May BUDGET RESULTS-Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MAY 2009.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in May.
These Totals include Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5. No kids under 13.

BOYER'S
OOP $90.08
Qs/Ads $108.54
Value $198.62
Savings 55%

CVS
OOP $30.00
Qs/Ads $391.43
Value $405.39
Savings 92.50%

DOLLAR GENERAL
OOP $8.18
Qs/Ads $7.00
Value $15.18
Savings 46%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP $12.18
Qs/Ads $0.00
Value $12.18
Savings 0%

GERRITY'S
OOP $48.09
Qs/Ads $24.00
Value $72.09
Savings 34%

GIANT
OOP $17.68
Qs/Ads $25.82
Value $43.50
Savings 43.50%

KMART
OOP $100.60
Qs/Ads $381.22
Value $481.82
Savings 79%

PRICE CHOPPER
OOP $89.06
Qs/Ads $413.37
Value $502.43
Savings 76%

RITE AID
OOP $93.63
Qs/Ads $183.19
Value $276.82
Savings 66% **This is before Single Check Rebate & Gift Cards earned.**

SHOPRITE
OOP $190.98
Qs/Ads $225.67
Value $416.65
Savings 55%

WALGREEN'S
OOP $54.36($22.82 on Gift Card, actual OOP $31.54)
Qs/Ads $974.83
Value $1074.83
Savings 95%

WALMART
OOP $51.32
Qs/Ads $11.63
Value $62.95
Savings 19%

WEIS
OOP $233.20
Qs/Ads $496.85
Value $724.75
Savings 68%

TOTAL Out of Pocket.............................$1019.36
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings....$3243.55
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$4287.21
TOTAL Savings % for APRIL......................76.33%

I've decided NOT to track CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons". Rebates will also show up in the Monthly Totals when spent, but I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.

REBATES RECV'D. IN MAY

Rite-Aid SCR...........$40.49
Walgreen's Gift Card...$44.52
Progresso Rebate........$1.09
Ensure Rebate...........$6.99
Unilever Ham Rebate....$19.75
Misc. Rebates..........$19.96
Pinecone Survey.........$3.00
Staples Rebates.......$209.65

TOTAL Value of Rebates....$345.45

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were at CVS 92.50% & Walgreens at 95%!
This closes out the May spending.

Looks like not only did I NOT break 82% for a monthly savings total for May but I went over my $700 goal for monthly spending.
I did spend LESS than April, about $60 less overall.

So onward to June. I forsee a reduction in grocery bills this month. #1 son will be leaving this month for his job at the YMCA Camp, so won't be here for meals. Daughter will be going with him for training and will return home until her work contract starts in Aug. Then #2 son will be attending camp the end of the month, so he won't be eating here half of the month, when he returns in July.

As for the stockpile, I can say I am more than fully STOCKED on everything except some meat and fresh produce/milk/eggs. Likewise, in the toiletries/cleaners/dog food department, we are good-to-go for the forseeable future.
So it will be a light shopping month here at Chez Sluggy.

Unless some incredible shopportunity presents itself this month.... ;-))

I'm shooting for keeping the food spending under $600 in June. We've got some traveling to do in June so we'll have to eat out some, which will put this amount to the test.

We've got the garden put in now, which is a budget help with the free veggies, but we won't see any food savings there until the plants start producing in July. Between the local farm I buy from & my garden I usually don't buy any produce from the grocery stores in the summer months. The farmer can be a bit more than the grocery store so that will keep my monthly total up but being able to pull from the stockpile the staples will keep the total down.

One thing that will affect my spending OOP this month are the state of the Wags RRs and the CVS ECBs. I have TONS of RRs to roll every 2 weeks before they expire.....rolling costs some OOP cash however. That is no problem for now, as I have a well stocked WAGS GiftCard to use for the OOP. I may just burn alot of RR's and the few ECBs from CVS I have this month. The pressure to use them, especially when there isn't that much I want to acquire lately at Wags, is getting annoying. I'm in that store so much that any day now, some customer is going to mistake me for an employee! That seems to happen to me alot whereever I go shopping in grocery & drug stores.lolol

Sluggy

STINKY Coupon Week-Lotsa PAGES, NO COUPONS

Ok, call me insane!
Go ahead!!
I dare ya!!!

