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Images courtesy of Millenium-mb.com)
Well this month began as a fairly
Frugal Affair.
Ok, we took a short getaway trip to Ocean City MD....but we did it on the cheap and thrifty side!
And I stayed out of the grocery stores for two+ weeks....let alone any other kind of store, not counting Rite-Aid of course! But Rite-Aid doesn't
really count since they pay ME to shop there and I don't ever actually spend money at that store. 8-))
We were content and happy to be using up some stockpiled and freezer goodies for meals and snacks as the month began.
And then it happened......
Three, count 'em three local grocery stores ran Catalina deals in the last 2 weeks, including that lovely Hormel Bacon Promotion(slurp). Weis Markets had a couple of Cat deals but I didn't even get to that store to take advantage of them....yes, I am slipping in my old age.
This past few weeks, it's like a rare convergence of celestial bodies combined with a lining up of the planets to form a
Bargain Eclipse!lol
*Cue the skies opening up and a bevvy of heavenly hosts descending around my head, plucking on tiny harps and raising their angelic voices.....aaaaaah, aaaaahh, aaaaahhh.....
And just like that, I went from a monthly grocery spending total of just under $50 for October to a
bloated budget busting total of over $300 for food.
Eeeeek!
I know, I know.....$300 in monthly food spending for a family of 4 is NOT really "
Out There" compared to what the average American spends on groceries, but for me, well......it's HUGE!lol
While I budget for food each month, we aren't living paycheck to paycheck and we regularly live
well below our financial means.
So when I find great deals on food or anything else we need, I have the flexibility to spend more than I've budgeted and take advantage of the deals without taking the funds from some other expense we need the cash for instead.
Having a little extra cushion of money is a great thing indeed!
I highly recommend it. ;-)
But still.... when you scribble that pencil down to a nub and see $300 staring back at you from your piece of paper, it tends to make you pause, draw a darn big breath and make you light in the head for a moment.
Or is that just me? ;-)
I did 4 transactions at Redner's, doing the ConAgra and General Mills Catalina promotions(each gave a $10 Cat WYB $25 of items). I bought 48 assorted items(from tv dinners to cooking oil to whipped cream to canned tomatoes) and spent $51.59 total OOP. And I have a $10 Cat left to use.
While $50+ sounds high, that was for $293.53 of reg. retail value of food.
That's a savings rate of just under
82.5%(not counting the $10 Cat I have left).
As for my Hormel totals at Price Chopper......
3 bags of Pepperoni
26 packages of Bacon
34 cans of Chili
Equals
63 items
$39.90 OOP + a $7 Catalina left to spend
$222.27 reg. retail price of items
Savings of
82% (not counting the $7 left to spend).
So now I need to apply a
Financial Tourniquet to our spending and try to avoid the grocery stores and eat down on this pile 'o food.
Luckily the month is almost over and I get to start with a clean budget slate in 5 days. 8-))
So how is your food spending going this month?
Have you gotten any good deals on groceries lately?
Sluggy
