Tag: grocery budget

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Frugal Things The Past Few Days

I want to let you know that most of the things that I showed you that were leftovers in my recent post have been eaten or frozen.

So here is a new group of leftovers plus 2 other ingredients that I made into a couple of different meals this week.

I had leftover hot Italian sausage in the spaghetti sauce from the other night. I cut it up and used 1/2 of it on pizza along with some mushrooms also. Hubby likes the sausage. I love mushrooms. I also used an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce from my storage on the pizza because I find leftover spaghetti sauce too much on pizza. I make pizza on the artisan bread that I purchased at Aldi. Just add mozzarella cheese and seasonings and it is delicious.

Last night I heated the leftover spaghetti sauce after I took the rest of the sausage out and cut it up for another pizza which I will make soon. I added the sauce that was left in the jar too to the pan. Some of the mushrooms and the spaghetti were microwaved to heat them through.

Meanwhile I air fried two pieces of chicken after preparing them with the Shake and Bake. I added some mozzarella cheese at the end. So we had chicken parmesian on the leftover spaghetti and I added some mushrooms to mine.

All I have left is the sausage, some mushrooms, the tomato sauce for pizza. The leftover spaghetti sauce was frozen for our next spaghetti meal. We also have two pieces of chicken breast to use tonight. I haven’t decided yet how I will fix that. Depending on the weather, we may grill it and add BBQ sauce.

We did have a lot of Italian meals this week but we haven’t had them in a long time and we were craving them. Rather than waste leftovers, neither one of us care if we eat the same things made into new meals over and over again.

I had to run to the drugstore for a prescription yesterday so I stopped for a loaf of bread. That cost me $ 2.99 so now my grocery budget that is left for the month is $ 346.71.

Our lawn is so dry that we scheduled the sprinkler system to run every other day. But if I get up in the morning and it has rained overnight, I turn it off until the next day that it is scheduled for. I believe our water bill the end of this month will be much less than last year’s. Our system broke this year and we had to wait 6 weeks for them to come out to repair it. That is how booked up they were.

We only eat two meals a day and have been doing this for a very long time now. That is saving us money but honestly we didn’t do it to save money. We just aren’t hungry in the morning. Coffee is enough.

We continue to drive our 10 year old SUV. We take immaculate care of it and make sure to take it to the garage for necessities like inspections and oil changes. It only has 47,000 miles on it and has never had a repair. The only time it has been to the dealer is for recalls. Maintaining things that you own pays off in the long run. My son has done some brakes for us.

Hubby is cutting my hair again tomorrow. Finally all the color from my salon appointments will be gone. My white hair I like and so does Hubby so I will not be coloring it again.

I ran the dishwasher really full. I am using the auto wash setting which I find uses less water and electricity.

That is it for today. What have you done recently to save some money?

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Every Day

My Journey To Keep My Grocery Shopping Under Control

We had the spaghetti with Hot Italian Sausage last night. It was so good. Since we have sauce and sausage leftover, I will make a pizza tonight using that and the Artisan flatbread I purchased today. I will also add some mushrooms for me.

I ran errands today to Top’s and Aldi’s. At Aldi’s I purchased three of the Artisan bread. Each package makes 2 pizzas for us. Since this is our favorite pizza crust and it is often out of stock, I put one package in the fridge and the other two in the freezer. Six crusts will last about 6 months for us. My total cost for this at Aldi’s was $ 10.77.

Last stop was Top’s where I purchased 5 Shake and Bake. When you bought 5 you paid $ 2.99 each. I love using these for a quick meal in the air fryer for pork or chicken. Especially in the winter when we are not grilling outside. The cucumber was $ 1.00. The celery and carrots were on B1G1F and ended up costing me $ 3.49 for both. The half and half was $ 5.99 for a half gallon. I stock this ahead in my fridge because it has far out expiration dates. We use it in our coffee and for any milk that we need. We used to buy milk for pudding, cereal, etc. but it always went bad before we could use it up. So I quit buying milk and we use half and half instead for everything. It works well for us. Out total for Top’s was $ 25.43. My total for today is $36.20. I also purchased a 60 ct. box of eggs at Walmart this week for $ 5.18. So my total for the week is $ 41.38.

