2016 Food & Toiletries Spending.....November Update

* Posting this a day early as I am finished spending on food for November.*

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for NOVEMBER 2016.

I have posted November's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2016 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.  I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in November.  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 5(4-5 at home this month). No kids under 20.

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DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $3.00
Value  $5.00
Savings   40%

KMART
OOP  $0.00
Value  $8.94
Savings  100%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $522.04
Value  $522.04
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $188.71
Qs/Ads $99.80
Value  $288.51
Savings  34.59%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $330.38

Qs/Ads  $477.68

Value  $808.06

Savings  59.11%

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Dollar Tree at 100% and Weis at 59.11%.  My WORST savings rate was Shursave Market at 34.59%.
I shopped at 5 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$522.09

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$1,110.51

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,632.60

TOTAL Savings of ..................................68.02%
TOTAL Savings w/o Rite-Aid of ..............52.99%


This closes out the November food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into November wanting to do a $400 food budget for the month.
I actually spent $522.09 which was $122.09 over my limit.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went up by 12.62% in November to 68.02% compared to October's 55.40% savings average.
A killer savings rate  brought about by a lot of free items at Rite-Aid during the month.  Even without all the freebies at R-A the month ended overall with a 52.99% savings rate which is not too shabby either.

With 11 months accounted for, I have spent a total of $4,696.81 on food/toiletries so far in 2016 which averages out to $426.98 per month spent.  This is $9.51 MORE per month than October's average.  My savings rate for the year is holding now at 61.92%.

LOOKING AHEAD To December 2016........

I have implimented a plan to spend only grocery and Visa gift cards and cash rebates received and not spent so far this year, to pay for all the groceries in December.  If I can succeed at this that means my 2016 total spent on food & toiletries will remain at November'syear to-date total of $4,696.81.
Add in that I stocked up on many items in Novemeber(to get a store reward)so some things I'd buy in December are already in the larders, including Holiday goodies and a big hunk of meat for Christmas dinner.

Stay tuned in December to see if my plan works or if I crash and burn the food budget. ;-)

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 November?
*  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

Shopping This Week So Far

Last Friday I went to Weis and spent $26.43....well I spent $29.43 but was overcharged $1.03 for some onions so I got the full overcharged amount back on Monday($3) making my OOP $26.43. Everything on sale except as noted, regular retail value of $45.52.

Items bought included.....
2 bags of sugar $1.27 each after coupon
5 cartons of organic chicken broth 50% at $1.19 each.
1 head iceberg lettuce 50% at .99¢
1.19 lb. tomatoes on the vine at $1.48 lb.
1 bag of spinach 50% off
1 clamshell of salad green 50% off
1 bag of sweet onions $1.97(overcharged)
1 bag of red potatoes $1.97
2 containers of sour cream $1.50 each
1 quart Greek yogurt $3.99
1 package onion rolls $3.49 *full price*

I also hit the Bakery/Bread Outlet that day and stocked us up on bread products for most of the month.....2 bags of bagels, 3 bags of assorted rolls/buns and 3 loaves of bread for $9.25 OOP.
Regular retail of $36.81 on all that.

Since I had closed out October's food spending already all this above goes onto November's totals.

This brought my food spending to $35.68.

I went to the town South of us here yesterday to see a movie and picked up these deals while I was there......

3 x dozen Large Eggs on sale 3/$5=$5.00
.86 lb. Catfish Fillets on sale $6.97 lb.=$5.85
1 x bag of dark potato chips on sale=$2.00
Total.....$12.85 OOP

Bonus points as the eggs were from a local poultry farm.

Tomorrow starts the new ads at Weis(PMITA)Markets.  Nothing there excites me this week except maybe the 8 O'clock coffee is BOGO and I think there is a $1/1 Q in the inserts making for some cheap coffee.

At this point I am at $48.53 for groceries in November.
$251.47 left to spend for the month.

My current shopping list for Thanksgiving dinner--
celery
rutabaga
whipped cream

Sluggy