I am a die-hard couponer.
That's pretty obvious....or as my daughter says, "That's obv."

But I have to say that I ONLY bought ONE Sunday Newspaper yesterday.

Yes, you heard correctly.

One.

Usually hubby goes out for the paper pretty early on Sunday. I glance through the coupon insert(s) later on in the morning and then decide, from what coupons I see in the paper, how many more newspapers I need to buy for the week.

I was so disappointed in the inserts this week, that I decided NOT to buy another paper.

I picked up the Smart Source insert first. Man, was it THICK! I thought, "Hey! This is going to be a good couponage week after all!"

Boy, was I mislead....

Our SS insert was 16 pages big! For around here, a 16 page insert is worth celebrating.....usually.

Not this week.

Guess how many actual coupons were in this insert?(Not counting the 2 coupons for the local grocery store's baked goods, which are really bad and I won't buy.)

I figure per page, the average coupon count(back & front counting as 1 page)is 4 coupons per page. Low is 2 per page, high for this area is 6 per page.

There were a TOTAL of NINETEEN(19) COUPONS in this week's SS Coupon Insert!

16 pages.

19 coupons.

Pitiful, huh?

So I picked up the Red Plum Insert. The page count was 10 pages. There were 10 Coupons(plus a $5/1 for some fake hearing aid/amplifier thing you could use at Walgreen's, but I don't count that as a 'real usable coupon'.) No food coupons in this insert either(except for the cat/dog food).

Yep, this week the Smart Source Insert is known as SHORT SOURCE and the Red Plum is known as REAL BUM around here.

Did you get any good Coupons in your inserts? Go ahead and tell me about them and I'll try not to get jealous!lol

Sluggy

Tick Tock Tick Tock, the Clock is Ticking

So I was a very good girl today. I stayed off my foot for the most part. I elevated it and put ice on it some. I took some belated grocery run pictures & sat here and did my end of month totals and such. And I sat and gave love to the doggies and brushed them. Things I could do without using the foot.

But all those FREEBIE Qs & the thought that they would expire before I could get to the store again weighed on my mind....all.....day.....long!

Then hubby came home and did the sweetest thing. He offered to take me out and help me go use these Freebie Qs. Instead of coming home and relaxing after a really hectic week at work, he drove me to a couple of stores AND went in and went through the check-out and bought packs of t.p. with the freebie Qs.
And he did this all BEFORE he got his dinner....if you knew hubby, you would know what a sacrifice THAT was!lolol
I treated him to a rare dinner out WITHOUT KIDS because he did this coupon run for me.....and because I love him the bestest! ;-))
Ok, so the dinner out was at Friendly's but hey, at least it wasn't MacDonald's, right?

Here is what is left of the Marcal Coupon Stacks now....

We used all the Free Single Rolls Qs & only have 3 $4/1 Item Qs left, plus the 29 $1/1 off Qs. I'll use the last 3 Freebie Qs tomorrow & those $1/1 Qs can just expire. That won't bother me....much. ;-)

Onward to the next Things on my To Do List....post those end of month totals, get the garden put in & clean the garage out!

Anybody else got any big plans for this weekend? Let's hear 'em!

Sluggy

About College Stuff

So #1 son is a High School Senior. The local school district has an arrangement with the local community college, where, if you are among the top percentage of students in the senior class, you can take college courses during your senior year.


These classes are college level. They satisfy the seniors high school credit requirements for the diploma but they also possibly can be applied to your college record when you matriculate at a school. This means if your college will transfer these credits, you can possibly graduate in less than 4 yrs. When you are footing the college bill, getting through faster can be a good & frugal thing.


Anyway, #1 son has chosen to attend a public State School for College here in PA. The state school system here DOES accept these Dual Enrollment Credits if the grade is a B or over.




