JULY Budget Results....Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JULY 2010.

I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in July.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom information.

These Totals include Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(between 5 & 2 at home this month) & 3 dogs. No kids under 14.

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP $16.00
Value $62.94
Savings  74.58%

BIG LOTS
OOP $31.04
Value $52.66
Savings  41.06%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP $61.25
Qs/Ads $37.81
Value $99.06
Savings  38.17%

FAMILY DOLLAR
OOP $21.19
Qs/Ads $11.19
Value $32.38
Savings  34.84%

FARM MARKET

OOP  $12.55
Value  $21.89(compared to same items' prices at grocery store)
Savings  42.64%

PRICE CHOPPER

OOP  $6.95
Qs/Ads $16.93
Value  $23.88
Savings  70.90%

RITE AID
OOP $23.51 (whole amount put on Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads $412.55
Value $436.06
Savings 94.41% before gift cards/ 100% savings after gift cards

WALMART("that" store)
OOP $8.96
Qs/Ads $5.00
Value $13.96
Savings  35.82%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town)
OOP $126.39
Qs/Ads $127.74
Value $254.13
Savings  50.26%

I don't track 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 JULY

Kraft(2 different rebates)...$30.00
Pinecone Research....$6.00
Rite-Aid SCR....$58.98
Subtotal........$94.98

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
MyBlogSpark Cheerios Giveaway $25 Visa Gift Card
Rite-Aid $35 in Gift Cards($25+$5 bonus Skin Care & $5?-can't remember for what)
Rite-Aid RX Transfer $25 Gift Card

Subtotal....$85.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received..$179.98

FREE ITEMS

Vocalpoint Crystal Lite Samples
DiGiorgno Pizza
Huggies Diapers Pack

COUPONS

$2/1 Bounty Towels
$2/1 Crystal Light (multiple)

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%, Bakery Outlet at 74.58% and Price Chopper at 70.90%.

TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$294.04
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$724,25
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$1018.29
TOTAL Savings of..........71.13%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$94.98
TOTAL OOP After  Rebates....................$199.06
TOTAL Savings of..................................80.45%

This closes out the July spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
I stayed under my $200 budgeted amount for JULY by .94¢! after rebates were applied.  It was an expensive month as I bought alot of meat in July for stocking up purposes.

What's ahead for August 2010.....

I am setting the August 2010 Food/Toiletries Budget at $300.
Why?
Because we have 4 at home now and all 5 family members by the latter part of the month.
Because there may be a family picnic lurking at the end of the month which will add to the food expenses.
Because I plan on packing the freezer with farm bought bulk buys of some veggies for the winter and this month is when things will be ready for harvesting and purchasing.

As always, any rebates received this month will be added to the food budget spending.  I have few outstanding rebates at the moment so there will be little extra cash to cover food expenses in this way for August.

With half of the year behind us, we have averaged $170.35 per MONTH after rebates on food/toiletries spending for 2010 for a family of 4-5 adults/teens.

How did you do in July with your Food Budget?  Leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear!  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

July BUDGET RESULTS-Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JULY 2009.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in July.
These Totals include Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5. No kids under 13.

CARONE'S
OOP $24.23
Qs/Ads $7.19
Value $31.42
Savings 23%

CVS
OOP $.86
Qs/Ads $54.89
Value $55.75
Savings 98.5%

FARM FRESH
OOP $26.48 **Just had to pick up some Smithfield Ham while in Virginia!
Qs/Ads $12.52
Value $39.00
Savings 32%

KMART
OOP $54.52
Qs/Ads $869.30
Value $923.82
Savings 94%

OLLIE'S
OOP $5.55
Ads $4.30
Value $9.85
Savings 44%

PRICE CHOPPER
OOP $57.11
Qs/Ads $139.67
Value $196.78
Savings 71%

RITE AID
OOP $86.95
Qs/Ads $356.06
Value $443.01
Savings 80.37% **This is before Single Check Rebate & Gift Cards earned.**

SHOP-RITE
OOP $23.34
Qs/Ads $131.45
Value $154.79
Savings 85%

TARGET
OOP $62.06
Qs/Ads $130.40
Value $192.46
Savings 68%

WALGREEN'S
OOP $24.01
Qs/Ads $126.56
Value $150.57
Savings 84%

WALMART
OOP $25.17
Qs/Ads $14.06
Value $39.23
Savings 36%

WEIS
OOP $130.41
Qs/Ads $530.45
Value $660.86
Savings 80%

TOTAL Out of Pocket.............................$520.69
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings....$2376.85
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$2897.54
TOTAL Savings % for JUNE......................82%

I've decided NOT to track CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons". Rebates will also show up in the Monthly Totals when spent, but I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.

