Weekly Grocery Shopping Results

I tried an experiment this week. I don't generally do my shopping at Wal-Mart. It's just too much hassle and takes too long to get around to make it worth my while. But, seeing how many people posted great deals over at the Grocery Gathering, I decided to give it a try. I don't guess I did too badly, but I'll have to consider how good next week's deals are before I give it another try.

Here are this week's results:
Wal-Mart
*Regular Price: $40.68
*Total Paid: $19.45
*Total Saved: $21.23
*%Saved: 53%

Kroger
*Regular Price: $110.63
*Total Paid: $41.78
*Total Saved: $68.85
*%Saved: 63%

Publix
*Regular Price: $18.71
*Total Paid: $3.193
*Total Saved: 15.52
*%Saved: 83%

Total Weekly: $105.60
Total Savings: 62%

Kroger Register Coupons Printed:
$1.50 off Black & Mild Cigars
$2.50 off any 3 Johnson's or Desitin products
$1.00 off any Uncle Ben's Ready Rice

Kroger Register Coupons left by previous customers that I grabbed:
$1.00 off any 2 bags of Eight O'Clock Coffee
$3.00 off any one box of Nice n Easy Root Touch-Up
$3.00 off any one Perfect 10 by Nice n Easy Haircolor
$3.00 off any one box of Nice n Easy Gray Solution

Fabulous deals I got:
Publix
Yoplait Gogurt - On sale BOGO ($1.45 each) and had 3 coupons for $1.00 off 1. Total price, $.45 each. To take advantage of this deal, go to Money Saving Mom and click the Coupons toolbar on the right. This is the last day of Publix sale this week though!

Kroger
*Tennessee Pride Sausage - 2.5 pound boxes of pre-sliced sausage. On sale for $5.99 per box, with coupons for $.50 off any Tennessee pride products(Found in 05/18/08 Red Plum insert), doubled = $1.00 off. $4.99 each box, which is great for Wes and I because we're low-carbing it these days. *NOTE: Kroger has Tennessee Pride Sausage Gravy on sale for $10 for 10. If you use the coupons on those, you get them for free!
*Zantac Cool Mint - Box of 8 for $4.59 with $5.00 off coupons. Made $.41 overage on each box. Total overage = $1.23 To take advantage of this, get the coupons here (page 3). Thanks again Money Saving Mom!
*Johnson's Buddies soap for $1.00 and had 2 $1.00 off coupons, so got two for free. You can get those here.

Note on using coupons at Wal-Mart: The Customer Service Manager told the cashier not to accept my internet coupons. However, I printed a copy of Wal-Mart's coupon policy to take with me, just in case! As soon as I showed them the policy, they shut up and scanned my coupons. It never hurts to go prepared. Wes was in awe of my coupon-fu this week.

How'd you do this week?

Coupons: What to do when....

Every week, I find that there are at least a couple of items on my grocery list that I've clipped coupons for but don't end up getting. Sometimes the stores are sold out of the item I need or the advertised item isn't actually on sale at that particular store. Whatever the reason, I often return home with coupons that I've clipped but did not need.

The first few times this happened, I just put all of the coupons into an envelope. Every week, the envelope got fatter and fatter, although I still sorted through them to see if I could use them the following week. As time goes on, it takes me longer to go through those coupons and it quickly became more than the effort was worth to go through the envelopes.

This weekend, I had a flash of inspiration (no doubt triggered by my love of Excel). I pulled out the envelopes of clipped coupons and entered them in a spreadsheet.
The columns of the spreadsheet were:
*Expiration date
*Number of coupons
*Manufacturer
*Item
*Face value
*# of items on coupon
*Amount saved per item

I sorted the spreadsheet based on expiration date. This made my grocery list process far easier yesterday. Rather than sort through the coupons to see if I could use any of them, I simply checked the list against what was on sale and what was listed at The Grocery Game.

Next week, when I get ready to make my weekly grocery list, I will pull out the coupons that I didn't use and brought back from this week's shopping trip, put the expired ones in an envelope to send overseas to the military base, delete those from my spreadsheet, log any new ones that go into the envelope, and save myself some time in the long run.

Does anyone else actually keep the coupons they don't use during their grocery shopping excursions, or do you just throw them away?

