2019 Food Spending Report.....the December Edition & Year End Total

Onward to December's food spending report.......

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2019.

I have posted December's totals on the Total Grocery Savings Page located HERE and have updated the Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in December.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum.  My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 5(3-4 at home this month). No "kids" under 23.
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ALDI'S
OOP  $16.50
Value  $28.92
Savings  42.95%

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $10.89
Value  $45.11
Savings  75.86%

MAINES

OOP  $19.87
Qs/Ads $18.13

Value  $38.00

Savings 47.71%

MALACARI'S
OOP  $31.89
Value  $50.19
Savings  36.46%

OCEAN STATE JOB LOT

OOP  $26.95

Value  $47.00

Savings 42.66%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $3.09
Value  $15.49
Savings   80.05%

P and R DISCOUNTS
OOP  $13.63
Value  $41.12
Savings   66.85%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/BC  $1208.19
Value  $1208.19
Savings  100%

WALMART
OOP  $7.62
Value  $10.88
Savings  29.96%

WEIS
OOP  $177.79
Qs/Ads  $224.44
Value  $402.23
Savings  55.80%

WENGER'S-Amish Outlet

OOP  $56.53

Value  $170.49

Savings 66.84%

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Ollies at 80.05% and the Bread Outlet 75.86%.   My worst savings rate was at Walmart with 29.96%.
I shopped at 11 different stores in December.

TOTAL Spent.........................................$364.76

TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales.................$484.67

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased........$849.43

TOTAL Savings of ................................57.06%

TOTAL Out of Pocket for December w/R-A........$364.76
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales w/R-A....................$13073.02
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid....$17733.41
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items.....................73.72%

This closes out the December food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
We spent well under my $400 budgeted amount for food/toiletries in December.
Rah team.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 7.13% in December 2019 to 73.72% compared to the November's 80.85% savings average.
Black Friday R-A sales made November better than December, as it does most years.  But hitting that Amish Discount Outlet and P and R Discounters in Dec. gave me a very good savings percentage this month as well.

Now let's add all my small pots of monies I save throughout the year to put toward groceries....rolled coins, found money, refunds and "post coupons" as well as various cash back apps(Ibotta, Saving Star, Checkout 51, etc.).  That all came to $745.77.  See my Small Economies post for the details on all that.


With 12 months accounted for, I have spent a Year-To-Date Total of $3,914.82 on food/toiletries in 2019.


2019 Yearly Grand Total Spent....................$3,914.82

2019 Yearly Grand Total Value of Items....$17,733.41

2019 Grand Total Saved...............................$ 13,818.59

2019 Yearly Savings Total............77.92%

The average per month amount spent is $326.24 in 2019.

LOOKING AHEAD To January 2020.............
I won't actually be grocery shopping until we get back from the wedding so that leaves 24 days in January to spend on food/toiletries.
Perhaps we'll stay home/out of the food stores and eat down except for needing fresh veg/dairy.
Let's see how little I can spend in January on groceries.
Anybody want to make a guess on how much I spend on this category in January? ;-)

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in December?

*  Do you track your yearly food spending?

*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?

*  What are your methods for keeping your food spending in check?

Is anyone out there up for tracking expenditures and trying to spend less but still eat well?


Sluggy

It's Done!

May I introduce Mr. & Mrs. Kruithof.

More sometime next week when we get home.
Tomorrow we head back to Alabama.

Sluggy

We Interrupt The Regularly Scheduled Posting....

I'll be taking a short blogging break for my Daughter's wedding until next week.

I'm just a bit too busy to post until then.  I'll be drinking, dancing,crying and celebrating in the meantime.

Carry on until I return.

Sluggy

2019 4th Quarter Review..........Small Finances Year End Totals

The fourth quarter of 2019 is in the books now.
Let's see where some of my small pots of savings look like for the Year End.
These stats are all effective as of December 31st, 2019.


*  Rolled coins--$14.00.  Two rolls of dimes, a roll of nickels and three rolls of pennies.  Rolled coins have taken a big hit since Hubs stopped working for a living. lolz

*  Found Change--$48.03  Finding money is the best!  Nobody can argue with that, right? 8-))

*  Refunds & "Post Coupons"--$206.96 Mostly Weis(PMITA)Markets and Rite-Aid.

*  Cash Rebates--
   * Ibotta--$349.98
   * SavingStar--$86.25
   * Checkout51--$40.75
   * ShopAtHome--$9.63(I think I need $20 to cash out of this.)

Total.........$745.77 (not counting ShopAtHome) to put toward the grocery spending in December.

My OOP spending on groceries came to $4,660.39 for 2019.
Add in that $745.77 toward the grocery spending and the food spending drops to a Grand Total Spent of $3,914.62 for 2019.

Do you stash non-income money aside to put toward a goal?
Tell us about it and what strategies work for you in savings money!


