Tag: grocery budget

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Every Day

Rest Of This Week’s Shopping

I won’t bore you with most of the details but here are the rest of the shopping trips that I made on Sunday and Monday.

Sunday’s Tops trip I saved $26.01 and paid OOP $23.41. I also bought a Buffalo News to get another set of inserts. But the News has gone up to $3.00 so I don’t know how often I will do that. They have to be good coupons for things I need. I already saved many more dollars than the cost of the paper on another Top’s trip, Walgreen’s trip and my CVS trip.

This shop was another Top’s trip(2 Palmolive and 4 Almay Eye Makeup removers) where I used $10.00 in coupons and paid OOP $ 13.79. The CVS trip was the rest of the items which I paid $ 1.59 OOP. I used $10.00 in ECB’s and  and Q’s for the Wet n Wild eyeliners, toothpaste and the Gold Emblem snacks. I got $ 8.00 in ECB’s back. The Walgreen’s trip was 2 Elvive Shampoo and Conditioner and the Russell Stover. That total came to $3.95 after Q’s.

Rite Aid was $50.00 from my Other budget for the 2- $25. Domino’s cards which was a bonus cash deal. All candy I posted today is for the grandchildren to put in their cute little  Valentine mailboxes. The candy came to $ 3.46.

Aldi’s was $22.44 OOP. I am getting ready for the Super Bowl. We are also trying 2 different ham products to see which we like better. BTW, the apple sausages are terrific cooked up in a skillet with fresh apples slices and a little cinnamon.

Last shop was Save- A-Lot where I stocked up on 5.87 lbs. of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts at $ 1.59 a lb. Great price for here. I paid $14.27 for the chicken, 2 lbs. of carrots, a huge cabbage, and 8 lbs. of Russet potatoes. Hubby has asked for corned beef and cabbage this week. Since I have one I bought at rock bottom price last March, he is getting his wish.


I had $ 14.40 left in my grocery budget last week when I added $ 75. on Sunday. I now have $ 6.49 left for the rest of the week. However, I do have a $25. Walmart E-Gift Card that I earned from Ibotta. Since I earned it with groceries rebates, I will use it for groceries. So when I feel better, I will be using that to stock on toilet paper, ground turkey and possibly beef, half and half, etc.

I do have some Ibotta rebates to submit. I think it is like $2.50 that I will get back. 


Our Other budget has $ 63.07 left after being funded for only two weeks. I did not fund it for the week I was in Florida.


I am so glad that I do not have to run out the door today. My cold seems to be getting worse instead of better. It’s in my chest now. Fortunately, I have a check up with my doctor later this week so hopefully he can give me something or tell me what will get rid of it.


I will be back later this week with the Frugal Things We Have Done the past 10 days.

 

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Every Day

Last Spending This Week

I grocery shopped again today and made a stop at Dollar Tree. I won’t spend again until next week.

First, I will tell you about my Dollar Tree haul which is pictured above. I needed a birthday card but I saw these Valentine Mailboxes for my grandchildren. Aren’t they adorable? I just loved them especially since they will get shipped to them. They had these that were bigger and some that were smaller. I will fill them with candy and other small things and then put them in a box and ship them. When I saw them all I could think of was the movie, You’ve Got Mail.

I also picked up three containers that I could use in my organizing. When I spot them I grab them. We have a very small Dollar Tree here so things don’t last long. The Dollar Tree haul comes out of my Other Budget. 

I shopped at Top’s and Aldi for a few things we needed. Top’s total was $ 16.09 and the Aldi total was $ 6.83. So I end this week with $ 14.40 left in my grocery budget which will be rolled into next week. When I shopped the other day for the noodles, they were out of the Pennsylvania Dutch ones. They were $1.59 but I had a Tops Click to Card $ 1.00 Q so they cost $.59. So these will be added to my stockpile for the next time I need to make a family dish. Chips and crackers were requested by Hubby. 

My grandson’s birthday is today. He is 8. We won’t see him because his other grandparents are visiting with him. But if he and his Dad get to come out on Sunday for breakfast, I want to make a brownie cake and have ice cream after as a belated birthday party. The brownie mix and frosting I already had in my stockpile. 