I started with $ 391.08 in my grocery budget less the $ 41.38 leaves $349.70 left for the rest of the month.

I am off to do some cleaning. I hope you all have a great day!

Did you get any bargains at the grocery store this week?

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Are You Tired of Overspending Your Grocery Budget?

Today is your lucky day! I have been busy while I have been ill so you get a BONUS post today!

I have asked this question of family, friends, and neighbors and I keep getting the same answer. Yes, we are sick of rising prices and having to spend so much more for the same products we purchased just a few weeks ago. If you shop at Walmart and/or Aldi, it seems their prices have really risen of late especially in my area. I see increases at my other stores but not as much because I always just buy mostly the loss leaders sales. The only prices that seem to have come down in recent weeks here are for eggs and butter. What are you guys seeing in your areas?

Over the past 2 and a half years, it has been very difficult to work within a budget for food. Would I like to go back to what I was spending back then? Sure I would but with inflation that is never going to happen. Even if they finally figure out how to get inflation back to about 2% a year, these prices you see now are not going to go back to what they were. It makes it so difficult for families to stay within a reasonable budget.

Well what is a reasonable budget today? Here are the USDA’s amounts for May 2023 which is the latest: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cnpp/usda-food-plans-cost-food-reports-monthly-reports.

Many months I have spent more than these figures. It all depended on what we wanted to eat those months. Hubby is always adding to my grocery list things for complicated(lots of ingredients) recipes. One of his hobbies is finding recipes he wants to try and then I buy expensive ingredients( think spices) that only get used once. I need to find him a less costly hobby. I am guilty of going to the store with a list and coming out with more than what is on the list. How many times have you guys done that?

The other problem at least in this home and I would bet in all of your homes is you don’t eat what is already in your refrigerator, freezers, and on your shelves. Yes, I keep a pretty good check on leftovers, produce, and meat. I try to alternate my shelf food by eating the oldest first. We have very little waste in our home. However, I go to the store almost every week and buy more food because there is a great sale! How many of you are doing this? How many of you are stockpiling food for a disaster like a collapse of the economy, war, hurricanes and tornadoes just storms that take the power out? Do you have enough? What is enough? Three months, a year or two?

Well, I have decided that we have ENOUGH! This cycle of buying food every week has to stop. If we need it that is fine! But if we are just buying more each week just because it is on sale, I need to stop. Anyone else feel the same way?

So on July 1st, we came up with a better way to control our spending on groceries, etc. And we are not paying attention to what the government tells us we need to spend! I am tired of putting out money on overpriced products and watching the large corporations earn record profits every year while so many families are just trying to eat. The only way to get these prices to come down is through supply and demand. So I am going to do my part to lower my demand and buy fewer products. Over the past few weeks, I have already refused to buy products that I deemed way to high in price.

We have set a budget of $ 400. per month for the two of us. This will include all food, cleaning products, and personal care products. Our OTC medicines get lumped into our prescription budget. I will not spend one penny more and we will not starve. We will start incorporating what we already have into our meals. We will never waste food. Hubby has agreed to stop hunting for recipes and I will cook as simply as I can not only to use up what we have but to save on utility costs. I am actually hoping to save some of that $400. a month to build up some money for when it comes time to replenish on the sales.

Soda and junk food is out! We will finish what we have and I will not be buying more. They are empty calories and so very expensive. I drink water now and so does Hubby. We also drink iced tea and coffee. That soda and junk food money can be used for real food like fruits, vegetables, and meat. We will have treats but I will make them here in our home. Popcorn has lots of fiber, is cheap, and a 50 lb. bag lasts a very long time. The best part is that you can control any butter or salt.

I expect you guys to hold me accountable. I will show everything along this journey. I will show you all of our meals, what I purchase at the grocery store, how I use up leftovers, etc.

Anyone else tired of all of these high prices?

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Every Day

Our New Grocery Budget

We have all been spending more money on groceries since Covid 19 hit. Prices went up at first because of shortages. Then with all of the money that the government has been spending (printing out of thin air) inflation started to take hold and will continue to go up with each new spending package. This trend will continue on the backs of middle class Americans. The people whose taxes they will raise are corporations and many small businesses who will raise the prices on their products which gets passed down to us.

