2017 Food & Toiletries Spending....February Update

* Posting my grocery totals a day early as I am done food spending for February.  If for some reason I shop again today, this amount will go onto March's spending.*

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for FEBRUARY 2017.

I have posted February'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 February.  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 3-4(3 at home this month). No kids under 20.

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BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $4.75
Value  $17.26
Savings  72.48%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $31.28
Value  $49.30
Savings   36.55%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $331.67
Value  $331.67
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $21.52
Qs/Ads $34.20
Value  $55.72
Savings  61.38%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $236.40

Qs/Ads  $251.02

Value  $487.42

Savings  51.50%

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bread Outlet at 72.48% and the Shursave Market at 61.38%.  My WORST savings rate was Maine Source at 36.55%.
The bulk of my money was spent at Weis Markets in February and I had a 51.50% savings rate there.
I shopped at 5 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$293.95

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$647.42

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$941.37

TOTAL Savings of ..................................68.77%
TOTAL Savings w/o Rite-Aid of ..............51.79%

This closes out the February food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into February wanting to spend $300 on food and toiletries.
I came in $6.05 under even with stocking up on a few things this month.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 4.48% in February to 68.77% compared to January's 73.25% savings average.

With 2 months accounted for, I have spent a Grand Total of $845.22 on food/toiletries in 2017 which averages out to $422.61 per month spent in 2017. 8-)


LOOKING AHEAD To March........
College Boy will be home for 1 of the 4 weeks in March.  I want to try for another $300 grocery spending month anyway.  We've got lots in the pantry/freezer/stockpile heading into March.
If I can't keep under $300 I should be able to stay close.

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 February?
*  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

DECEMBER 2012 Budget Results....Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2012.

I have posted December's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2012 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in December.  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(4-5 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 16.
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BREAD OUTLET
OOP   $21.89

Value   $77.70

Savings  71.83%

CARVEL STORE

OOP   $17.95

Sale/Ads/Qs  $2.00

Value   $19.95

Savings   10.03%

KMART

OOP   $.10

Sale/Ads/Qs   $9.00

Value   $9.10

Savings   98.90%

OLLIE'S

OOP   $54.90

Value   $101.93

Savings   46.14%

RITE-AID

OOP  $0.00

Qs/Ads/+Ups/Gift Card  $785.79

Value  $785.79

Savings   100%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $98.64

Qs/Ads  $85.94

Value  $184.58

Savings  46.56%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $245.63

Qs/Ads  $165.34

Value  $410.97

Savings  40.23%

I don't track Rite-Aid's +Ups here, nor 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 RECEIVED IN December....Nothing

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....Nothing
TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

1 Giveaway win--Free Laundry Detergent Q

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Rite-Aid at 100%,  KMart at 98.90%, and the Bread Outlet at 71.83%.  l shopped at 7 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$439.11

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$1,150.81

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,589.92

TOTAL Savings of...................................72.38%

TOTAL Out of Pocket after Rebates earned(but not received yet) this Month......$420.11

TOTAL Coupons & Store Savings....$1169.81

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.....$1589.92
TOTAL Savings Rate after Rebates of..........................73.57%

This closes out the December spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into December with $400 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  I went over budget by $39.11.  Once I receive my $19.00 in rebates I earned in Dec., my overage gets cut to $20.11.

My grocery/toiletries savings were at 73.57% for December after rebates.  If you take the Rite-Aid purchases out of the equation, my savings percentage falls to 45.40%.  Almost 50% savings for just food is quite good.  I'm usually around 33% savings for just the food stores.

I continued to shop the loss leaders and sales and stocked up when things were at rock bottom price in the sales cycles. 

Speaking about ONLY the food stores, I redeemed 22 manufacturer's Coupons on 187 items bought in December.  I went through my receipts and counted exactly how many Qs were used in December to prove that just shopping the loss leaders and rock bottom price in the sales cycles at the food stores CAN give you a good savings rate WITHOUT using coupons!  Yes, I used a few Qs but you don't have to be like those crazy people on that TLC show to save money on what you feed your family!

 I also earned 4 Catalina Qs worth a combined amount of $21 that were redeemed in December for food items at my 2 main grocery stores and in the food aisle at KMart.

 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2012--

2012 Total Saved $8,279.46

2012 Yearly Total Value of Items $12,475.82

2012 Yearly Total Spent $4,196.36

2012 Yearly Savings Total of 66.36%

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JANUARY

Out of Pocket $198.68
Value of Items $819.07
Amount Saved $615.72
Savings Percentage of 75.74% 

FEBRUARY

Out of Pocket $194.03
Value of Items $823.28
Amount Saved $629.25
Savings Percentage of 76.43%

MARCH

Out of Pocket $494.28
Value of Items $1127.03
Amount Saved $632.75
Savings Percentage of 54.64%

APRIL

Out of Pocket $225.03
Value of Items $451.13
Amount Saved $226.10
Savings Percentage of 50.12%

MAY

Out of Pocket $336.48
Value of Items $585.35
Amount Saved $228.10
Savings Percentage of 42.52%

JUNE

Out of Pocket $358.85
Value of Items $1,121.05
Amount Saved $762.20
Savings Percentage of 68%

JULY

Out of Pocket $236.43
Value of Items $823.59
Amount Saved $540.90
Savings Percentage of 71.30%

