September Budget Results.....Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for SEPTEMBER 2011.

I have posted September'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 September.  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(3 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 15.
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BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $8.78
Value  $38.11
Savings  77%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $89.28

Qs/Ads  $81.70
Value  $170.98
Savings  47.78%

RITE AID
OOP  $.50 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $3.79
Value  $4.29
Savings  88.35% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

WEIS (local chain Grocery store in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $174.05
Qs/Ads  $93.89
Value  $267.94
Savings  35.05% 

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 SEPTEMBER
Rite-Aid SCR...$22.99
Subtotal........$22.99

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
$0.00
TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$22.99

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Nothing.
Nada.
Zilch.
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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%,  the Bakery Outlet at 77% and Carone's at 47.78%.  I shopped at 4 whole different stores in September.....wow. lol


TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$272.11
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$209.21
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$481.32
TOTAL Savings of...................................43.46%


TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$22.99
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$249.12
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$232.20
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$481.32
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................48.25%

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.....$249.12
TOTAL Value of Items Purchases(w/out Rite-Aid items)....$477.03
TOTAL Savings After Rebates(w/out Rite-Aid items).....47.78%

My food savings percentage seems to run about 50%-60% for the strictly food items only.
Those Rite-Aid purchases always boost up my savings total about 20% points.  This month Rite-Aid purchases only boosted my Savings Percentage a half of a percentage, since I only bought 1 item from there in September.lol
This closes out the September spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
With my rebate check added into my food budget I came in at right on my $250 target.
Yay me!lol

I confess that a lot of what I bought was junk this month, mostly bought for #2 son's after-school snacks and for his sleepover.  It I had held strong and not succumbed to his pleadings I would have only spent about half of my $250 budget.
Soda, pies, chips, pizzas......bleh!
What can I say?
He is my last one left at home and I am an old softee. 8-))

What's ahead for October.....
No big holidays this month, no birthdays either.  Daughter is coming home for 1 weekend though so more mouths to feed temporarily.
Yes, I have a COLLEGZILLA on the way home this coming weekend!lol

I am thinking about giving myself $300 per month going forward until the end of 2011 instead of $250.
Why?
First we can afford another $50 per month for food.
Second I plan to use the extra to stock up for Thansgiving/Christmas Holiday essentials since I don't think I can do that and my regular monthly foods for $250.  Somebody has to pay for the cost of remodeling at Weis Markets so it might as well be me! ;-)
Besides, I am just tired of keeping such a tight rein on the food expenses after the last 9 months of doing so.

Heck, I might just say to heck with the food budget for the rest of the year and just spend what I want but with an eye toward frugality.

What do y'all think?
Should I stick to the food budget?....but make it a bit larger?....or just go on a 3 month long binge?
I need help here people!!

With 3 months left in the year, we have spent a total of $1,907.69 of our income on food/HBA in 2011.
That comes out to $211.96 per month.
We brought home items with a reg. retail value of $11,198.72.
That's a savings of $9,291.03 or 83%.

How did you do in September with your Food Budget?
What are your challenges for October?  Any family coming to stay....Holiday Celebrations?.....or is your school/work schedule too busy to shop/cook/eat as a family?

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

Never Talk Trash About Old People

This is my new motto.
You may have noticed I haven't been around the last 3 days...since about 5 pm on Tuesday.....right after I posted about how much rude senior citizens tick me off, remember?

Well about an hour later a tremendous thunderstorm came through here.
A nearby lightning strike took out some electronics as well as part of the electical system in our house.

The lightning surge was so strong, even though everything was on a surge protector, it blew the side cover off the router, fried the modem and turned my computer into an inert heavy metal & plastic box that doesn't absolutely nothing.

Crap!
It also turned some electrical outlets into non-funtioning decorative features on the walls and fried the garage door opener.
For kicks, it also turned on my iron up on the ironing board in my bedroom.....and not in a good sexy way.
We are stil finding weird consequences from this freak occurance as we add to the list of losses for the insurance company.
We also need to have an electrician come in and check the whole house's electrical system out.
Fun, fun.

The end results is I now have a new computer as of today, like it or not.
With the deductible, I'll be OOP for this machine, but everything else that got fried we'll be able to get replaced with insurance $.
My dead computer wasn't even a year old.
But at least they were able pull my important files off the fried machine.

So don't trash talk about old people because those senior citizens have connections and will use them to have Mother Nature bring you down. ;-)

Sluggy

I'm Back! & I'm on a Roll...a Nice Ranting Roll not Kaiser

Did y'all miss me while I was gone today? 
In a few minutes you will wish I was still out...lol

I hit the bread store.....$8.78 and 9 bread type products later.  It was Senior discount day(I forgot!)so I had to run the old people gauntlet.

What has happened to old people?
They use to be docile and sweet.
The ones I ran into(almost literally since they won't move out of the way!)today at the bread outlet were nuts.  One especially cutting in line ahead of me like they are entitled and giving me 'tude in a look that said, "if I had a shiv, I'd cut you just as soon as look at you".  If you wanted to get ahead of me you old bat, you could have asked nicely and I probably would have let you go first even though I was in line 5 MINUTES before you even thought of getting in the check-out line.  I don't care if you only have 3 items(hey! I only had 9!!) and I have alot of other places I need to get to today too.  Then you abandoned your cart in the middle of the aisle when that other cashier opened an aisle and took your 3 loaves, leaving it to gridlock our aisle.  Yes, because you were in such a big hurry to get back out to your Cadillac which had NO handicapped tags and was parked across TWO Handicapped Parking Spaces!
I should have keyed your car when I walked past it going into the store.....


Two more stops and a teen to the Orthodontist later and I finally get to the grocery store.

