April Food Spending 2024

Onward to April's Food Spending Report.....

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for April 2024.

I have posted April'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 April.  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, Pet Food. We are a family of 2(and 2 dogs).
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CVS

OOP  $.15

Sales  $13.03

Value  $13.18

Savings  98.84%

KROGER

OOP  $254.38

Qs/Gift Cards $271.51

Value $525.89

Savings  51.63%

SHOPPERS VALU

OOP $11.32

Sales  $10.24

Value $21.56

Savings  47.50%

WALMART

OOP  $272.70

Qs/Gift Cards $149.73

Value  $422.43

Savings  35.44%

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My best Store Savings Total was at CVS with a savings of 98.84%.  My worse rate was at Walmart with 35.44%.  Not a bad savings rate overall.

I shopped at 4 different stores in APRIL.

TOTAL Spent in April......$538.55

TOTAL Coupons/Sales/Gift Cards....$444.51

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.....$983.06

TOTAL Savings of........45.22%

This closes out the APRIL food/toiletries/etc. spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month....

The Monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 3.85% in April to 45.22% compared to March's 49.07% savings average.  A substantial decrease in savings rate but still over 45%

Since we have an adequate income and food should be a pleasure in life(no way am I going to eat unseasoned rice and beans for my remaining days like some people-because I don't have to). I will buy quality food and pay the price at the register.  I may not like the price but I will deal with it.

With 4 months accounted for, I have spent a Total of $2,227.39 on groceries/HBA/paper goods/etc. in 2024.

2024 Yearly Grand Total Spent....................$2,765.94

2024 Yearly Grand Total Value of Items.....$5,356.50

2024 Grand Total Saved...............................$2,590.56

2024 Yearly Savings Total..............................48.36%

The average per month amount spent is $691.85 in 2024 so far but that's before all the rebate monies are added in.

Remember that I withdraw all my cash rebate monies(Ibotta, Shopmium, TaDa, Checkout 51 and other miscellaneous rebates sent to my Paypal)at the end of the year and add it back into my food budget, so at the end of the year my food spending will go down.  The other savings apps like Fetch, Shop Kick, Kroger Cash Back that let us get free gift cards(or $ off your grocery total-Kroger), those are added back in when I cash those points in along the way.  Alexa app gives me Amazon credit onto my account but I don't buy food on Amazon(sometimes I buy dog food there)so I really don't know how to count that.

LOOKING AHEAD TO MAY 2024.....

.

I am going to attempt to not grocery shop in May*gasp*.  I know I won't spend anything.  I have an impossible Ibotta Big Bonus($35 for 95 items!!!)so I really have no motivation to rebate this month(unless there are things for the food bank and I don't count those items in my grocery budget any longer). I have a packed freezer(and thankfully it was packed when the power went out, which helped keep the temperature down, but we did lose some ice cream *RIP*)plus lot of canned/boxes goods so the only thing I'll try to spend on this month is fresh produce.

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

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

*  Do you track your yearly food spending?  It's really not that hard or time consuming; just keep your receipts and either track it in a notebook or on a spreadsheet.

*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons versus 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

Storm in Louisiana

We got back from our cruise late on Thursday.  Spent the next few days un-jetlagging, unpacking and getting some fresh produce/groceries.

Then on Sunday evening this happened......(YouTube turned my videos into "shorts" so you'll have to copy these URLs and cut/paste them to see them.  They won't give me the code to embed these videos into my blog.)

https://youtube.com/shorts/ykuvWVb09KM?si=WKEef4WCDmQPVcd9  

https://youtube.com/shorts/duYJUd0Iojw

And we lost power. ugh.  Electric company said power would be restored on Wednesday night at 10pm.  Basically they just pushed out the timeline because really they had no clue when they'd have everyone back on the grid.

Luckily Monday was only in the high 70's and low humidity.  We just sat tight and lived as farmers-got up with the sun and went to bed when the sun did.  Couldn't do much but read.  I almost finished a book. yeah me.

We left the jam packed freezer alone but got a bag of ice for the fridge and placed it in there and shut the door.  Hubs went up to Mickey D's that day for coffee and got me a Diet Dr. Pepper.

On Tuesday the forecast was for high 80's and lots of humidity.  So we went out to Mickey D's so Hubs could have breakfast and I had this........

A Diet DP and a bag of sliced apples.  Guess how much that puny bag of apple slices cost??

$1.49 for 6 tiny slices of apple!!!  I remember when I got my kids a whole Happy Meal(including a bag of apple slices)for $1.49.  McDonald's is out of it's mind.......

The counter gal also gave me a Diet Coke instead and I went up to get the Diet DP so I ended up with two drinks. 