We were out of peanut butter so I picked up a Jif at Top’s and an Aldi’s brand too. The Aldi’s brand was 45% less than the Jif. So we will try it to see if we like it. If so, no more Jif. I picked up another Dannon Light and Fit Zero for smoothies. Also we were totally out of tomato sauce. Since it costs $.29 a can at Aldi’s, it was a no brainer to buy 4 there. 

Is there anything worse than snow almost every day or freezing cold and bundling up when you go out? Yes, when the snowplow takes your mailbox out. That happened to us yesterday just before the mailman came. UGH!  Hubby and I almost froze outside trying to rig the broken mailbox to the  broken post. We managed to salvage part of the box and bungie cord it to the broken post. It is a little lower than normal but I stopped at the P.O. this morning and talked to my mailman who gave me yesterday’s mail. He said it will be fine temporarily until we can put a new one in. He knows we would have to wait for our son to be able to help us.  However, when I asked my son, he told me to call the town offices and they will come out and replace it with a cheap mailbox and post that will get us through to spring when it will be easier to dig and replace it. So I did call the town and they are coming out this afternoon to put the new one in for us.

I have been unpacking and doing laundry and catching up errands and doing what needs to be cleaned around here. I have also been doing some organizing.

Tonight, we feel like having a comfort meal. So I am going to roast a 7 lb. chicken and we will have it with a salad and some broccoli. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. It is supposed to warm up to normal temps here which is very welcome. 

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping and The Budget

Now let’s get back to being frugal with our money. As you all know we have been eating from our stockpile for months. The shelves and freezer are starting to show some room.

I menu plan but only from my stockpile. I shop to refill that stockpile with my $ 75.00 per week grocery budget.  Since I have a stockpile which allows me to buy at rock bottom prices, I save a whole lot of money. Not having to buy things when they are not on sale is what I aim for. But sometimes you just run out of things while you are on vacation. Hubby had a small list when I got back. 

I purchased the above at Aldi’s and Rite Aid. Here is my purchase:

Wraps  $1.69
Half and Half  $ 3.49
Tortilla Chips $ 1.49
Tomatoes $ 1.49
Mayo   $ 1.89
Garlic Powder  $ 1.19 

Total at Aldi’s was $ 11.24

I had to go to Rite Aid to pick up 3 prescriptions for Hubby. So I purchased the 2 Hershey’s bars that were $ .69 each and used a $1.00 L2C Q which made them just $ .19 each. I had a $1.00 from the old rewards program that carried over to the new one. So I used that to pay the $.38 for the candy and the other $ .62 came off the prescriptions which was a nice surprise. I hope that continues. So Rite Aid was nothing OOP for the grocery budget. I have a drawer in a spare room where I keep the candy stash. It is kept stocked for the occasional treat for the grandchildren or to build up for Halloween. Fortunately, Hubby and I are pretty good about staying out of it.

The wraps are for the occasional sandwich made with leftover roast, chicken or turkey breast. We use 1/2 and 1/2 in our coffee every day. Hubby said we were down to our last 1/4 carton. Hubby asked for tortilla chips since he loves salsa and those for lunch. I use tomatoes in my salad every day so even though they are expensive right now, they are a necessity for me.  Hubby loves Hellman’s mayo but it was not on sale anywhere this week. So I bought Burman’s which an Aldi employee told me a long time ago is Hellman’s mayo. Hubby can’t tell the difference between this and Hellman’s. Aldi’s is now stocking it right next to the Hellman’s in my store. Lastly, Hubby had used the last bit of garlic powder when he made Lemon Piccata for my welcome home dinner. It is always cheapest for me at Aldi’s. 

