Food Spending NOVEMBER Week 4, Meal Planning DECEMBER Week 1

Just looking at this picture makes my taste buds tingle with delight!

This is the Holy Grail of Soups for me.

And I can't find a restaurant that serves it that is any closer than 2.5 hours away from where I live.

Yet another reason to detest living here......

Some day I'll talk about how I obsess over this soup.

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And here is what actually got served last week....

Sunday--Tacos

Monday--Leftovers

Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Green Beans

Wednesday--Chicken and Dumplings

Thursday--Pork Chops with Apricot Glaze, Mashed Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes, Beets

Friday--Pizza, Salad

Saturday--Leftovers

Yes, we pretty much ate every meal I planned but we may not have had them on the designated day.

So sue me.

The food spending last week was 1 trip to Price Chopper that cost me $32.39 for $68.35 reg. retail worth of goods. 

Some of these were really good deals.  There was a $5 off when you spend $20 on PC house brands and I got 2 dozen eggs, 4lbs. butter, 2 cartons OJ, 2 bottles of Tartar Sauce and 3 rolls of 'whack' biscuits

for $13.47.  The juice and eggs were on sale and I had .55¢/1 Qs for the butter(making each lb. $1.74 in addition to the $5 off $20 Q).

The yogurts all had instant dairy discount stickers on them so the Chobanis were .24¢ ea. and the quart of Mountain High left the store with me and PC paid me .26¢ to take it home!

Now THAT'S my kind of shopping. 8-)

Even the frozen pizzas were a deal.  We are in love with these Freschetta Sea Salt and Olive Oil pizzas.  I'd rather had a homemade pizza but for some reason we can't get enough of this frozen one.  They must put crack in it or something. ;-)

PC had them for $4.99 and I had .75¢/1 Qs and my PC now doubles FULLY up to .99¢, so they doubled to $1.50, making my pizzas $3.49 each!

I finished November spending $368.57 of our $400 food budget.

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Going into this week, I have leftover Taco Beef(a little bit), some meatballs, some stuffing.  I also have a large container of ricotta cheese that needs using.  I had hoped to make cannoli but I don't think that will be happening.  I'll need to find a recipe for something else or make more stuffed shells to put into the freezer for later.

This week's menu....

Sunday--Everyone was sick but Hubs, he had soup and sammie

Monday--Lasagna Casserole, Salad

Tuesday--Chicken and Gravy over Fried Stuffing, Cali blend Veggies

Wednesday--Rigatoni and Meat Sauce, Caesar Salad

Thursday--Tuna Sub Sandwiches

Friday--Going Out for Dinner....woohoo!

Saturday--Leftovers or Breakfast for Dinner

This week I need to use up the stuffing or throw it into the freezer.  I'll pan saute some chicken breast, then put a crust on slices of stuffing and place the chicken and gravy over that on Tuesday. Getting inventive here!lol 

I'll break up the meatballs and use the taco beef for my meat sauce on Wednesday.

What I need to buy for this menu?

Salad Greens.  Everything else is on hand.

I'll be doing some shopping ahead this week....bagels, clementines, green chiles, cream cheese, sour cream, pasta, more OJ, some canned pumpkin(since it's on sale now), some cheese, etc.

I spent $35 already on Monday and plan on spending another $60 or so more this week.  I'm trying to keep it under $100 total for the week.

What are your menu plans for this week?

Sluggy

Boring Blog Box Giveaway Winner Revealed!

First let's take a look again at all the fine prizes that went into this Giveaway's Box.....

There were 80 valid entries.  I numbered them all and had Random.org pick the winning entry.

The winning entry is from.......Lisa Richardson.
Congratulations Lisa!
Please email me privately with your mailing information so I can get this box 'o goodies out to you.

Thanks to everyone who played.

Sluggy

My Sealed Pot Amount Revealed & the Winner!

Here is my Sealed Pot and it's contents.....

And here is the shot of all the rolls that were in that Pot, so you can get a calculator and add it all up like I did......

And if your calculator or your "fingers and toes method" added up to $117.50, you would be correct.

And someone guessed that amount EXACTLY!
Can you believe it?  I couldn't.....

And that person was......

JUDY from "When I Get Where I'm Going"!

Congratulations Judy.  8-)

As soon as I can find your mailing address here in my inbox files, I'll get a surprise box out in the post to you.
I'll show what I am sending her after she gets it or I'll let her post about it if she prefers.

And a big THANK YOU to everyone who played along!  A couple of others were pretty close too, like Carrie and Tanner.  You guys/gals are good when it comes to keeping an eye on the money.

Now I have to decide how to spend this wad of cash.
Oh, to have that sort of problem.....  ;-)

Sluggy

The Nothing Goes Right Weekend

This past weekend was a real pip.

I'm feeling real sorry for #2 Son especially.
He was been run ragged what with all his musical extracurricular activities--marching band, pitt orchestra for the high school musical, concert band.
He's a bit rundown.
Then he had to get up the crack of dawn on Saturday to go take the SAT at a downtown high school......he missed the PSAT, so we had him take the SAT as a Junior just to get a "baseline", as he is planning on taking it again next Fall as a Senior.
Anyway, he sat for that thing for 4 hours Saturday morning.
Then sleep deprived and now tired from thinking for 4 hours, Hubs made him drive home.
He's still working on the 60 hour "behind the wheel" requirement to get your license here in PA.
I know nobody here makes their kid actually log 60 hours in all kinds of weather before they take the road test but us.  We are hard asses. 8-)

So he's driving home from the test with Hubs and he runs a stop sign(one of those rolling stop deals from a merge lane....he says he didn't even see the stop sign).
Unfortunately, a police car was sitting about 100 yds. up from where he merged/ran the stop sign, so #2 Son got to experience his 1st time being pulled over.
He handled himself well and only got a warning from the officer.

Then after getting home and giving me all the details of his thrilling morning, he goes upstairs and I hear him stomping around more than usual.
He comes down to tell me he has lost his wallet.
The last time he saw it was at the SAT when he had to take his ID out to show to get into the high school for the test.
And he had $70 in it.  8-(
I told #2 Son that he was most definitely the BUG and not the Windshield this past weekend.....

$70 hard earned money.....gone.
Mind you, this is the kid who wants a $400 cell phone for Christmas!....which he is Not getting by the way.  I don't know what it is, but those teen hormones are doing wacky things to his brain lately.  He has gotten so absentminded!  He loses everything......even his train of thought.  If he was a bit older I'd swear he was going through menopause. lol

Then he started running a fever on Sunday and he missed the pitt rehearsal.
Then I started running a fever Sunday night, followed by chills and a queasy stomach.

It's not been a fun day today for either of us as well, though the chills are gone the low-grade fever and the queasies are not.

But the good news is that someone turned in #2's wallet at the downtown high school.  Since it was a VANS wallet(coveted by teenagers the world over lol) I figured it was gone for good.  I'll lay money that the $70 won't be in it when we get it back.

Hubs got the Christmas tree out of the garage and set it up this weekend.  It's still nekkid however.
And he's set storage tubs of Holiday accoutrements willy-nilly all over the living room, so I can't get to my eBay items should someone purchase one.
And yah, the eBay stuff isn't going so great this Holiday season.  I need to get some more listings up this week and hope for the best.

So how was your weekend?

I've got some errands to do and a Menu to figure out post, and 2 giveaways to post winners for so maybe I'll get to that tonight.
Stay tuned.

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.
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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

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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