* The Bread Outlet has become a hit or miss thing as they are frequently out of what I need there but I will continue to try them for bread products we use/need.

* The Big Lots shop was not so great.  I was going there anyway for something and Hubs needed instant coffee and Sensodyne toothpaste and I didn't want to have to make a stop anyplace else.  Luckily they had a house brand sensitive teeth toothpaste(same ingredients as Sensodyne)and it was only $1.50.  It still KILLED me to pay for toothpaste even at $1.50. lolz  Since I was there I picked up a bag of dog chewies for Chester.  I am kicking myself since it wasn't one of their 20% off everything in the store days and we weren't out of chewies....I should have waited on those. sigh.

LOOKING AHEAD To April.......
Staring down the barrel of a $400 food/toiletries budget for April.  I'll try to do better than that but no promises.  ;-)

I know there is a restaurant supply trip in my future this coming month as I am almost out of onions and it's coming on fresh produce months.  Plus I need a 5 lb. block of Cooper sharp cheese for College Boy.  This is the cheese of choice around here and CB eats his weight in grilled cheese sandwiches and if I buy a whole log it's a lot cheaper and more convenient than having to find a sale at a deli counter every week or so.  We have an industrial strength cheese cutter/slicer so we are good to go. lolz

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 March?
*  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

9 comments:

  1. I thought it was just me not finding coupons and deals. Maybe things will improve. Since hubs has time on his hands, have you ever considered even a small greenhouse or some structure to grown things? I know if I had someone sitting around with time on his hands, outside of brewing, I would like him to grown food. Don't tell him I said that!

    It killed me to have to buy a pound of Kraft Medium Cheese since if I open cheese, I just never quit eating it. If I have a smaller package and finish it, I will wait a few days to open another. If I had five pounds of cheese open, I would never give cheese a rest.

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  2. You kill it on the Rite Aide savings!! I just started tracking, ( March 2018) and thought I could keep it under or around $400. Nope!! Including HBA,Alcohol, Detergent, etc we were at $500.

    Shooting for $400 next month as a goal. We shall see!!

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  3. Another great job, Sluggy. Over 50% savings is awesome!

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  4. Since my MIL passed away this month, our totals are all out of whack. I spent 448.77 on food for two, one meat eater. There were cheese sales that I took advantage of (more than once) and I sent a large box of food on two separate trips South that my husband took. His unemployment is finally coming to an end. So, i’ve been trying to figure out how much food we’d need for one year, plus toiletries. I don’t want to be caught unawares next year if he gets laid off again. Although, we did a great job of keeping savings in savings, I don’t like these kind of surprises. So, looking ahead to April, i’m going to try to be good but, knowing myself, I will probably stock up if there’s any good deals to be had. I wish I could say I was able to use coupons but I didn’t. I did troll coupons dot com and found a few coupons to clip. But, the printer/system/Gods were having none of it. I’ll keep checking back. I was hoping the big snow dump that was predicted would pass us by so I could go to Target. But, that was a big dream, too. (Between work and car in the shop, I wouldn’t have been able to go til today.)
    I hope you have a peaceful Easter!
    Debbie

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  5. My budget was $450 and I came just under at $447.25. That is for 2 adults and 2 teens (that eat more then the adults). 3 of us have special diets which always seem to cost more. I am doing great for the year at $966.89. I did a pantry challenge for January so that really helped. This includes grocery and household such as cleaners, paper goods, hygiene.

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  6. Sluggy, I have budgeted $100/person per month for years (up from $67 during very lean times). I find it gives me the wiggle room to pick up great deals when I find them. I focus my menu planning on what is already here, usually only needing dairy, some produce to fill in like 2 things. Works for me.

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  7. We made it under budget. I did take advantage of the egg deal at Target and their $10 gc/spending $50. Eggs are very expensive in my area ($2.50/dozen) so getting 18 eggs for 99 cents was a saver!

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  8. I made it under budget ($575 CAD which includes all OTCs and cleaning products. Things are much more expensive here). You did well! You likely would have been even lower had you not been sick. It appears you are training your hubby in the art of the grocery deal though, wish mine was trainable that way

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  9. My monthly food budget is $280 for two adults and the last 3 months I've been well under that. We eat really well and I just don't let anything go to waste. I think the fact that my daughter has changed her attitude towards leftovers has made a difference in addition to making a pot of soup at the end of each week to use up limp veggies. Gone are the days when I would toss old spinach or arugala - now it gets added to the pot.

    ReplyDelete

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