Since I had been stockpiling during part of 2020, I was spending a fortune. I was trying to stick to my budget but it was becoming very difficult. So I was taking lump sums of money from savings to continue that way of shopping. When I took a step back during my break from here, I realized we were spending a fortune. I was finally well stocked and really needed to slow the shopping down and get on a regular budget again. I think many of you can probably relate to this.

So about 6 weeks ago, I started doing things differently. I know prices are up and will continue to go up. But I slashed our grocery budget to $400. per month. I am going to try to continue budgeting that amount as long as I can by incorporating into our meals everything that I can from our stockpile ( pantry, freezer, and refrigerator items).

I am menu planning a month at a time now so that when I go to the grocery store I know what I need for the month for the meals that I have planned out.

One week a month I do a large shop at Walmart, Top’s, Niagara Produce or Aldi’s or a combination of them. I do not buy meat at Walmart except for frozen chicken wings. Most of our meat comes from the other three stores. This week I spend the majority of our monthly budget.

How do I determine the big shop week? I watch the grocery flyers and my Niagara Produce weekly specials and go the week that has a lot of things on sale (especially meat and fish) that are needed to replenish what we are using. Meat and fish are expensive so buying at a good price is the best time to stock. Walmart and Aldi’s has the cheapest prices on other items that we use.

I actually was considering joining Costco before the gasoline prices went up. However, it is a 110 mile trip to the closest one. We only get 20 miles to the gallon so that trip would cost us about $16.00 in gasoline each time we went. After paying a $60.00 membership fee, I couldn’t justify the cost. We know the gasoline prices are only going to go up further.

Then I took a look at joining Sam’s Club which is 37 miles round trip. That would only cost us about $ 5.80 per trip. They have a membership deal that works out to be free after a $45. gift card they give you to join. This would be my logical choice if I decide to join. Costco is so much better than Sam’s or B.J’s. I did not renew my B.J.’s membership because I believe they are going belly up. They’re never well stocked and the prices are prohibitive for the quality. So for now I will just stick to my current plan.

The other weeks of the month, I just shop the loss leaders on things like fresh produce, creamer, cream cheese, sour cream, milk, eggs, and butter, etc. It takes me a few minutes to make a list every week and just go in each store for those items and nothing else. No impulse purchases! These shops don’t cost a lot and keep me within my budget.

This has really been working well and is saving me time and gasoline. Before I was going to too many stores just about every week.

Also, we make sure that every morsel of food is used up that is purchased. Nothing goes into the trash! We have a leftover night or two a week which is built into our menu plan. If produce isn’t getting used up, we freeze it for smoothies. If we have onions, celery, or peppers starting to get soft, we slice them and flash freeze them and use them in casseroles, stews or omelets.

If prices keep going up, I will find other ways to stay under budget. For now it is working.

On Wednesday, I will show you my small shop from last Friday. It was an inexpensive week.

Are you finding ways to stay under your grocery budgets even though prices are rising? Feel free to comment and share with all of us.

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How Much Is My Grocery Budget?

 


Curious minds want to know! How much is your grocery budget? What does that have to cover?

I have gotten a few people over the past few months asking me these questions. So it is time to explain how we do it in our household. Our food budget is the  3rd largest line in our overall budget with school and property taxes being the largest and medical being the 2nd largest.

Hubby and I agreed upon a grocery budget of $500. per month effective January of 2020. There is just the two of us. Once in while we have company for dinner but that has only been family this year. Our son and grandson eat Sunday morning breakfast with us many times during the year. Our family in Albany visits a few times during the year. We also get take out and go out to dinner in a normal year a few times. It has not been very often this year and has been infrequent takeout.

So at the end of December when our entire budget was set in motion for 2020, $6,000., which is the yearly amount, was put into our grocery account. Then when Covid19 happened and prices started to rise, we put an additional $1200.(1/2 of our stimulus deposit amount) into that account. So essentially, I had $7200. for groceries for all of 2020.   

That $ 7200. has to cover all food including eating out and any takeout. The other items that it has to cover is household items like cleaners and soaps, personal care items like shampoo, deodorants, shaving cream, razors, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash, etc. It also needs to cover any medical items like bandaids, neosporin, and OTC medicines. Prescriptions drugs is a different budget. 