We also were able to charge our phones as the seating area was deserted in this Mickey D's as the breakfast rush was over.  Once our phones were up to 100% we ran over to Walmart.

I had bought 4 cans of tomato products there before we left town.  Each item had a $1 off Peelie Q on it but the folks manning the registers refused to let me use these Qs.  So I wrote to corporate and ended up getting a phone call from the manager of the store telling me to come in and they would honor the Qs.  Well it had to wait until after the cruise but I went in to get my $4 or I'd return the items.

Of course, the woman manning the CS desk had no clue about any of this so I showed her the email from Corporate on my phone and she returned to items, then re-rung them and used the Qs.  What a PITA!  But it was the principle of the thing, ya know?

So we went home and then headed back out later to Subway for dinner.

The first sighting of power company trucks near us!

While we didn't have a tornado come through, they did say we had "straight line winds".

Here's the Jehovah's Witness sign at the corner of an intersection we go by.  The day before this sign was at a 45 degree angle on that brick base.  You can see the bricks were broken on the right side.

Down the road the traffic lights were out.  UPDATE-When I went to Kroger on Friday those lights were finally working again.

Back at home we stopped for another bag of ice.  I had to move my refrigerated drugs to a cooler.

I had to throw away these 2 boxes of $$$ injectibles.  This is what I was on before I got changed to a different drug last year.  Ugh.

But I got my current drugs on ice and safe.

A few hours after we got home from Subway power was restored at our house. rah!

Sluggy

March 2024 To-Do List....How I Did

 Here is my March To-Do List and how it all turned out.  Sorry it's a month late.  Stuff happens. ;-)

MARCH

*  Pay Bills  DONE  Always first and foremost

*  Go to 5 Dr. Appointments  DONE   Saw my Orthopedist,  I also got sent for shoulder MRIs at the end of March after insurance approved those tests.  I also was sent for 2 MRIs by the Neurologist(not that he cares or ever gets back to me about any tests).

*  Have Shoulder Injections  DONE  The Orthopedist injected both my shoulders in the bursa sac. 

*  Send Package to Brother  DONE

*  Begin Going Through Merchandise to Sell  PASS  I pulled out some fabrics to sell on Etsy.

*  Send Boxes to Two Kids  PASS  Sent a box to youngest and stuff in there for Oldest he will pass on to him since I have no contact with him.  Still have to get a box to Daughter.

*  Start Packing for Cruise  PASS  Started packing and got most of it done before April began.

*  Make Appt. w/Old Dentist  DONE  After the disaster with attempting to use the Dental Discount Program that came with my Medicare Supplement, I decided to go back to our old dentist.  Had a cleaning and a couple of dental x-rays done.

*  Go Through Old Papers  PASS  I've gone through many of them but there is more to plow through in April and/or May.

*  Contact Lawyer about Will Changes  FAIL  I didn't get around to do this.

*  Read/Finish Two Books  FAIL  I had good intentions but this one got away from me.  I just haven't felt much like reading books.

*  Buy Stuff for House(Always)  DONE  Hubs bought "stuff".  I have no clue. '-)

*  Order Biz then Wash Baby Clothes  DONE  Evidently they don't sell Biz anywhere I can find on the Eastern and Central part of the US so I jumped on Amazon and had it delivered to my door(mailbox actually).  Kim swears by the stuff to whiten old wedding gowns of her clients who want to use their mother's or such gown.  I tried it on a bunch of old baby clothes I still had from when my children were young to try to get spit-up and other stains off of them.  It worked like a charm!

*  Giveaway/Donate Baby Clothes That are Salvageable  PASS  My Sister in-Law's Grandson and his GF had a baby boy in March so I shipped off a big box of baby clothes to them along with a small gift.

*  Start New Donation Box  DONE

*  Try to Hem Some of My Clothes  DONE  I got two dresses shortened and hemmed.  I only brought one of them on the cruise however.

*  Edit More Photos  DONE  Just when I think I've caught up, we take another trip and I have a big photo dump. lol

*  Post about Old Trips  DONE  Been working on posting the Western Road Trip STILL!  Will it ever end??

*  Work on Genealogy  DONE

*  Take Items to Goodwill  FAIL  Didn't get up to Goodwill in March.

*  Pick Out Fabric and Photograph to List  DONE  See going through Merchandise item above.

That's all I got done in March.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday....the May 3rd Edition 2024

There are very few Frugal wins over the past week.

*  I guess loosing electricity for 2+ days counts as frugal.  We didn't have an electric bill for that amount of time. 8-)

*  We did some housework and laid low last week.  Did a little grocery shopping last weekend before the power went out.

I looked at my CVS app and I had a free $2 to spend. woohoo!

So I went there and bought this......