This is #1 son. He just got his grades from the Community College for the 2 courses he took this semester as part of the Dual Enrollment Program. He doesn't look very thrilled and it's not a very good picture anyway but he PASSED! Not only did he pass English 102 & Sociology but he got A's in both!

Add these to his grades for last Semester's English 101 & Philosophy grades and he has 3 As & 1 B for the year.

Maybe this is why the college he accepted entrance into surprised us last month with an Academic Excellence Scholarship! Since we have no debt(nothing since paying off the house in March of '07)the Federal Government considers us WEALTHY! Yes, the Federal Financial Aid Thingy said our family can afford to contribute almost $40 THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH toward #1 son's 1st year of College.

Yes, I said....

Forty.

Thousand.

Dollars.

So because we are 'wealthy', #1 son can't apply for any financial aid except for loans, which have to be paid back. We can't apply for any financial need scholarships. Since he isn't part of any minority group or have a strange last name(well, he DOES but no one wealthy with our last name has ever endowed a scholarship for people with this last name) or a standout athlete, #1 son is only eligible for widely popular scholarships that everyone can apply for (Coca-Cola, etc. which he has no chance getting because of the sheer numbers of applicants) or Merit Scholarships. Most Merit Scholarships(both widely available or particular to a school)also have other components(applicant also have to be in a certain group racially or gender or living in a certain place or attended a certain high school, or has some other qualifier that knocks him out). The PURE Merit Scholarships are very few and most aren't within his reach because he isn't a Valedictorian, in the top 1% of his class & he didn't score perfectly on his SAT.

So he applied to a State School that we CAN afford to pay for in CASH! because
we live WELL below our means, save money and have no debt. We aren't relying on anyone else to pay for his education. He'll have an on-campus job too as part of paying for his education. By working, he is also contributing to his education.

So we were overjoyed when the letter arrived from his College that because of his high school grades he was being awarded a Merit Scholarship. It's not much money, but it will help pay for his books, etc. And if he keeps his grades up, it renews for all 4 years, IF he takes 4 yrs. ;-)

And in 2 more years, I get to go through this Federal Financial Aid stuff again, with daughter. I wonder how 'wealthy' the government will think we are when we have TWO kids in college? I may be the only 'wealthy' person in line at the Food Bank by then.

Sluggy

Totals for the Price Chopper $7 CAT DEAL

Since I'm grounded at home with a bum foot(see yesterday's post), I finally have the time/opportunity to snap pics and figure the Grand Totals for my Price Chopper $7 Catalina Promotion Transactions of last week.
To get up to speed on what the heck I am talking about, go read it
HERE.

Forget the 3 pictures from the older post on the PC $7 Cat Deal....I've incorporated those items from the 1st 3 Transactions into new pics of EVERYTHING I BOUGHT.

First the numbers.....

Value of Items $502.43(that's without tax)
Cash Spent Out of Pocket $89.06(that includes the tax)

Savings of........82+%

If I were to take the tax paid out of the OOP spent(which comes in at around $16 of the OOP), my Savings Percentage would go up to about 86.5%.

82, 86.....it's all good! ;-)

Now for the photos. Sorry it isn't one big honking photo of everything but I just don't have a place large enough to put everything at the same time for a photo at the moment.lolol

Without further adieu here is what $89 bought last week at Price Chopper.....

And here is the List of What is Pictured...

Wisk Laundry Detergent 8
Q-Tips 2
Lever Soap Package 4
Dove Soap Package 7
Dove Shampoo 6
Dove Conditioner 2
Dove Body Wash 4
Caress Body Wash 12
Suave Shampoo 11
Sunsilk Shampoo 2
Suave Body Wash 4
Suave Deodorant 4
Degree Deodorant 4
Degree Deodorant women's 1
Ragu Spaghetti Sauce 19 *These are the big honking jars!*
Knorr's Noodle Sides 12
Wishbone Dressings Assort. 19
Lipton Tea Canisters 4
Lipton On the Go Mix Boxes 4
Skippy Peanut Butter 8

A Total of 137 Items.

That averages out to .65¢ per Item.

I'll take it!lol

Sluggy