Weekly Grocery Shopping Results

Well, this week's shopping trip was kind of disappointing. Most of the things we had on our "needs" list weren't items I had coupons for. I did great on our stock ups though. I went to three stores this time. CVS, Publix, and Kroger. Against the norm, I did fabulously at CVS and Publix but not so great at Kroger.

CVS:
*Regular Price: $12.97
*Coupons/Sales: $2.00
*Total Paid: $10.97
*ECB PRINTED: $10.96
*Savings: 15% (Won't count ECB till I use them)

Publix:
*Regular Price: $85.34
*Coupons/Sales: $66.20
*Total Paid: $19.14
*Savings: 78%

Kroger:
*Regular Price: $103.89
*Coupons/Sales: $21.72
*Total Paid: $82.17
*Savings: 21%

Total Weekly: $112.28
Total Savings: 44%

Great deals I got this week:
Publix:
3 - FREE boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats with Chocolate Clusters
2 - FREE 8 oz. containers of Daisy sour cream
4 - 4 packs of Atkins TRD shakes for $3.00 each (Regularly $7.99)
2 - Reduced Fat Pillsbury cake mixes for $.15 each
CVS
2 - Bottles of Crest Kids mouthwash for $2.49 each ... and got $3.49 back in ECB each
2 - Packages of CVS Bandages for $1.99 each ... and got $1.99 back in ECB each

Want to share some of your awesome finds this week?

Great Deal for Date Night

Last night, Wes wanted to help me relax and decided to treat me to a dinner out without kids. We looked through our Entertainment Book for specials on places we haven't been before. Nothing was really appealing to us. Then I remembered that I had a coupon code in my email from Coupon Mom for 60% off of a Restaurants.com gift certificate.

After surfing through the available gift certificates, most of which we decided against because they were too far away, we found The One. We decided to go to the Cigar Pub, less than 5 miles from home, and have a couple of drinks and dinner. With our coupon code, we spent $4 on a $25 gift certificate. BONUS! We got our entrees for free with the gift certificate. Essentially we only ended up spending money on our drinks (beer on draft!) and I even bought Wes' Father's Day gift for less than I expected.

While not an entirely frugal night, we did spend considerably less than if we hadn't done our legwork first. Lesson Learned! Always do your research before just heading out for the evening. You can definitely save money on normal every day things in return for 5 minutes of your time.

Cutting Food Costs - 3 Ways to Save on Dinner

As I may have mentioned once or twice (couple of dozen) times before, I love the Grocery Game. It has made my life so much easier in the grocery shopping department. But that is only half of the equation. It doesn't matter if your freezer is filled to the top and your pantry is stocked if you don't eat at home. If you're on your way home from work, or the soccer game, or scouts, etc. it's really easy to decide you're too tired to cook and head for the nearest restaurant or fast food drive thru.

Here are a few simple ways to keep feeding your family nutritious meals on those days when you're too tired, mentally exhausted, or just plain not in the mood to cook.

1) Instead of going for fast food, spend less money and get a nutritious meal in no time by stopping by the nearest grocery store for a rotisserie chicken, bag of salad, and loaf of italian bread. This costs less than 1/2 of a delivered pizza, and roughly 2/3 the cost of a meal for one person at a sit down restaurant.

2) Cook Twice, Eat Once. On the days you have time, cook double portions of dinners. Immediately separate half to be frozen and microwaved at a later time. This way, you'll always have a homemade meal waiting for you, even when you're short on time and not up to cooking.

3) Leftover Night! I love it because we never fail to have enough leftovers for one or two servings of things but not enough to contribute to an entire meal. Leftover night allows everyone to have different foods and keeps us from wasting money on throwing things out that have gone bad waiting for someone to finish them off.

What are your best tips for dinners on the nights you're just not feeling it? I'm taking notes!