AUGUST

Out of Pocket $485.94
Value of Items $1503.43
Amount Saved $1017.49
Savings Percentage of 67.67%

SEPTEMBER

Out of Pocket $418.60
Value of Items $1233.55
Amount Saved $814.95
Savings Percentage of 65.58%

OCTOBER

Out of Pocket $459.36
Value of Items $1130.59
Amount Saved $658.23
Savings Percentage of 59.37%

NOVEMBER

Out of Pocket $368.57
Value of Items $1267.83
Amount Saved $899.26
Savings Percentage of 70.92%

DECEMBER

Out of Pocket  $420.11
Value of Items  $1589.92
Amount Saved  $1169.81
Savings Percentage of 73.57%

Sluggy

Food Spending DECEMBER Week 2, Meal Planning Week 3

 Yes, be sure to exercise your wine muscle this Holiday Season!

 

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And here is what actually got served last week.... 

Sunday--Rigatoni w/Meat Sauce, Salad

Monday--Chicken Parmesan, Mashed Potatoes, Beets

Tuesday--Halushki and/or Leftovers

Wednesday--Leftovers

Thursday--Daughter's Birthday Meal Out

Friday--Beef Pie with carrots, green beans and cornbread

Saturday--Leftovers or Breakfast for Dinner

 

 

Wednesday's fish didn't get served as well as Thursday's hot dogs.  Everything else was as planned.

The food spending last week was pretty average.  $70.66 in 4 trips to the grocery stores plus a trip to the Carvel store for an ice cream cake.  So $52.71 for groceries and $17.95 for the cake makes $70.66.

2 weeks and I have spent $236.04 of the month's $400  food budget. 

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Going into this week, I have leftover Beef Pie

This week's menu....

Sunday--Burger King Whoppers(BOGO 55cents Deal), Broccoli

Monday--Beef Pie leftovers

Tuesday--Salmon(Crab Cakes for #2 son),Green Beans

Wednesday--Stuffed Shells, Tossed Salad

Thursday--Hot Dogs, Beans, Potato Salad

Friday--?

Saturday--?

 

I've moved the 2 meals not served last week to this week.  Thursday has to be an easy meal as we have the Concert Band and Jazz Band concerts that evening.  The stuffed shells are in the freezer already.  Friday and Saturday I have no clue yet, but it will be something I have in the freezer already.  Since I'll be buying some of next week's goodies this week, I'm giving myself $70 for food shopping.  Daughter and I are baking later this week so that will have to include any supplies we need that I haven't already picked up.  We'll be doing fudge, maybe brownies, Hubs wants choc. chip cookies with butterscotch chips, and Daughter wants to make Cake Balls.  I'm not doing the large number of cookies this year because they end up sitting around too long.

What I need to buy for this menu so far?  Salad Greens.  Also some fresh fruit and milk.

I hope to get through this week cheaply.  I have $10 in free food vouchers for the Shursave market(from buying gift cards there last week) but there is little I want that's on sale this week there, so I'll hold them until next week's ad to use.

Not only can't I wrap my head around a menu plan for Fri. or Sat. but I can't seem to settle on what to serve on Christmas day.  Ya see, while we do the traditional turkey thing at Thanksgiving, we never really settled on a Christmas Day meal tradition.

Hubs grew up in NJ, in a family with a 1st Generation Italian father and a German/Dutch ancestored mother who only learned to cook after she married, so mostly she made Italian food.  Their holidays always involved pasta in some form....ravioli, lasagna, spaghetti mostly.  They never really did the 7 Fishes type meal.  That was probably due to the expense, as Hubs family was not well off when he was growing up.

I grew up in VA, with a Yankee father(with a very narrow food palate) and a Southern mother from a long line of Southern cooks who defined herself by her cooking ability, so we ate many traditional Southern specialties as well as a lot of meat(for my father).  Thanksgiving was all about the turkey(though it was surrounded by Southern dishes like Rutabaga and Tomato Bread Pudding, etc.) and Christmas was all about salt-cured Smithfield ham.

While Thanksgiving has been easy, It's been difficult marrying these differing Christmas traditions.  And after 30+ years together, we still don't have a routine down for Dec. 25th vittles.

 

We always go out to the Chinese Restaurant on Christmas Eve(our tradition)and family comes here on Christmas Day for dinner.  Many don't like ham, and I don't serve turkey again so close to Thanksgiving.  Hubs would be happy as a pig in mud if I just served Ravioli with Meatballs and Sausages(he grew up eating Italian food for every holiday), but I just don't find pasta "festive" enough. ;-)

I'm thinking about blowing out the food budget bigtime and serving a standing rib roast, seriously expensive carnivore fare!  $50 for a hunk of meat.  And I KNOW it will be devoured instantly. 8-))

If I do pasta and a hunk of meat it should cover all the bases.  And then I need to make Aunt Lula's rolls....pecan pie.....maybe pumpkin pie(again).....and I'll buy a cheesecake or cannoli.  This is turning into a production, isn't it?

A part of me is thinking maybe just serving snacks we can pick at all day.....platters of this and that--cheeses/deli meats, a fruit tray, deviled eggs, ham biscuits.

What are your menu plans for this week?

Heck, what are your menu plans for Christmas while we're at it?!

Sluggy