Frugal Friday......the March 23rd Edition

Not much to report in the realm of frugal wins this past week.  Staying home with a bum shoulder/arm meant not much $ spent.

*  I sent Hubs to Weis(PMITA)Markets last Friday to pick up a head of cabbage and the Friday Freebie........

These coupons never work so Hubs just takes the item to the Customer Service desk and tells them it's suppose to be free, they write on it "Free", the cashier at the register rings it up and then takes it off. lolz
I'll have to keep sending him on Friday as he has a system down.  8-))

*  There was a trip to the Bread Outlet...........

$4 for 3 loaves of Arnold's bread.
I made a corned beef dinner last Saturday so we need the rye bread for Ruebens tonight to use up the leftover corned beef.

*  I am heading out to do a big grocery shop as soon as I get this posted.  I'm gotten lazy so I am making a list to keep myself in check at the store............

I have been forgetting items I want to get so a list will keep me from slapping myself on the forehead afterwards or running back to the store.  I am also noting on the list if I have a coupon so I don't forget to hand those over too, which I have been known to forget. duh.

And that's it for this week.

We are just a little over a week away from Easter and I really am not feeling up to hosting a big "to do".  I will have enough Weis Pts. for a free spiral ham so I'll pick that up this coming week.  I might do a lasagna too for Easter and that way I don't have to cook for a few more days.   Maybe I can get through a week without having to cook?  That would be nice! ;-)

What are your Easter dinner plans?

Sluggy

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for NOVEMBER 2012.

I have posted November'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 November.  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 16.
******************

BREAD OUTLET
OOP   $10.89

Value   $25.42

Savings  57.16%

KEYCO(restaurant supply store)

OOP   $37.55

Value   $70.88

Savings   47.02%

PRICE CHOPPER

OOP   $32.39

Qs/Ads  $35.96

Value   $68.35

Savings   52%

RITE-AID

OOP  $1.25

Qs/Ads/+Ups/Gift Card  $491.38

Value  $492.63

Savings   99.74%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $269.64

Qs/Ads  $244.16

Value  $513.80

Savings  47.52%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $26.85

Qs/Ads  $69.90

Value  $96.75

Savings  72.25%

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 November

Rite-Aid Single Check Rebate.......$10.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES...$0.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$10.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

1 Giveaway wins--Progresso Lunch Set with 2 free cans of soup, Green Giant apron and bowl set with FREE veggie coupon

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Rite-Aid at 99.74%,  Weis at 72.25%, and the Bread Outlet at 57.16%.  l shopped at 6 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$378.57

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$889.26

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,267.83

TOTAL Savings of...................................70.14%

TOTAL Out of Pocket after Rebates received this Month......$368.57
TOTAL Savings after Rebates of..........................70.92%

This closes out the November spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into November with $400 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  I was able to keep under my food budget with more than $20 leftover.

My grocery savings hovered at just below 71% for November after rebates.  If you take the Rite-Aid purchases out of the equation, my savings percentage falls to around 52%, which is quite good actually.  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.  I also continued to not use many coupons at all at the food shops but I did take advantage of Catalina Deals and Store Instant Savings Promotions that were offered for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Of course, the small pile of coupons used at the grocery stores does NOT include the vast amounts I utilize at Rite-Aid.  I am indeed the Coupon Diva at Rite-Aid. ;-)

 

LOOKING AHEAD TO DECEMBER......

I will be keeping my food budget at $400 for December. We will be doing a fair amount of eating out in December after my oldest comes home for Christmas, but that money doesn't come out of the Food Budget.  It will come out of the money put aside for Christmas.
There will be some Holiday cooking and extra baking but at this point I have already picked up many of the supplies for that in November.
So $400 should be adequate for our needs in December.

How did you do in November with your Food Budget?
Did you stick to your budget?
Did you find any good rock bottom prices to stock up on groceries?

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

Keeping Your Eyes Open for Deals in The Stores

While I DID succeed in blowing up my Food Budget for January, I don't consider it a total FAIL.
I didn't go over by a large amount(thank you rebate checks!)and I did manage to pick up some very nice deals, both planned for and not planned.

Some deals I got were intentional.  Like this one.....

I saw that the local chain market was running a special on the veggie Ronzoni pasta...$1 a box.  I jumped on eBay and found a deal for 20 $1/1 coupons.  After they arrived I managed to get my hands on 18 boxes of the pasta.  With shipping the coupons cost me $2.28.  Not a bad price for 18 boxes of noodles.

Here's some of the 14 boxes of dishwasher detergent I talked about earlier this week, that I picking up at CVS as well....

Between CVS, Wags and Rite-Aid I got 20 boxes and am set for another year.

And here is another deal I saw and jumped on.....

Weis markets had these croutons for $1 a bag.  I was almost out of croutons so I picked up a stack of $.50/1 coupons.  Weis doubles(to $1) up to 4 of an alike coupon per transaction, so I spent that week buying 4 bags at a clip so the coupons would double and they would all be free.  Now I am set for croutons for another year.

But there are always unexpected deals that pop up if you look around the store sometimes.  Keeping your eyes open can reap rewards like this.....

I found these cans of Comstock Pie Filling at CVS on the After-Christmas Clearance shelves.  There were only stocked for Christmas so went to 75% off with the bows and paper and candy and such.
Though not an extremely great price at .69¢ per can, I had 3 .55¢/1 coupons for Comstock pie filling from the Sunday inserts, so I paid only .14¢ for 3 of these cans.  Not a bad haul for $2.49, right?

And how about these....

I was walking around the local grocery store since I had to drive my BIL there to do his shopping and spotted these bottle of olive oil on clearance marked down half price to $3!
I showed BIL the great deal and after he took as many as he wanted, I grabbed the rest.
Being a good person can reap unusual rewards....lol

And here was another Jan. unexpected deal.....

The day I was in Redner's market they were clearancing these yogurt packs for .99¢ since they were going out of date soon.
Great price.
But even better because I had GM inserts in the car with $1/1 coupons for these....woohoo!
Free yogurt!

So just in Jan. I got enough pasta, croutons, dishwasher detergent to last me a year.....olive oil and pie filling to last me at least 6 months, and yogurt to last a few months or longer(yogurt is great frozen too).
And now I can mark those items off my stockpile shopping list for quite some time and concentrate on other items.

I am usually one to quickly get my items, get through the store and get out.  But sometimes it does pay to take your time and wander slowly through the grocery store looking for unexpected deals, markdowns, clearanced items and even tearpad or blinkie box coupons.

Remember those croutons?  Every trip to buy 4 bags I picked up a few blinkie box coupons for Hormel Compleats at the other end of that aisle in the store.
Hubs likes to take those Compleats to work for lunch and you know that Rite-Aid puts them on sale fairly regularly so I can use those coupons I gleaned for more free Compleats! 8-)

Do you wander the grocery store aisles looking for coupons or unexpected deals?

Sluggy