The large stockups I do are included. For example, my stockpiling for winter has to be within this budget and any stocking that I do at Thanksgiving and Christmas sales also has to be within this budget. 

So far it is working this year. But I have to admit, prices have risen and if I didn’t have full freezers and pantries to begin the year with, I think we might have had to raise the budget.

If you have noticed, I have not spent a lot on groceries the past few months. That is because I am keeping money in the account to be able to buy the rock bottom priced items that we see at Thanksgiving sales.

But since Hubby and I are starting to make our 2021 overall budget, I am really thinking that we need to raise the grocery budget. By how much, I have not determined yet. I did some research online and have seen figures of $ 593. per month up to $700. for the two of us. 

At this point, I don’t know what we will be comfortable with. That is still a work in progress. It will also depend on how much meat prices rise by the end of the year and how much the food shortages in China and Australia affect our prices here. 

I hope I have answered your questions. Now, since curious minds want to know, how much is your food budget this year? Are you going to raise it for 2021? How many people are you feeding and do you include household, personal care, and OTC medical items?

Please leave a comment and share the answers with us. I am curious and I am sure other people are too.

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August 31: The Last Day of the Low Spend Month Grocery Challenge

Today is the last day of my Low Spend Month Grocery Challenge. I have no intention of shopping today so I can tell you how much I saved. 

As I explained to you in my post about doing this challenge, I have $500. budgeted every month for groceries. When I went to the bank to get my cash out for August, I only took out 1/2 of that or $250. So that was already savings for us. 

After totaling up all of my receipts for the month, I had $11.12 left in my wallet from that $250. So I spent a total of $ 238.88 for the month.

I think I did pretty well considering that I had West for almost two weeks and he had some junk food requests. Now it might not have been possible, if I didn’t have food in my freezers and pantries. Regardless, it is very nice to have $ 261.12 in our pocket instead of the grocery store’s pockets.  

I will be back to my budget of $500. for the month of September. But I will be shopping strategically and carefully so that I can keep some of that money to spend on Thanksgiving sales in November.  More on that on Wednesday.

For breakfast, I cooked a dozen hard boiled eggs in the pressure cooker. I also cooked a 12 oz. package of bacon in the oven. I ate 2 hard boiled eggs and 3 pieces of bacon for my brunch. Hubby loves it when I cook the eggs because he loves egg salad on crackers. Me, I am happy to get back to eating healthier food. It was hard while West was here. He is a very picky eater. But I couldn’t have him starve so I cooked things that he loves. 

For dinner tonight, we had taco salads. Yeah, I have been craving one.  Hubby put them together: lettuce, cherry tomatoes, diced onion, a bit of diced cucumber because I love it, sliced black olives, guacamole, and Mexican cheese. I cooked the ground meat with the hot and spicy taco seasoning. Then it was all topped off with a dab of sour cream. They tasted so good tonight!


I hope you have a great evening.

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Every Day

August 22: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

I went out the door early this morning to go to Niagara Produce. They had their turkey cutlets on sale again for $2.99 a lb. Hubby loved this turkey recipe that I made a week or so ago so he wanted me to get some more cutlets.

I only had room for 5 packages in the freezer so that is what I purchased. Since we are having hot dogs for dinner tonight, I picked up hot dog rolls too. I have given up wasting precious space in the freezer for bread.

As I was driving back home, I remembered that West had mentioned that he would like donuts for breakfast one day. So I stopped at Tim Horton’s for a dozen donuts. They have gone up a $1.00 in price to $ 9.99. They were so good that there are only two left. 

I had $ 99.68 left in my monthly grocery budget. I spent $29.47 this morning. I have $ 70.21 left for the rest of August. 

Dinner tonight was easy hot dogs on buns. This was Hubby’s. West opted last minute not to eat hot dogs. He does not like Sahlen’s hot dogs because they have the skin on the outside that he does not like.  I always have meats and cheeses in the deli drawer so he had his choice of many different ones. He opted for sliced pepperoni and cheese. He ate a plate full and was very happy. He and Hubby had oreo cookies for dessert.

I haven’t heard from West’s parents this weekend but I imagine they are loving having a weekend to themselves. West texted them earlier and they were out in the car geocaching. I had no idea what that was but West explained it to me.