REBATES RECV'D. IN JULY

Rite-Aid SCR........$54.18
Reynolds Foil........$2.99
Cheerios Check....$5.00
Dove Hair Repair Challenge...$4.69
Lysol......$3.00
Physician's Formula....$7.13
Subtotal........$76.99

FREE ITEMS
Kashi Bar Coupon
Starbucks Ice Cream Coupon
Soft Soap Body Wash Coupon
Candy Bar Coupon
Purex 3-In-1 Coupon

NO Gift Cards

TOTAL Value of Cash Rebates..$76.99

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Walgreens at 84%, KMart at 94% & CVS at 98.5%. If you figure the Rebate I am due back from Rite-Aid($85), then my Savings % there is 99.5%.
(I spent $86.95 OOP and will receive back an $85 Check and $50 in Gift Cards.)
This closes out the July spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
Well, I set out to keep the Grocery/HBA spending under $500 for July...something I haven't been able to do yet. I didn't quite make $500 but at only $20 over, this is my least food/toiletries spending for 2009!

And this amount was with very little fresh produce included from my garden! I figured keeping it to $500 for July but that amount was counting heavily on not having to buy much in the way of fresh produce. We just harvested the first of the squash and cukes a couple of days ago, so in July we only had fresh salad greens supplementing the menu. This makes that $520 spent an even better showing.

I know that some of you out there may spend way less than $500 a month on your Food/Toiletries Budget. I don't know how you do it(unless you are eating rice and beans all the time!lol). But for us, $500 is really low. ESPECIALLY if you consider that a year ago I use to grocery shop.....sit down for this revelation.....WITHOUT COUPONS!
Yes folks, I never even peeked inside the Newspaper inserts on Sunday. Just threw the coupons out when we were done reading the paper.

It wasn't always like that. I used to coupon years ago, when I was a young married woman & hubby and I were living off of a much smaller salary. As he started earning more and I brought in some extra money on my side hustles, and then the babies started coming in quick succession, I had no time or energy for saving money with coupons. Then the babies started growing and eating ALOT MORE!lol Soon that small food bill was double and triple and taking too big a bite out of the income.

Last year, I would just go to the store once a week and do a $150 shop. But that big shop would be supplemented with 2-3 little mini-shops during the week to pick up things I forgot during the big shopping trip. $20 here, $15 there....add on another $40-$80 a week to that $150 total=$200+ a week!
And for that $200+ we barely had enough to eat through to the next week. We certainly didn't have shelves of extras for an emergency situation like we do now.

And that was a year ago.....since then, the price of everything has increased at least 6%. So I'd need $222.60 in today's dollars to buy last year's same $200 worth of food. Extrapolate out that weekly amount to a month and I was keeping a food/toiletries Budget equivalent to $964.60 a month in 2008.

So it blows my mind that I can spend LESS now on the Food budget and we have so much MORE foodstuffs than before!

Even with keeping the budget down to $520 in July, I was still able to take advantage of a couple of INCREDIBLE SHOPPORTUNITIES that came my way.

This $520 for July included 11 Trips to KMart during the Double Coupons Week in early July, a couple of trips to Target for cereal/cookies for the Kellogg's Rebate & a trip to Price Chopper to stock up on sale/clearanced staples(rice & spaghetti sauce mostly), as well as all the smaller food shopping trips & a splurge on that expen$ive Smithfield Ham we picked up at the Farm Fresh down in Virginia.

As for the total I am shooting for with my Food/Toiletries Budget for August....I am torn. The stockpile is looking quite healthy except for a few types of items, so I have a small percentage of things to stock-up on.
I have a Shopping Campaign all set to launch on Sunday for a really really good Cat deal at a grocery chain down the road from here. And then there is the return of KMart's Double Coupons Week later in August. There shouldn't be much I need by then, so I'll still check it out but I'll try to limit myself to things that will be free with the doubled coupons. I usually do free and items under $1 during these KMart Sales, so free only will be cutting back for me.

So I'm going to keep the Food Budget for August at $500 again. The kids will have returned from their summer jobs this month and the #1 son will be leaving for college too. I anticipate some irregularities with the menu(eating out and extra meals)this month, plus some farmer's market spending(to preserve for winter) so we'll leave some wiggle room in the budget for whatever pops up in August.

Sluggy