April Budget Results.....Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for APRIL 2011.

I have posted April's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2011 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in April.  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 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 15.
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BIG LOTS
OOP  $4.20
Value  $5.38
Savings  22%


BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $20.45
Value  $74.02
Savings  72.37%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $4.51

Qs/Ads  $.48
Value  $4.99
Savings  9.62%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $10.69
Value  $20.52
Savings  48%

RITE AID
OOP  $6.77 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $770.79
Value  $822.27
Savings  99.17% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

SAFEWAY
OOP  $1.49($25 put on free gift card
Qs/Ads/gift card  $13.92
Value  $40.41
Savings  96.31%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $61.09
Qs/Ads  $52.31
Value  $113.40
Savings   46.13%

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 APRIL

Pinecone Research....$6.00
Rite-Aid SCR...$56.99
Subtotal........$62.99

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES

Subtotal....$0.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$62.99

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Ocean Spray.....sample and $1 Q

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%,  Safeway at 96.31% and the Bread Outlet at 72.37%.  I shopped at 7 stores in April.


TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$102.43
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$978.56
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1080.99 with Rite-Aid figured in
TOTAL Savings of...................................90.52%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$62.99

TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$39.44
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$1041.55
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1080.99
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................96.35%

Since my Rite-Aid shopping(which contains No OOP)always skews my savings percentages, I like to figure my Totals without the Rite-Aid numbers also.
TOTAL OOP after Rebates.....$39.44
TOTAL Value of Items Purchases(w/out Rite-Aid items)....$258.72
TOTAL Savings After Rebates(w/out Rite-Aid items).....84.75%

This closes out the April spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
We ate down the freezer/stockpile again this month.  Add in that there were few stocking up opportunities(aka great deals)so I stayed out of the food stores most of the month and thus didn't spend alot of the $250 food budget.  3 out of the 4 months in 2011 so far have come in well under that budgeted amount.
I could probably do another under $100 in food spending month in May since we still have enough veg and meat left in the freezer to only have to buy milk, fresh produce and a few items we run out of this month.

What's ahead for May.....
Since #1 son(aka the Eating Machine) will be home this month, I suspect I'll be sending more than $40 on food this month.  I also plan to get some bulk items at the restaurant supply store and take advantage of a 2 Catalina Deals this week at Weis(coffee/choc. milk mix and pet food).
I plan on spending all $250 of my food budget this month.

We also will be having a family Graduation Party in early June, so I plan on picking up some things ahead of time for that in the coming weeks.  Sort of spreading out the expenses for that over 2 months instead of spending it all in June.
This means I may go over my budget this month.
But I figure, since I've averaged only $130 per month each month in food spending in 2011 so far(I give myself $250 per month for food), I have $480 +/- in the budget money I've earmarked for food for the last 4 months but haven't spent yet.  That means I've only spent barely half of what is budgeted for food for the last 4 months!
I figure I've got some 'wiggle room' when it comes to spending on food next month.

How did you do in April with your Food Budget?
What are your challenges for May?
Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress!  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

Timing Sales Cycles with Coupons=Savings!

 **This post is part of the Money Saving Challenge over on FRUGAL MAKES CENTS.**

It seems like all I do lately is shop and post about Rite-Aid trips!
I find this highly amusing as I signed on to go on a January Spending Diet.....lol
Yep, low spending and only the necessaries in January.
I don't know....maybe it's the contrarian in me.
I'm fairly frugal and keep to a food/hba budget each month.
But tell me NOT to spend and all hell breaks loose! ;-)

But I DO consider stocking up when things are cheap a necessary shop.
It may not be a life/death decision to buy that 10lbs. of pork loin today or this month but come the next 3-4 months when we want pork chops, I am not at the whim of the $3.99 or more per lb. at the grocery store butcher. 
Yep, saving big bucks on food/hba is necessary even in a no spending month deal.

And that is my not-so-subtle segue into one of the great ideas on saving money that anyone forearmed with some sales cycle knowledge and some spare food/hba budget cash can jump on.

Here is what I did over the last week or so to save money.

We have a dishwasher.
Dishwasher detergents are pricey, right?
So I pick it up when I find it cheap.
Once a year, Finish brand releases a high value coupon(some years they release it two times during a year).  It's generally $2 or more and it's usually available at the beginning of the year.
I knew this baby was coming and I was ready to start saving!
But phooey on the coupon gods.....this year my region did NOT get the yummy $2.25 off 1 item coupon!

So I bit the eBay bullet and paid someone to clip a pile of this coupon for me.
And wouldn't ya know it! the sales started for Finish dishwasher detergent immediately after the coupon came out the Sunday before last.

Walgreen's had a deal last week....Finish was on sale for $3.49 a box.  After coupon & tax here, it was $1.45 a box.  And for each box you bought you received a $1.50 RR(1 per transaction), making it free after Q and Register Reward.

My envelope of coupons arrived on Thursday.  I was chomping at the bit to use these babies so I went up to Wags.
Usually by Thursday here at Wags, with the good or free deals(which this was!), the shelves are long past cleared.
This particular coupon not being released here worked in my favor.....Wags was lousy with Finish!! ;-)
I did 2 transactions and bought 2 boxes.....plus a clearance jar of Italian Herbs as we were out.

Total spent....$3.49($2.90 for the dish detergent).
I have $3 in RRs to roll.
Why did I stop at 2 boxes?
Well, first off I am NOT anxious to get back into the Wags scene and rolling RRs and second, I knew Rite-Aid and CVS would have deals on this item in short order.

And the very next week(yesterday), those 2 drug chains started sales on Finish. 
The Rite-Aid deal is BOGO which is pretty sweet usually.  Not so sweet if the regular price on 1 box is $6.49 however!lol
So 2 boxes on BOGO sale using 2 x $2.25 Qs still means I am out of pocket(or out of free gift card in my case)$1.99 for 2 boxes or $1 a box + tax.
CVS came through with a better deal.  This week the Finish is on sale for $3 a box, which after $2.25 Q makes each box .75¢+ tax.  And if you buy $20 of Airwick and/or Finish this week you get a $10 ECB reward back.
So the deal is buy 7 boxes, spend $5.25 out of pocket and get $10 in ECBs back.
Even without the ECB, you spend less OOP than at Rite-Aid with the Q.

The problem is finding 7 boxes here in the CVS stores past 9am on Sunday morning!
They get hit and hit early and hard on the good deals....
But again, no $2.25 in our inserts worked to my advantage.  I slept late on Sunday and still found plenty of Finish in the late afternoon to buy....
And I bought 14.
I did the deal on my card....

And then I did it again on Hubs card at a different CVS.
I still had 4 Qs left.  So I used them at Rite-Aid, but we'll talk about Sunday's Rite-Aid rampage another time. ;-)

I spent $11.14 with tax at CVS for 14 boxes.
$2.90 at Wags + $11.14 at CVS=$14.04 for 16 boxes of dishwasher detergent and I have $3 to spend at Wags and $20 to spend at CVS.
After I spent zero out of pocket to buy 4 more at Rite-Aid(thanks to my free gift cards and +Up Rewards) I now have a yearly supply of dishwasher detergent in place.

Yes, I may buy a bottle or box here or there if it's an amazing price or free during the rest of the year, but this is one item I can check off my needing to purchase for the whole year list!

Sluggy