We are about to play a board game. I hope you all are having a great weekend.

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Every Day

August 11: Low Spend Grocery Month Challenge

This is all the grocery shopping I am doing this week.
Aldi’s was my first stop. I got 2 dozen eggs, some shells and cheese(for West’s stay), peanut butter cookies (also for West’s stay), unsweetened applesauce, 4lbs. of chicken wings, 2 cans of mushrooms, a party size box of Ritz crackers, a large bottle of Zesty Italian dressing, 2 containers of iodized salt, 1 box of tissues(not pictured) and a bottle of Avocado oil. I also purchased a mug and some reading glasses that will not be included in the food total. Here is my receipt:

I couldn’t resist the mug and I needed the reading glasses. So my total for food was $ 29.81.


My last stop was Top’s:

I am only showing the food prices here but I did get some greeting cards and some other non food items that Hubby wanted. We had a death in the family and Hubby’s secretary is retiring after 46 years. We wish her the very best of luck in whatever she does now.

The popcorn is a treat for Hubby and was $ 2.99. He also loves the peanuts so I got two bags since they were on sale for $ 4.99 each. The hoagie rolls were needed for dinners. They were $ 3.99. The family size oreos are a treat for West and were $ 2.99. The large box of goldfish is also a treat for West and was $ 6.99.

The potatoes are for brunch on Sunday and were on sale for $2.49. The au jus packets are needed for future meals and were an outrageous price of $ 2.49 each. The bacon was a coupon item and cost $ 3.99. The two cans of tuna( $2.09 each) and 2 cans of chicken($3.19 each) were stockpile items.

The SF marinade is for a future meal and was $ 4.29. The coffee was B1G1F so they cost $ 4.99 for both cans. The strawberries were a coupon item and cost $ 1.99. The ice cream is for West and was $ 2.99. The mozzarella cheese was needed for our hot Italian dinners and was $ 2.50.

So my total for Top’s was $ 65.72. So the total for my shops was $ 95.93. That leaves $ 99.68 in my budget for the rest of the month. 

West is coming to stay with us starting Sunday for two weeks so I needed to load up on some treats and things. My son has been back at work for a month or so and my daughter in law is a college professor and needs to go into work for a couple of weeks. So we will be having lots of fun over the next couple of weeks with West before school starts.

For brunch this morning I again had 2 eggs and some mashed avocado. Hubby had some banana bread.

Neither Hubby nor I want take out tonight for dinner. Since we had take out for lunch over the weekend, that was enough for now.

So with my zero waste policy, we will again be having hot Italian sausage. Mine will be just on a plate like last night. Hubby will again use a hoagie roll.

I have ordered a new Keto cookbook that should come tomorrow. It is highly rated so I am anticipating making a couple of different meals from it next week. I have to mix it up so that I don’t get bored with my diet. 

I have been having trouble with my camera. Hubby is looking at it now to see if he can find out what is going wrong with it. Sorry about the blurry pictures.

I hope you all have a good day.     

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Every Day

August Will Be A Low Spend Month For Groceries

Over the years, I have seen many people have what they call a Low Spend Month. So I have decided to do one for the month of August. If anyone would like to join me, let me know in the comments. I realize some of you are probably working on your stockpile so keep doing what you are doing. Being prepared for the Fall and Winter is so important!


Those who would like to do the Low Spend Month should inventory your freezers, refrigerators, and your pantries so that you know what you have. You have a few days to do this before the 1st. However for those of you who feel it is a daunting task, just look through those areas so that you have a pretty good idea of what you have.

I still have money set aside for stockpiling. If I see a great deal that fits into my stockpile, I will let you know. But in August I will be concentrating on spending less monthly grocery money. 

Most of the time, I have $500. for a month’s worth of groceries. I will be cutting that amount by 50% for August. So I will have $250. for all of our groceries. Any money leftover in July will be put back into our savings.

We will be eating from our pantry which is our usual BUT with a twist. How many of you have a grocery item or two or maybe 10 or more that you purchased or were given that you have never used? You know the ones that you see in your pantries all the time and ignore. I know I do. They keep staring me in the face. Pictured above is just a few of the items that need to get used. The tuna and pancake mix will get used in the next week. I will have to see how to make the quinoa and I can’t even remember what I bought the xanthan gum for. Any ideas? 