Sluggy

Christmas Time......Part 2

Hubs and I went out a few days before Christmas to use $15 in Kohl's Cash before it expired.  He needed new sweaters as his were getting very ratty so I told him I'd get him sweaters for Xmas...hohoho!

I found this ugly pug sweater but he wouldn't get it.....I wonder why not?!? lolz

Nor did this ugly T-rex sweater tempt him.  Our Daughter has the BEST T-REX Ugly Sweater anyway so no dice on this one either.

We found 3 sweaters that looked nice on Hubs so I bought them and brought them home to wrap up.  The only thing that tempted me at Kohl's was the sign above. hehehe

We hit a beer store last week too for some browsing.  I got Ex-CB I 6 pack of something he'll enjoy.
I saw this series from Epic Brewing called "Bg Bad Baptist".  Obviously they don't mean "Southern Baptists"! (PS-the Southern variety don't drink.)

Our local ABC tv affiliate station, Channel 16 news, has a segment every newscast called "TalkBack", wherein local viewers are encouraged to call into the tv station to air their grievances about just about any topic(sort of a 'Festivus for the Rest of Us' but 365 Days a Year).

Here are a classic few........




And of course this is the same tv station that was on the John Oliver Show about their little backyard train outside where the weathermen/women do the weather segment....

 

Anyway, there is a newish craft brewery over by Lake Wallenpaupack called(wait for it!)Wallenpaupack Brewing Company that is canning some of their beers.

They paid homage to Talk Back with this Saison variety. lolz  I should buy it all, cornering the market and wait for HBO to feature it, so that everyone in the country wants it too. lololz

But the BEST BEER we found there was this one........

Yes if you remember these commercials for Carvel cakes........




That is THAT Fudgie!  And it's endorsed by Carvel!!lolz

Some other things we saw while Xmas shopping..........

Kim needs this for her Birthday!  It's at Ollie's should anyone want to go pick it up. lolz

And these were another Ollie's sighting...........

Chicken rain boots.
So cute!

At my Rite-Aid this appeared there a few weeks ago.....

Yes a black Santa.  My teeny tiny town "may" have 3 Black people living in it(and they are all in the same family).  Why would R-A ship him to my town's store and not down the mountain where there is a large black community?
  It's a head scratcher.  The person in charge of distribution at the R-A warehouse needs some pointers that's for sure.

Me and one of the employees at R-A sort of adopted black Santa as our mascot.  Every time I go to R-A I find where they've moved him and check-up on him.  As of Sunday he is 75% off and still there.  I told the manager they should keep him as their goodwill ambassador year round. ;-)

We were able to put our big Xmas tree up this year since Daughter's hanging torture rack left with her.  It lived in the living room taking up space where we put our tree so we've been using our little 3 foot tree for a few years.
It was nice to see my white tree again.
Here are some of the ornies we put on her this year.........

Three from recent trips--

The Angel Oak on St John's Island in SC we visited.

 One from Fort Sumter we also visited this past March.

And this purple glass one from Beauvoir in Biloxi, MS in May of 2016 which had yet to make it onto the Xmas tree until this year.  Has it been 3+ years since that trip??

Hub's buffalo ornie from the Badlands of South Dakota(from Wall Drug actually lol)

And the 'gator ornie from the Alligator Park in LA we visited in May of 2016 too.

One of the many ornaments my mom made when I was little.

A Snoopy ornie I made back in the 1980's.

And a set of Wiseman and his Camel I also made back then.  These were modeled on the sets my mom made to sell at our elementary school's fundraiser when I young.

And this is one of the wooden DYI ornies from a kit we made back in the 1960's.  Note the neon colors....lolz

A Xmas Furby from the 1990's as well as a Powr Ranger ornie from when my kids were little.

And the tree isn't complete without a leg lamp from "A Christmas Story".


Speaking of which, eldest son and his GF arrived Christmas morning.  After the extended family left we sat down to watch a Xmas movie.  Watching  "A Christmas Story" is a must in this house.  The GF has NEVER seen that movie!!  Is that unbelievable or what?  And no, she wasn't raised in a cabin in the woods away from civilization. lolz
So I rented it from Amazon(since we don't have cable and I suppose they still run it for 24 hours on a continuous loop at Xmas on TBS).  I guess she liked it.
And then Eldest and I made her watch "Bad Santa" too which of course she had never seen that either.  I don't think she enjoyed that one as much. hehehehe

The GF spent a lot of time that day snuggling Dixie, at Dixie's insistence. lol

Eldest son played Santa and handed out the gifts.

The GF laughing so hard when she opened a gift from me, two boxes of tampons.  Only "I" would give someone tampons for Christmas and now she knows that.  In between the boxes was a coupon to redeem for a free shopping trip in my toiletries stockpile.

The mysterious Ex-College Boy giving Dixie attention too.

And Chester got some cuddle time too.  So cut wearing a bow on his head(which he detested).lolz

A line-up of the motley crew at our house for Christmas.
I hope everyone got their wishes granted and had a good day as we did here!



Sluggy