My last stop yesterday was at Top’s where I purchased:  

2 Smithfield Pork Loins on B1G1F – $ 10.99 for both

1 gallon of Milk -$ 1.59 with Top’s Q  – $.25 Ibotta rebate


1 Cucumber – $ .99

12 cans of Diced Tomatoes – $ 6.00 for all 12

3 Top’s Salsa – $ 1.34 each

1 Light and Fit Greek Yogurt w/Zero Art. Sweetener- $ 1.25 -Free after $ 1.25 Ibotta Rebate

1 Krusteaz Lemon Bars and 1 Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake – $2.50 each but Free after 2 Free Q’s from the company

1 bag of Spinach – $2.48

1 can of Campbells Yes Well soup – $ 1.99 – $ .75/1 Q = $.49 


1 Gia Russa Noodles -$2.00


Total OOP was $ 29.56. The $ 1.50 in Ibotta money will be rolled right back into my grocery money when I receive it. 


We love those pork loins so the price was too good to pass up. I am cooking one tonight that we will eat for a few days and I put one in the freezer.  We were totally out of milk and this was a good price. However in order to get that price you needed to spend $20. I used my 2 Free coupons to get me there. The lemon bars and coffee cake are handy for when company visits. The cucumbers were rotten at Aldi’s so I got one here for my salads. My stock of canned tomatoes needed some more. We use these alot. Hubby loves salsa and this was a great price. The Greek yogurt goes in my kale shakes to give them some sweetness. The spinach is for salads. I will add the soup to the basement stockpile. I love these soups.


I had planned on buying the Pennsylvania Dutch Noodles that were free after Top’s Click to Card Q. However, they were out and I needed this to make a dish for a neighbor who is sick. So I spent the $2.00.  

So after yesterday’s spending, I have $34.20 left in this week’s grocery budget. 


Hubby did not spend any of the grocery money last week so I decided to make a bulk purchase of Jordan’s SF Coffee Syrups that will last us about 6 months. So I spent $ 71.88 on that order yesterday. That leaves me $3.12 from that week’s budget(1/7/18) or a total of balance in my envelope wallet of $ 37.32 left to spend on groceries.


I am doing well on this $ 75. per week budget since we have a good stockpile and this helps me continue to add to it. I know that when all the money is gone, I have to wait to shop until the next week when I get $75. more in grocery money. A weekly budget is so much easier to handle.

I keep my money for groceries each week in this Dave Ramsay Envelope Wallet. I just started using this as you can tell because I already made mistakes  putting things in the wrong columns so I had to cross out and fix. My grocery money goes in the envelope and when it is gone, it is gone. 

There is an envelope at the back to keep your receipts.  


How are you doing with your grocery budget spending? Are you tracking it?
 

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Every Day

Preparing For Freezer Cooking

I will be going to Disney World the beginning of January. The closer it gets the more excited I get.

Hubby is not going so I know I have to prepare some easy meals for him. If I don’t he will go out and buy junk or eat snacks. He is not fussy about eating the same thing over and over again for days. So I have decided to make a lot of two different meals that he can pull out of the freezer and just nuke in the microwave.

I decided to make a large pan of lasagna because he loves my lasagna. And I will also cook some chicken so that he can just cut it up on salads. I will also make a chicken dish that he can throw frozen into the crock pot and cook all day. He loves salad and applesauce so he can do those for sides. There is always fruit and cut up veggies in the fridge for him to snack on. He will also have tortilla chips and salsa for snacks.  

I had no ground beef in my freezers. So I have been looking for a decent price to buy some. In yesterday’s flyer, Top’s advertised their 80/20 ground beef meal deal. You buy a 4-5 lb. package of the beef and you get 9 named items free. Now I know that the ground beef will not be a great price for this deal. And I rarely buy these deals because of that and the fact that the free items are things we don’t normally buy. 

So I set out to investigate whether this was a good deal or not. I called my Top’s meat department and asked what the price per lb. was that they were charging for the meat. They told me $ 3.99 per lb. Then I looked on Wegman’s website to see what they are charging for their 80-20 ground beef. I had already noticed that Walmart’s was $ 4.99 a lb. when I shopped there yesterday. Wegman’s was $ 2.29 a lb.
I estimated that a package would be 5lbs. So at Wegman’s that would cost me $ 11.45. The meat at Top’s would cost me $ 19.95. That is a difference of $ 8.50.