In August, I will be incorporating those items into our meals to use them up and not end up throwing them out which throws your money in the garbage. If I don’t know how to use an item, I will research for a recipe or ask you. I am hoping to use up a whole bunch of “odd to me” stuff.

I will let you know every day what we are eating and post recipes when I can. 

I will take “you along” on every grocery trip so that you know what I am buying and why. Only needs or family requests(Hubby makes requests on a regular basis) will be purchased with only one exception!  The things that West wants while he is staying with us for two weeks will be incorporated into my $250. grocery budget. I have to spoil my grandson while he is here visiting. That is just what Grandma’s do.

I will post our menu for the following week starting on Friday.

So you may ask, “Why are you doing a no spend month?” Because I thought it would be fun! We also have a savings goal that we are working on. We gave away $ XX,XXX. this month so we will be working on replenishing that money over the next year or so. Lowering the grocery budget will be a good start. Who knows, I may find out that we don’t have to spend $500. per month and continue to be able to save that 50% of our grocery money. 

When you don’t have a mortgage, car payments, or credit card payments, money from investments accumulate quickly. So they will also help replace our giving money. At our age, we rarely travel anymore so we don’t do a lot of spending on items or travel like we did when we were younger. We spend very little on gasoline. Most our money goes into things we want or need for our home. Needed items like pest control, landscape maintenance, and fertilizing services, home maintenance, car maintenance, etc. And of course there are the normal bills that come with owning a home like utility bills, taxes, cable, house phone and internet, insurances, and the cellphone. Gifts for family members are also very important to us.

I am also hoping this low spend month will keep us home more because we have some projects that we are working on. I don’t know how long each post will be in August. Some may be long and some very short but I will post every day. The length will depend on the topic and how much time I have that particular day. I will also keep posting our Frugal Things topic. 

So if you would like to do this low spend month right along with me, don’t forget to let me know in the comments. You can post in comments on each day’s post to let us all know how and what you are doing to keep some money in your pocket.    
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Every Day

Busy Shopping Day Yesterday

After doing some things around the house yesterday, I made my shopping lists for the week. I decided to go to Top’s with plans to go to Walmart and Aldi’s afterward. My plans changed because Top’s was so very crowded. Thinking that the other two stores would probably be worse, I decided to wait to go this week while people are working.

I did both regular grocery shopping and stockpile shopping.

The regular shopping was 2 pizza sauce($1.00 ea.), flour($1.99), lettuce($.99 with store Q), monterey jack cheese($1.79 with store Q) and T bone steaks($19.00) that I needed for this week. I was out of pizza sauce. I don’t have enough flour to make bread. The lettuce is for salads. Hubby loves the monterey jack on his hamburgers.  The T bones are to be grilled for our 53rd Anniversary dinner. Since we are not going out to a restaurant, we will make a nice dinner here at home which will be steak, salad, and strawberries and raspberries with SF cool whip for dessert. We might even enjoy a glass of wine if I get to the liquor store to buy it.

In order to get the lower price of $ 8.88 a lb. for the steaks, I had to buy what they consider a big package of 3. So 1 of them will get frozen for the future. 

The rest were stockpile items. I got 10 Gatorade Zero which were $.80 each when you purchased 10. The pound of bacon was $3.99 with a store Q. The hand sanitizer was $ 5.99. The Softsoap refill was $ 8.98. The yeast was $ 5.99. The canned mushrooms were $1.00 each. I got 2- 50 oz. Purex for $2.50 each. Lastly, I got 1 of the gallons of distilled water for $ .69 with store coupon and 2 gallons on sale for $ .88 each.

Right now I am stockpiling things that I know we will use in case the sickness comes back to our state. I am not waiting until fall because if we lock down again, the supply chain will be affected. Just look at Texas and the supply problems they are having. If it doesn’t come back, we will be set for the fall and winter.

I spent $ 25.77 on the regular groceries and $ 43.76 on stockpile groceries. That leaves $ 458.78 in the July grocery budget. My stockpile budget was $ 1200. minus $ 43.76 = $1156.24. 

Did you find any good buys this week?