Weekly Grocery Shopping Results

I just got home from my weekly excursion with the grocery shopping. I have to admit that I had to work a little harder at it this week. I've been spoiled by the Grocery Game consistently having the Kroger list up early. This week it was running "on time" and not a day or two early. BUT, I don't have another free night this week so I had to do the legwork on my own :)

Without further ado, the results:
Publix:
*Regular Price: $53.37
*Coupons/Sales: $39.32
*Total Paid: $14.05
*Savings: 75%

Kroger:
*Regular Price: $202.12
*Coupons/Sales: $99.94
*Total Paid: $102.18
*Savings: 49.5%

Total Weekly: $116.23
Total Savings: 55%

Some fun things I tried this week, I loaded my Kroger Plus card with quite a few BOGO (buy one get one free) offers from Procter and Gamble, Unilever, and AOL’s eCoupons. I also had paper coupons for the same items.
*Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner: BOGO @ $3.33 with a coupon for $1.00 off two. Total for shampoo and conditioner - $2.33
*Aussie Shampoo and Styling Gel: BOGO @ $2.50 with a coupon for $2.00 off two. Total for shampoo and gel - $.50
*Oil of Olay body wash: BOGO @ $3.50 with a coupon for $1.00 off two. Total for two bottles of body wash - $2.50
*Wisk laundry detergent: $1.50 off eSaver with a coupon for $1.50 off one. Total for one bottle of laundry detergent - $.49

The fun one was the cereal. I've been having a blast stocking up on the cereal (why yes, I do know I'm a little odd!). Kroger has General Mills cereals on sale for $2.00 a box. I brought the following coupons with me: 1 store printed coupon for $2.00 on 5 boxes
1 - coupon for $1.10 off Curves cereal
1 - $.50 for Total that doubled
1 - $.50 for Cheerios that doubled
1 - eSaver coupon loaded to my Kroger card for $1.00

So, the final total on the cereal was $.78 per box for 5 boxes of General Mills cereal. GO ME! Although, I suspect that if I bring one more box of cereal into this house … we have 29 … Wes may mutiny.

Coupons - Making them work for you

There is an interesting discussion going on over at BoingBoing about coupons and how much they aren't worth the effort. Now, the girl given in the short example post isn't very realistic... sorry Christy. For one, she does her couponing at seven stores, primarily Publix, and even with coupons they're often significantly more expensive than (my favorite) Kroger, although sometimes they have FABULOUS deals and I snatch them up too.

So, the down and dirty plan for grocery shopping that has been successful for me goes something like this:
*Buy 2 copies of the Sunday Paper - If you buy them on Sunday, you can get them in one packet for $2.35 at Kroger or $2.36 at Publix. They are next door to one another where I live, so there's no real difference for me where I get them.

*Go to Grocerygame.com** on Monday and access the List for Kroger, Publix, and CVS. Check the running list of what I need against the sales prices and coupons I have for them.
NOTE: Grocery Game lists the week of the circular for the coupons, so I never clip them before I need them. I use a 3 hole punch and keep the circulars in chronological order in a binder until I need them.

*Check the personal finance blogs for tips on printable coupons for sale items that will make the price free or next to free. A few of my favorites are Money Saving Mom, Freebies 4 Mom, and Centsible Savings.

*Check my Miscellaneous Coupons pouch for any coupons I've received in the mail with my free samples.

*Do a quick Google search for any printable coupons for items on the list that I need but don't have a coupon for.

All of the gathering probably takes me an hour total. Then,

*I print the list for each store and put all of the coupons I need in the envelope for that store with the list.

*Mentally map my route to make one circle and not waste gas.

*Go to Publix and ONLY get what is on the list. - 10 minutes
*Go to Kroger and ONLY get what is on the list. - 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the checkout line.
*Go to CVS and ONLY get what is on the list. - 5 to 10 minutes.

As a general rule, I can feed my family of 5 on $75 to $80 a week, including all toiletries and miscellaneous household items. It takes me roughly 2 to 2 1/2 hours per week, including the shopping itself. This saves me a LOT of time. Before I shopped with a list and did my research before leaving the house, I made 3 to 4 trips to the store every week to pick up forgotten or needed things. I also ended up spending lots of extra money on impulse buys.

No additional expenditures on gas because I plan my route to maximize fuel economy. I also don't have to make those emergency runs to the store during the week anymore, so I am actually SAVING money on gas. I shop for gas at the grocery store, so I don't have to make extra trips to stop for that either.