However Top’s was giving me 9 items free with my purchase that they estimated would be $14.00 if bought separately. I looked at the list and we could use all 9. If I used coupons with a sale price on those 9 items I estimated that on sale, I could buy those items for $ 10.95. So I am paying $ 8.50 more for the beef at Top’s but I am getting $ 10.95 in usable product. That is only a $ 2.45 gain. 

But Top’s is less than 7 miles round trip from my house and Wegman’s is 26 miles away round trip. With gas topping off at $ 2.60 a gallon, this was a no brainer. I also asked myself if there were other necessary errands that I could run down near Wegman’s. I could go to the bank and deposit six checks that I have sitting here. But I could deposit those checks via my mobile phone. So I opted to get the Top’s deal. This is the kind of thinking I do on anything I buy to make sure that I am getting the best deal.

I bought a 4.63 lb. of ground beef ($18.47), a dozen eggs for $.69 with a store Q, one family size bag of tortillas chips ($4.49), 2 large containers of cottage cheese ($2.79 each). The 9 free items were Italian bakery bread, Fresh Express lettuce shreds, a jar of spaghetti sauce, a bag of Mexican cheese, a can of chili beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a bag of taco wraps, 1 lb. of thin spaghetti, and a package of chili seasoning. My total grocery bill was $29.23. That leaves me $18.39 through December 9th to spend. I am done with the big shops for the week because we have snow in the forecast from tomorrow through Sunday. If we need something desperately like milk, I will send Hubby to the gas station which is close.

I came home and used my scale to measure out the meat into 8 oz. portions because that is what Hubby and I eat at a meal. I will use 16 oz. in the lasagna along with a lb. of Italian sausage that I am thawing from my freezer. To my surprise when I measured it, I got a full 5 lbs. of meat not the 4.63 lbs. that I paid for. So I will be using the 1 lb. tomorrow when I make the lasagna. Seven of the bags I put in the freezer. One I kept out for dinner. Hubby can pull one out if he wants hamburgers while I am away. I did not food saver the bags of meat because it will get used up over the next few months and Ziplocs are cheaper than food saver bags.

Tomorrow, I will make and bake the lasagna. When it cools, I will freeze it in individual portions for Hubby’s lunches and dinners.  I will post this meal with recipe when I make it. 

Tonight we will have taco salad using 8 oz. of the beef cooked with taco seasoning, the lettuce shreds, onions, fresh tomatoes, black olives, taco sauce, hot sauce and Mexican cheese. Hubby will have tortilla chips with his. I just eat it like a salad.

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Every Day

Inexpensive Turkey Soup and Other Topics

Turkey is one of the least expensive meats you can buy especially around Thanksgiving. I have one extra turkey in the freezer and I am keeping my eye on prices to see if any grocery clearances them. If I go by a grocery store, I stop and run in to see what they are doing with them. I suspect that Aldi will discount them but probably not until after Christmas.

That said, I paid $.99 a lb. for our Butterball 22 lb. turkey this year. It is our favorite brand and the breasts were huge. I have never gotten so much white meat off of a turkey. We got eight individual dinners and seven individual lunches out of the turkey and other leftovers. I also made eight quarts of turkey broth. I made a huge stockpot of turkey soup with some of it(pictured). The rest is in the freezer to use throughout the year. The soup has already fed Hubby and I two dinners and will probably feed us two more. We are definitely getting our money’s worth. Are any of you making soup?

I wanted to let you know that I finished my physical therapy today and I will be doing therapy at home using exercises they trained me to do. I have some of my answers but not all. I had 3 more tests yesterday and today. I am feeling much better but not 100% yet. 

We have started to think about income and expenses for 2018. We are setting the budget for the items that are not set in stone. You know the ones that fluctuate from month to month like groceries, entertainment, restaurant food, etc.

Our budget for food has changed because of the food that we are eating. We are on the Keto diet which consists of meat, chicken, fish, and lots of dark green veggies like kale, swiss chard, spinach, broccoli, etc. We try to buy organic produce when it is important. We are finishing the meat in the freezer and only buying grass fed when we make a purchase. We buy organic eggs from chickens that have been grass fed. We are using butter, olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil to cook with and for salad dressings. We eat cheese and other fats like bacon. This isn’t everything that we consume but most of it. We started this diet about 7 weeks ago and I have lost 15 lbs. and Hubby has lost 10. We never snack between meals. Of course we cheated a bit over Thanksgiving because we hosted company. When the soup is gone, we will be eating all Keto again. It is an easy diet and we are never hungry because of the fats. 

