My Food Spending/Tracking Method

Reader Linda asked earlier this week in a comment my method of keeping track of my food budget spending so I am here to reveal my secrets.
Secrets, riiiiiight!

Nothing hi-tech here as you can see.
Here is my secret weapon......

A good old notebook.
It sits on the bookshelf by my desk.

When I get home from the store my receipt(s) go into this notebook.........

I put all grocery/food/toiletries spending receipts in the front cover of said notebook.
When a new month rolls around and I get receipts, those receipts go into the back cover, and at some point in that next month, I purge the last month's receipts out of the front cover when I am done calculating or sending for refunds/rebates in which I need those ones.
And the process starts all over again.

The secret is to have a place to gather all your shopping receipts so you don't misplace them.  You aren't always going to have the time to immediately record your receipts(or the energy after putting all your spoils away).  When you can't get to it right away, have the receipts somewhere handy you can access them when you do have the time to record them.

When you are ready to record your spending, pull out your receipt(s) and do so.
I use a new page each month(and any overflow if I have a lot of shopping trips that month go onto the facing page.
I put the month at the top of the page, then list the date of each trip and which store I shopped at.
Across the page goes my OOP spending, the reg. retail value of that trip, how much $ was saved and then if I am not rushed for time(and feel like it)I calculate out the percentage of savings for the trip.
The only other tools you need are a pen or pencil and a calculator. 8-)

At the end of a week I will add up the columns to get a weekly Total of my spending/savings.  Then(if it isn't the first week)I pull forward the spending total to do a Month To Date entry so I can keep an eye on how much has been spent so far that month and how much I have left in the budget.

By the end of the month there is a lot of writing on those pages as you can see from the photo of the September 2016 pages.

When the month has finished I add up all my individual stores entries and get subtotals of how much was spent/saved/% at each store and then what was spent/save/% overall for the month.
From this information I can do my monthly spending total post as well as update my Food/Toiletries webpage for the year(accessed from the top tab on the site).

It's important to know how much you spend, period.  Sure, not everyone wants this much detail so do what works for you.

It's not rocket science.  Just get a system down that works for you and track that spending!

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Trip.....Cheap M&M's and Free Movie Code

Ok, so I didn't need to go to Rite-Aid this week but I went and bought this stuff here........

4 x M&M's on sale $3 each=$12.00
I used 2 x $1.50/2 IPQs(coupons dotcom)which brought the total to $9.00
I used $9 in Plenti Points to pay and earned $6 in new Plenti Points($3 wyb $10 on select Food Items Deals and $3 wyb $10 on select  Halloween Candy Items Deal).
The M&M's double dip for two different deals this week.

I also made sure to grab bags with the FREE MOVIE OFFER packaging.

After submitting a photo of the receipt I'll be sent a movie code to redeem for 1 Movie Ticket(value up to $12).

So I got 4 bags of M&M's and a movie ticket for spending down $3 in Plenti Points(each item received "cost" me .60¢ in points used).

The M&M's will go into cooking baking or gifting for the Holidays and the Movie Ticket will go into the Christmas stash.  8-)

I might go back and buy another 3 bags of candy, use another $1.50/2, paying $7.50 in Plenti points and earning another $6 in new Points for hitting at least $10 spent again on both the Food and Halloween Deals.($9 more spent plus my $2 carried over from my last purchase gets me over $10 again.)

Now it's like paying .56¢ for each of the 8 items received(7 candy, 1 movie).

Unfortunately there is a limit of 1 free Movie Offer per household so I can't get another movie ticket if I do this Deal again.

So far the regular, peanut and peanut butter M&M's are reported working for both the $3 Food and $3 Halloween Deals and double dip for Plenti points.

So I'll buy 7 bags total of M&M's for $21.
Use 3 x $1.50/2 M&M's IPQ.
$21-$4.50=$16.50
Get back $12 in new Plenti Points $16.50-$12.00=$4.50 OOP after points earned.

$4.50 for 7 bags of candy and 1 movie ticket.
An awesome deal if you can use this stuff.

Sluggy

Weis(PMITA)Markets Trip Yesterday

I found 2 Instant Discount Sticker meats+ 3 great deals at Weis yesterday.......

* The andouille sausage is reg. $6 and had a $3 off sticker on it....half price meat!

* The kielbasa sausage(regularly $4.49)was on sale for $3.50 ea. and had $2 off stickers on them.....$1.50 each or 66% off meat!

* The ground turkey(regularly $3.99)was on sale for $3.39 lb. and I had a $1/1 lb. Weis Q that they sent me......$2.39 or 40% off meat!

* The Perdue breaded cutlets(regularly $4)were on sale for $2(1/2 price already)and I had 2 x $1/25/2 IPQs......$1.375 a package or 65% off meat!

* The store made panko breaded pork tenderloins(regularly $5.88 lb.)were on sale for $2.98 lb......49% off meat!

$16.93 for $40.97 worth of reg. retail meat for a 58% savings rate on the meat.