Mini club soda 4 packs on clearance.  I paid .15¢OOP.

*  Had to eat out for 2 nights--Monday dinner was Catfish and sides & Tuesday was at Subway.  The Catfish joint is pretty cheap and I had a $4 in Rewards I used at Subway.

*  Of course all the stores had power(and a/c)so we went to Walmart to get my $4 in coupons from them.......

These tomato products had Peelie Qs on them when I purchased, but the person working the self-checkouts wouldn't/couldn't override the register when it wouldn't accept them.  Of course this happened right before we left on the cruise so I had to wait until we got back to deal with the situation.  I did contact Corporate via email about this pre-cruise and was told to go back and they'd honor those coupons.  

Of course the woman at the CS desk on Tuesday had no CLUE about any of this(even though the manager of the store had called me)but I got my $4 owned me.  Had they not honored the Qs those items would have been returned.  Homie don't play!

*  I did my April food spending rundown and we did pretty good on the saving $$ last month.  After all the rebates were accounted for, we were at less than $208 spent. 8-)

*  I found money!  

Went to Dollar General for greeting cards on Saturday and found three pennies....

At Walmart on Tuesday and found another penny.........

Then I did laundry after we got power back on Wednesday evening and found this in the dryer.....

House rules-Any money found in the laundry is mine! ;-)

Total Found last week.... .05¢ 

Grand Total Found this Year.......$4.12 & 5.30 Euros

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy     

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Back to Reality" Edition.....

Here's Hubs standing next to the paella pan at the restaurant we ate at in Ibizia, Spain.  I doubt even he could have eaten that whole thing. lolz

Well I put on 13 lbs. during the cruise, but am already taking it all back off(9 lbs. off as of today)by doing intermittent fasting since Friday.  Another week or so and I'll be right as rain again. 8-)

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned for last week...........

1. Sunday--Twisted Root Burger

2. Monday--No Clue

3. Tuesday--No Clue

4. Wednesday--No Clue

5. Thursday--No Clue

6. Friday--No Clue

7. Saturday--No Clue

And here's what actually happened(we were on the ship until Tuesday)......

1. Sunday--Crusty Bread w/EVOO and Balsamic, Salad, Calamari, Paella, dessert I can't remember and oh, so much wine!

2. Monday--Endive Salad, Filet Mignon, Cheese Plate for dessert

3. Tuesday--Bruschetta, Ribs and Shrimp, Apple Brown Betty

4. Wednesday--Some Chicken dish w/Rice on the plane, a roll, a crumbly cake, a fancy UK Hot Pocket and many Dr. Pepper Zero Sugars

5. Thursday--Muffaletta Pizza

6. Friday--Leftover Muffaletta Pizza

7. Saturday--Beef Fajitas  

What got taken out of the freezer last week....

*  Nothing  

What got put into the freezer last week....

*  1 pack of Catfish

*  1 pack of Salmon

*  3+lbs. of Pork Tenderloin  

Last week we spent $167.89 on grocery shopping for April.  I had an Ibotta Bonus to hit and dby gosh I was going to get there. ;-)  

Total shopping come to $538.55 for April.   There are 0 shopping days left in April so I am done for the month, obviously.

Rebate monies earned this month so far.....

I've earned $243.50 on Ibotta in April.

I've earned $24.50 on Shopmium in April.

I've earned $32.50 on Alexa app in April.

I've earned $11.24 on Kroger Cash Back in April.

I've earned $29.39 on TaDa in April.

I've earned $1.50 on Checkout51 in April.

I've earned $32.41 on Aisle, etc.

I've earned 35,644.00 points on Fetch from food shopping in April.

I've earned 8,250 points from food shopping on Shop Kick in April.($33.00)

I've earned 3,497 Points on My Points in April.($16.63)

I've earned 0 SB from food shopping on Swag Bucks in April.

That is $331.30 in rebates(not counting Shop Kick/Fetch/MyPoints/KCB/Alexa)on $538.55 of grocery spending so in reality it's $207.25 in food spending after the rebate apps I count. I now separate out the Food Bank donations and don't count those in the grocery spending.

My savings percentage for the last week was 56.35% and the monthly savings total for April comes in at 45.22% spent so far. 

Leftovers going into this week...Fajita filling.

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Cheeseburger(bun optional), Teriyaki Green Beans, Stuffed Mushroom Caps

2. Monday--Catfish, Shrimp, Green Beans

3. Tuesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

4. Wednesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

5. Thursday--Brisket, Baked Sweet Potato Fries

6. Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Leftovers

My meal plan blew up when we lost power for 2+ days.  This is my revised plan since I got back online this morning. 8-))

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 deals on food at your stores this week?  

Sluggy