So when we get done setting the budget I will let you know the budget amounts for food, personal care, HBA etc. which will all be included in the total amount. Then I will let you know what the other categories are for things not set in stone every month.

I realize that you are probably all busy shopping and getting ready for Christmas. But this month you should be setting your budget for 2018. The other thing that is important is to estimate your taxes for 2017 and decide if you should do some tax harvesting of stocks to lower your taxes for the year.
We are working on both. 

Talk with you again soon.

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Every Day

Holy Cow and Chicken, etc.

Our meat stockpile has gotten out of control. Fortunately, taking a good inventory has made me realize that. You all know that we have been basically eating from our stockpile for the past 2 months and we continue to do the same.

Even after eating from our freezers for all of this time, we have so much left. Luckily when I pulled every last morsel out of them to do my inventory, nothing had gotten old or freezer burned. I believe that is because of my food saver which shrink wraps our meat.

Here is our current inventory of meat:

20 lbs. of beef

74 lbs. of chicken

1- 6 lb. leg of lamb

32 lbs. ham and pork

8 lbs. of fish and shrimp

21 lbs. of turkey

This totals 161 lbs. of meat or about 322 meals for us when you take into account bones. That number is shocking for the two of us. Considering that we eat meatless once or twice a week, we can live a long time off of this meat and seafood.

To be totally honest, we also have 2 lbs. of bacon, 1 lb. of ham, and 1/2 lb. of turkey in our refrigerator right now also. We will use a lb. of that bacon for our family breakfast tomorrow and the other lb. will get cooked up and used for Club Sandwiches(uses the turkey also)and with eggs for breakfasts this week. Hubby is making ham salad for lunches which will use up the ham.


So seeing all of this meat and these numbers makes me realize that I have to change the way I grocery shop. We live in a northern area of the U.S. where power outages are common when we have lots of snow. So we have lots of snow storms. How long do you think this meat would last if our power was down for a couple of days? Not long, maybe two days. We would be cooking on our grill and in our fireplace like crazy and feeding the entire neighborhood. 

Of course, I purchased most of this meat at rock bottom prices. But that does us no good if we lose it in a power outage or it gets freezer burned. It would be a total waste of money.


I am meal planning from our inventories and not buying much these days. Just the necessities that we run out of or perishables like milk, half and half, and produce. Hence, we are not spending much on food. I am using our grocery budget to buy Christmas gifts instead.

Yes, I will do some stockpiling of things that are only rock bottom at Thanksgiving and Christmas but not as much meat as I usually do. I already have my turkey for Thanksgiving in the freezer. I may buy one more to cook up and freeze the meat in meal portions to use in place of chicken. Or I may not depending on the prices. I might actually wait until turkey breasts go on sale next year at rock bottom prices and get a few of those. I also have a spiral sliced ham for either Christmas or New Years. So our holiday meat is already in the freezer.

I would like to get down to the point where I only have 3 months worth of meat in the deep freeze. I would like to have room to put up freezer meals instead. 

After all of these years of cooking, I am getting really tired of it. So having a month’s worth of freezer meals at the ready would be a luxury for us. I have been collecting small containers so that we can eventually do this. Do any of you cook freezer meals? How do you do it? Do you make a bunch at once or just make an extra every time you make a casserole, etc.? I would really love to hear your experiences. 

When we get to the point of having just three months worth of meat, we have decided that $ 300 a month or $75. a week for groceries will be enough for us to eat a healthy diet and buy any personal care products, OTC meds and cleaning products.


I have been estimating what a meal costs us for quite a while now and also keeping track of what non food items we buy. That $ 300. a month should be sufficient to do everything. If it doesn’t work, we will raise it a little. 


So are any of you in the same boat we are? Too much freezer food that needs to get eaten? Have you taken an inventory so that you know what you have? I would love to hear from you all in the comments.