AUGUST 2013 Budget Results......Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for AUGUST 2013.

I have posted August's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2013 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in August.  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(3+ at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 17.
******************

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $4.00
Value  $11.67
Savings  65.72%

BERGER'S FARM MARKET
OOP  $9.00
Value  $15.00
Savings  40%

DOLLAR GENERAL
OOP  $32.86
Qs/Ads  $7.70
Value  $40.56
Savings  19%

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant supply)

OOP  $28.57

Value  $44.81

Savings  36.24 %

OLLIE'S
OOP  $24.47
Value  $36.60
Savings  33.15%
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $27.48

Qs/Ads  $33.07

Value  $5.59

Savings  16.90%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $225.48

Qs/Ads  $147.36

Value  $372.84

Savings  39.52%

I am no longer adding my rebates received into my food budget directly. I will use them on food on occasion and will note that when used.  I will keep track of rebates/gift cards/certs received here as before however.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN August.....$0.00 (Last month's $35 rebate received was given to #2 Son to use for groceries while we were away.)

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....$0

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Bread Outlet at  65.72%, Berger's Farmstand at 40%, Weis PMITA Markets at 39.52%.  I food/toiletries shopped at 7 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$391.86

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$202.69

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$594.55

TOTAL Savings of...................................34.10%

This closes out the August food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into August with $300 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month and was going to shift the last $100 into the Vacation budget for extra spending money.  Well that would have worked out fine, except I spend $108.48 on the 29th, after we got home, at the grocery store.  Ugh.  I could have waited 3 days and spent that $ on the September food budget but no, I had to go and screw that all up.

So instead of taking $100 less out of savings to cover the miscellaneous spending on vacation, the whole thing comes out of savings.  I am not too concerned by this, since we have the extra money in savings to cover whatever we spent.  It would have been nice though to finish out August with $100 less in food spending. 8-(

So going back to my $400 food budget, I ended the month with $8.14 leftover.  And that includes $40 in cash given to #2 Son to use for food while we were on vacation(plus the $35 from the rebate check we received last month).
 

I did NO Rite-Aid shopping last month again.  In fact, I gave away about 3 bags of toiletries while on vacation plus another box of toiletries/HBA in July for a blog giveaway.

While spending $400 in August on food/toiletries is good, considering we ate out for 11 days of the 31, that puts our daily food spending a bit higher than I like to see.  30 days for $400 comes to about $13.33 a day, while 20 days for $400 comes to $20 a day for food.
 

Looking ahead to September---We don't have any parties or special meals going on this month except for a Family Reunion at the end of the month and we aren't bringing/making any food for that.  We will need to eat-out a few meals.  The Labor day cook-out/sort of,  I already have the food bought and paid for that.   We are going to try to stay out of restaurants/fast food/take-out meals in September and eat home cooked only.  I need to drop these 3 pounds I picked up last month by eating restaurant food on vacation.  Meals this month will be back to reduced sodium and fresh seasonal veggies and cheap.

 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2013 so far this year--
 

2013 Total Saved $2,032.80

2013 Yearly Total Value of Items  $4,990.08

2013 Yearly Total Spent $2,957.28

2013 Yearly Savings Total of  40.74%

 

In August, total savings percentage for the year has gone DOWN .89% over July's total of 41.63% to 40.74%.  So we saw a slight decrease in our savings rate on food/toiletries spending for the year.
We are holding steady in the 40%s.
Works for me! 8-)

 

How much did you spend on food in August?
 

Sluggy

May Food Spending Week 4, Meal Plan Week 4+/Week 1

I hope everyone had a reflective Holiday. Let's open today's Food post/Meal plan with this clip I "lifted" off someone else's blog......

***********************
And here is the meal plan that actually happened last week.....

SUNDAY--Baked Tilapia, Stuffed Clams, Mixed Veggies
MONDAY--TV Dinners from the back of the freezer....uh, oh.....
TUESDAY--Sloppy Joes, Corn on Cob(or COC as it's known around here)
WEDNESDAY--London Broil and Pineapple on the grill
THURSDAY--Sausage or Chicken patty Sandwiches, Harvard Beets
FRIDAY--Chinese take-out
SATURDAY--Leftovers

We finally got those dreadful tv dinners outta here! Just 1 night of take-out. The weekly food spending was $129.85 this past week.
Again with the going over $100 in a week. ugh 4 times to the grocery stores this past week. I bought some London broils and chicken breast(BOGO deals)and then I spazed out and bought SIX BOXES of frozen fruit bars!lol It seemed like the most logically thing to do at the time and given the sale price and the heat the last few days, those suckers will be gone in no time.lol

Value of food bought was at $210.79 so my savings rate was 38.40% for the week. Total spending for the month to this point is $327.99. It's a good thing I 'upped' my food budget to $400 for May, huh?

************************
 In terms of leftovers, I'm going into this week with a little Sloppy Joe left, half of the London Broil I cooked last week. After Monday's cook-out I also have a large amount of baked beans and potato salad to use up this week.
The weather here is extremely hot for May, at least until Thursday so I'll be avoiding running the oven until then.

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Leftovers and/or Whoppers
MONDAY--Burgers/Dogs cookout, baked beans, potato salad
TUESDAY--Alfredo with veggies and steak slices, tossed salad
WEDNESDAY--Leftovers (crazy schedules night)
THURSDAY--Spaghetti and turkey meatballs, saute veggie mix
FRIDAY--Pizza
SATURDAY--BLTs or Cheese Steaks(diners choice)

This menu gives us 5 new meals and 2 nights of leftovers(or 1 night of leftovers and 1 night of fast food).
As for items I need to buy for this week......hot dog rolls, sauerkraut, meatballs, tomato, lettuce. We'll be buying milk as usual, along with some fresh fruit.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy