Food & Toiletries Spending.....January Update

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JANUARY 2015.

I have posted January's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2015 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in January.  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 3(2-3 at home this month). No kids under 18.

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BIG LOTS
OOP  $3.00
Qs/Ads  $1.50
Value  $4.50
Savings  33%


HARRIS TEETER
OOP  $77.61
Qs/Ads  $88.80
Value  $166.41
Savings  53.36%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $0.00-used gift card that I didn't pay for
Value  $35.99
Savings  100%

PRICE CHOPPER
OOP  $7.99
Qs/Ads  $7.99
Value  $15.98
Savings  50%

RITE-AID *(see below)
OOP  $6.48
Qs/Ads/+UPs  $541.67
Value  $548.15
Savings  98.75%

 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $26.46

Qs/Ads  $13.17

Value  $39.63

Savings  32.23%

SURPLUS OUTLET
OOP  $47.20
Value  $76.39
Savings  38.21%
 

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $142.85

Qs/Ads  $172.74

Value  $315.59

Savings  54.73%
 

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Ollie's at 100%, Rite-Aid at 98.75%, and Weis at 54.73%.  My WORST savings rate was Shursave Markets at 32.23%.

I shopped at 8 different stores this past month. 


* Let me explain my Rite-Aid total. The actual OOP(aka Out Of Pocket)spending was $11.33 for all of January.  Due to some returns and such I had a credit in December at Rite-Aid.  After applying as much of it to get my total spent to $0 in December I had $4.49 still to carryover into 2015.  After applying this amount to spending it brought my oop down to $6.48 for the month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........ $311.59

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$891.05

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1202.64 

TOTAL Savings of...................................74.09%
TOTAL Savings WITHOUT Rite-Aid.............53.38%

This closes out the January food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
While I wasn't under $250 for the month like I wanted to be, I was closer to that amount than my usual monthly $400 amount.
I'll call this a "Win".  ;-)

The monthly savings percentage went down by 5.84% in January to 74.09% compared to December's 79.93% average.
I'm not too concern by that since a 79.93% savings rate is unusually high.

LOOKING AHEAD To FEBRUARY.........
I want to continue to eat down some of our stockpiles of food and empty out the freezer a bit.  This means I don't need to spend as much at the stores(unless an incredible deal comes along).  Plus with the weather as bad as it is in February around here I am less likely to go out and shop, except at my 2 local stores(and Rite-Aid).  Staying home more means less chance to spend, so I am hoping to try for a $250 food/toiletries month in February.  Let's see how close I can get to that.
 

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 January?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?

 

Sluggy