This shop was rounded out with 3 x 1/2 price Bakery Items, a FREE gallon of milk(from the cereal I bought last week), a jug of veggie oil($1.77 sale price-cheaper than their value brand reg. price), a cucumber(.50¢ off), and a double brick of cream cheese(reg. $4.79)for $1.97 after sale and Q.

I elected to use some gas points toward a 5% discount, lowering this shop another $1.18, which all-in cost me $25.60 out the door.
Savings rate of 60% overall.
Not bad......

Sluggy

Money Tips & Tricks to Save for Christmas Spending

First off Christmas comes around every single year.  It's not a surprise nor an emergency so why ignore it until the month of December and then it's panic time?  Or worse still, pay for it all on credit cards and then spend the first three months of next year(or longer!!)paying it off.

Develop some tricks or strategies that help you cope with all that cash leaving your wallet at the Holidays.  Because you KNOW it is going to happen so don't pretend it won't.

Find little ways to soften that blow to your cash reserves in December by making yourself save for Christmas all year long.

* Start a Christmas club.
* Join one of those online sites where you do mindless time wasters to earn points you can cash in for gift cards. If you have time on your hands and you're online anyway, so why not if you can stand it.
* Put X$ out of every paycheck aside into an account or a jar or wherever you won't touch it until it's time to buy Holiday frippery/gifts/foods.  Same idea as paying yourself first....put something away for yourself, then fund your Christmas kitty before spending down your monthly income.
* If you earn a gift card for buying/doing something(buying items at Target/transferring a prescription/etc.)put those away to use at the Holidays.
* Stop yourself from indulging in some weekly/monthly "want" once a week/month and put the cash you would have spent into a Xmas fund. (ie-1 less coffee or treat out per week, 1 less meal out per month, 1 less magazine/toy/shoe/purse per month, etc.)
* Direct all your accumulated pocket change into a coffee can to cash in for Holiday spending.
* If you have a rewards credit card, wait until the Holidays and cash in your points toward cash rebates, gift items and/or gift cards.
* When you 'save' by using coupons/sales at the grocery/drug stores, actually take that amount 'saved' in dollars and stuff it into an envelope earmarked to spend at Christmas.

There are so many painless money tricks you can play all year that allow you to hoard a little pile of cash/gifts away for the Holidays.  Just tuck it away as you go through the year and then haul it out in November/December when you are ready to start dealing with how to dole it all out.

One trick is to search out/send away for freebies that you can use for gifts.  I am by no means a "dedicated Freebie searcher outer".  I see an offer for something in passing or get a coupon at the store to try something new for free, sure, I'll exert the little effort required to get it.  Even not trying very hard it's possible to accumulate a decent pile of free stuff.

Here are the items I've gotten for free in the last few months.  If you recall I am putting freebies, when appropriate, away for Christmas gifting.

Besides the $70 in free gift cards at Target for doing Deals and the Musselman's Promo, I cashed in credit card points earlier this Summer for more gift cards.  $350 in gift cards were procured with $150 of them being earmarked for Christmas gifts.(The other $200 procured was for Lowe's cards for home maintenance supplies.)

World Market sent me a $10 off any purchase of $10 or more coupon last month.  Though we don't have a World Market here locally(and I wouldn't redeem this online and pay postage on having items shipped to me), luckily the coupon arrived right before we went to the family reunion in Virginia.
There is a World Market near my son's apartment in Fredericksburg so I was able to go get $10 in free stuff....yay me!

I got more than these two items(jars of olives)but these are the items gotten for free that went into the Xmas stash-a canister of waffle mix and single use bottles of hot sauce.
Of course, Hubs bought beer at World Market so that trip actually cost me money! lolz

I also got that free protein bar this Summer at Weis and a large pack of Puffs tissues.

Going into the third quarter of 2016 here are all the freebies I have in my Christmas Stash to date......

hot sauce-World Market
waffle mix-World Market
2 x Axe gift sets-Rite-Aid
Axe deodorant-Walmart full sized sample
2 x large bottles Suave shampoo-Rite-Aid
3 x Vaseline cocoa butter lotion-Rite-Aid
2 x Andes peppermint mints-Rite-Aid
bar of goat soap-Price Chopper
protein bar-Weis
Puffs tissue pack-Weis
12 packs of gum-Weis
7 lip balms-Rite-Aid
6 packs of mints-Rite-Aid
4 sets of ear buds-Rite-Aid
$10 Best Buy gift card-Musselman's promo
$50 Barnes & Noble gift card-c/c points
$60 Target gift cards(4 x $10, 4 x $5)-Target promos
2 x $50 Target gift cards-c/c points

In cash assets I have-

Sealed Pot/rolled coins stash of $80
SavingStar rebates of $90.77
Ibotta rebates of $5.50(can't cash out until it hits $20)
Checkout 51 rebates of $29.35
Items Sold on FB Tag Sale-$93
Rite-Aid Cash-$42(This was cash returned to me for coupons that were forgotten or didn't deduct during a transaction.)