I hate you Weis Markets!
You decide to remodel the whole. fricking. store.
Nothing is where is use to be and your new discombobulated design makes NO. SENSE.
Products I like to buy are now banished from your shelves.  New(=more expensive)items are replacing them.
And the prices.

Every time I go, I notice prices have risen.....SHARPLY!
Way to Go Weis....using the excuse of a remodel to jack up the prices.
Spending money on the "atmosphere" of the place so you can justify jacking up prices not once, but twice or thrice.
I don't care if it looks like an abandoned warehouse inside, as long as the prices are good.

Yes, prices going up lately in this economy seems to be the refrain of the old song, but jacking them up every trip for the last three trips I've made to your store is INSANE!

I dread going back to the grocery store because I'll see the prices have gone up yet again.
If this keeps up, even with spending on the gas to get there, I may start shopping at the Weis in another town since the prices on the same items are lower.  I've compared them, item for item, and it's true!

And it was Senior Discount day at Weis too.....for the love of David Hasselhoff's Sainted Mother!

MEMO TO SELF--STAY HOME on TUESDAYS!

And it's almost October, right?
Why in gosh sakes is it so MUGGY???!!!
I came home and sat down and I am drenched in sweat!
And of course, the a/c units are in the garage and the pool is closed for the season since it's almost October and not suppose to be this warm here now!
Oh to be a 70 lb. gymnast and be able to fold myself up into a cube and put myself in the freezer!

And it's too hot to cook.
Seriously, who can cook in this heat/humidity?
I wish my stomach would figure out it's too hot to eat too.......ack!


Sluggy

Can It Be??......More September DeCluttering P*rn!

Oooh Baby!
I am on fire....on fire with decluttering p*rn!!

First off, Hubs contribution to the last trip's clutter was the Get Smart beanie, the Mets truck and the hand massager.....not that anyone tried for the Bonus Points or anything. ;-)

Onward to the third trip, as in "#3",  to Salvation Army for September.....

1 Cat in the Hat facial tissue cover(in the white box)
1 Wilton train cake mold
1 Christmas ornament
3 assorted books
2 Curious George toothbrushes
1 Cabbage Patch Kids playset
1 novelty coffee mug
1 Precious Moment figurine
1 Power Rangers candy mold

1 Gerber baby doll
1 Dilbert day planner/calendar
3 Pokemon pocket monsters
1 vintage cast iron wagon
3 Godzilla stamp sets
1 Polly Pocket pet shop
6 Teenie Beanies
1 Star Wars pin
2 Wilton cookie cutters
1 pair Thomas the Tank Engine shoelaces
1 roll Power Rangers stickers
1 Cat in the Hat watch
1 Walmart watch...yes a Walmart watch, as in a walmart truck goes around the face of this one!
1 package Troll party napkins

2 Avalon Hill strategy games
1 cross stitch pattern book
1 set Chinese iron balls(#2 son's contribution-still shaking my head why he spent good money on this at the amusement park?!)
1 McDonald's glass
3 California Raisin figures
2 Just the Right Shoe figurines

And if you are keeping score at home, that's 38 more items and the 11th load to Salvation Army for 2011.

Now I am off this blasted machine for awhile.
I actually have to leave the house today.
Go me!

What's on your plate for today?

Sluggy

Food Spending Week 2.5-3.5 & Meal Plan

So here is what I planned on serving for dinner last week....

Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs
Monday--Chicken Biscuits, Corn
Tuesday--Trout, Fries, Pan Roasted Summer Veggies
Wednesday--Pork Chops w/Apricot Glaze, Potato Salad, Brussel Sprouts
Thursday--Meatloaf, Roasted Potatoes and Carrots
Friday--Leftovers
Saturday--Hot Dogs, Leftover Veggies/Potato Salad

And here is what actually happened....

Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad
Monday--Chicken Biscuits, Corn
Tuesday--Trout, Fries, Brussel Sprouts
Wednesday--Leftovers
Thursday--Meatloaf, Potato Salad, leftover Corn
Friday--Chinese take-out, Pizza(sleepover night)
Saturday--Hot Dogs on rolls, leftover side dishes

We got takeout on Friday since there was a surprise Teen Sleepover & I didn't have enough Pork Chops thawed to feed everyone.

Groceries bought last week....
$33.87
And most of that($25.09)was crap/snacks bought on Friday for the sleepover....ice cream, chips, soda and pies.  I never went grocery shopping last week. The only 'real food' I did buy were a container of ricotta cheese, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs.

This week I want to stock up on some salmon which is on sale.  This hasn't been a good price in ages so I'm spending what I have left in the budget for September on fish for the freezer.  I should have enough for about 5 lbs. worth.

So here is what I am planning on serving this week for meals, working solely on what I have already.

Sunday--Pork Chops, California veg. medley, leftover Potato Salad, Applesauce
Monday--Lasagna(using crumbled leftover meatloaf from last week in the sauce)
Tuesday--Fried Mac & Cheese(using up leftover mac/cheese), Mixed Veggies
Wednesday--Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Broccoli
Thursday--Beef Pie Casserole w/carrots and green beans
Friday--Chicken Cheese Quesadillas, Green Salad
Saturday--Leftovers

No take-out this week.  And I know that Tues. meal is lame but it's the only thing I can think of to get them to eat the leftover mac and cheese!lol  I look at this unhealthy choice this way....the Fair they hold this week is canceled this year due to the flooding....and they ate far worse stuff at the Fair so Tues. meal is my homage to fair food.lol

I've got most everything to accomplish this meal plan except I will have to buy carrots and salad greens along with our usual milk purchases for the week.
And some fresh fruit as we are all out.

I'm at $215.34 spent for September so far.
I've got $34.66 left in the food budget with 5 days left to go.

Sluggy