I usually throw the SavingStar rebates into my food spending budget to offset that yearly total(since the rebates are due to food/toiletries I bought during the year).
This will be the first year I've gotten cash back for Checkout 51 so that's another bit of cash to throw at the food spending as well.

Rolled coins/sealed pot get put with the Christmas funds.
But I am unsure where to direct the cash from the Facebook local sales-into Xmas monies or put toward Food Budget?  What do you think I should do with this cash?

I am also not sure what to do with the Rite-Aid cash I received when transactions were messed up.  I have been holding that in my wallet to use at Rite-Aid if I ever needed it/ran out of Plenti points but it doesn't seem like that will ever happen. lolz
Should I throw that $42 into the Xmas fund or use it to offset the Food spending?
What say you on that one?

Cash saved for Xmas.....$80.00
Gift Cards saved for Xmas....$220.00
List of freebie items for Xmas

Cash saved for Food Budget......$120.12
Weis gift cards for Food Budget.....$25.00* a free $20 gc for Rx transfer and $5 for a Deal that didn't print this Summer

Plus that $42 in RA cash and $93 in F/B sales site cash I don't know where to direct.

Things are shaping up to be decent for my freebie stash going into Christmas 2016.

How about you?
What are your tricks and techniques for saving for Holidays spending?
How is your stash coming along?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "No Energy/Getting Back into My Groove" Edition.......

I have felt so sluggish this past week with no 'umph'.  While the weather has cooled off into the 70's and 60's it has rained or been high humidity all week so I didn't get a lot accomplished other than grocery shopping/cooking/dogsitting/the usual.  Nothing much on my monthly To-Do List got done last week.
But my morning glories are still going gangbusters!

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Leftovers

2. Monday--Subway sandwiches Take-Out

3. Tuesday--Tuna Noodle Casserole, Sauted Squash

4. Wednesday--Meatloaf, Noodles, Fried Green Tomatoes

5. Thursday--Kielbasa, Halushki

6. Friday--Crab Cakes, Fries, Cole Slaw, Broccoli

7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftovers

2. Monday--Subway sandwiches Take-Out

3. Tuesday--Tuna Noodle Casserole, Sauted Squash

4. Wednesday--Meatloaf, Noodles, Green Beans

5. Thursday--Kielbasa, Halushki

6. Friday--Chinese Take-Out(The kids went to the fair)

7. Saturday--Rigatoni in Meat/Mushroom Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread

5 meals cooked at home, 1 of them a night of leftovers, 0 nights Eating Out and 2 night of Take-Out(1 I was feeling badly and the other we treated ourselves since the kids were out.)

Some leftovers were eaten for lunches last week.  The Crab cakes which were not cooked/served move to this week and WILL happen this week, finally! lolz

As for the grocery spending.....2 trips to Weis and 1 trip to the Shursave grocery store brought my weekly spending to $101.00 and my September food spending Grand Total to $721.51.
Yes I could have gotten by without any food purchases this last week of September but there were some awesome Deals on things other than meat this past week and I took advantage of those Deals--8 boxes of cereal for .44¢ a box + a free gallon of milk coupon, 18 boxes of facial tissue for .55¢ a box, 16 cans of soup for .52¢ a can, 2 large boxes of pancake mixes for .99¢ box, 5 x 1 lb. blocks of cheese for $2.99 each, 10 x 8 oz. bags of shredded cheese for $1.50 each, 4 x 8 oz. containers of mayo for .50¢ each, 2 boxes of taco shells + 1 can refried beans for .76¢ each, 2 jars of spaghetti sauce for .89¢ each, 8 containers of instant potatoes for .19¢ each, and 3 small tubes of cinnamon rolls for .21¢ each.  The Deals cost me $59.90 but it was tremendous value for that amount($164.83 regular retail)and now I won't need certain products for months to come and won't have to worry about paying full price for them if bought when absolutely needed.  8-)

Leftovers going into this week........beef bourguinon, 1 chicken thigh w/peppers, 1/4 turkey breast, stuffing, rigatoni in sauce, 2 kielbasa, small container halushki, small container of flavored noodles, 2 pieces garlic bread.

Here is this week's "food plan".

1. Sunday--Cheese Steak Sandwiches with Peppers and Onions(requested)
2. Monday--Hamburgers on Rolls, Fried Green Tomatoes, French Fries
3. Tuesday--Leftovers(probably Beef Bourguinon)
4. Wednesday--Chicken & Stuffing Casserole(using leftover stuffing)
5. Thursday--Leftovers(Hubs and are going out/Kids on their own)
6. Friday--Crab Cakes, Cole Slaw, Broccoli
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 4 new meals cooked and 0 nights of Take-Out and 3 nights of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu?  Sub Rolls, Steak-Umms, and Provolone Cheese.(Already bought on Saturday and a great deal.)

I do need to find a deal on B/S chicken breasts soon as I have none left.  Other than that and the few things I need for this menu I don't plan on stocking up on anything this week.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?


Sluggy