Happy Dance Note: Yesterday I was out and about and stopped at Kroger just because I had cereal coupons. I got 4 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats and 2 bunches of bananas for $.94 ...behold, the power of coupons.

**If you sign up at Grocery Game, please list sunshinedavidson @ gmail.com in the referral link.

Weekend - The Ramble

This has been an interesting weekend. YL15 finally turned 15 on Saturday. We had an Anime Sleepover Party for her. Half a dozenish of her friends showed up, some with their Anime DVDs, bearing gifts and hugs and sleeping bags. There was sushi, Yu Gi Oh matches, Anime movies, pillow fights, lots of Rock Band, and giggles until 2 AM when I finally sent them all off to bed.

I'm actually more than a little surprised that we managed to pull off the birthday party on less than $100. YL15 chose everything for the party. She did not want decorations at all. The cake and sushi were from Costco. We picked up tons of fresh vegetables, some lipton vegetable soup mix, and some ranch dressing mix to make a veggie tray with homemade ranch dip and spinach dip for the dinner buffet. We also picked up the fruit for a fruit salad for breakfast (uh... $11.50 for 2/3 of a bowl of fruit salad at Kroger? ... no way). Since when do teenagers want veggie trays and fruit salad? But, hey... I'll take it!

The gas bill came over the weekend. I did a Happy Dance that it was under $100 (we have $150 budgeted), paid the bill and sent a snowflake to the IRS for the difference. I did a little research, and although the bill was less than expected, I'm alarmed at how quickly the natural gas prices are going up. The price went up by $0.45 per BTU in the last year. That's up by 34% in one year. Thank goodness we've been doing our part to reduce usage.

The best part of the weekend for me was Sunday. We spent most of the day, sitting on the front porch sipping coffee (and later in the day just water or soda), listening to the rain, reading the Sunday paper and chatting. I'm not so much the "just sit and relax" type of person, but I thoroughly enjoyed my day. I finished my book and listened to Wes talk politics with my sister. We all smiled and shared a moment that only adults can share when we heard the pillow fight and giggling fits break out in the living room full of teenaged girls. All Sundays should be so perfect.

Earth Day Post

Today is Earth Day! Although, to be honest, we've been slowly working toward making every day a more Earth friendly day at Momma's house. It's very interesting to me that most of the environmentally friendly changes that we can make in our lives are also very budget friendly.

Utilities:

• Last year, we started replacing our light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lighting as the regular bulbs burned out.
• We desperately needed a new washing machine last fall, so we replaced it with a more efficient front-end loader. This probably didn't lower the energy usage for the washer, but definitely lowered the energy usage for the dryer, as the clothes had much less water in them after the spin cycle.
• Wes replaced our old thermostat with a new programmable one. This has made a large difference in both gas and electricity bills.
• Recently, I started washing all loads on cold wash/cold rinse cycles.
• I also hang up all socks, underwear, wash clothes, dish clothes, and hand towels, so there are less things going into the dryer.
• I unplug the coffee pot, bean grinder, and toaster every time I go into the kitchen. (Note to self: Probably ought to tell the family, so they don't keep plugging them back in.)
• You may find some great information on this over at Get Rich Slowly. JD is asking the readers for Tips on Energy Conservation

Waste

• We've started composting all of the vegetation we can (cut flowers that have died, table scraps without meat, grass clippings, etc).
• I started a recycling box for paper goods, but plan to research other recyclables for this area and find out how to keep from sending out an overflowing container full of trash to the curb every week. Lynnae at Being Frugal wrote a great post about Recycling and what is recyclable in her area. I learned some stuff from it!
• The children and I have been gathering clothing and items we don't or can't use to donate to a local abuse shelter.

Food

• I'm growing a small garden of herbs and vegetables, to cut down on our food bills and provide more organic food options to my family.

Gas

• I combine trips where I can, and buy gas at night, after I complete my shopping.
• I don't generally drive anywhere besides work and home more than twice a week and even then it's not more than 5 miles from the house.
• Although carpooling isn't an option for me, Spilling Buckets is carpooling now, and figures that he is saving about $2100 annually in the process.
• YL15 (in 4 days!) rides her bicycle the 3 miles to school and back every day so that Wes and I don't have to go and pick her up. Bus riding isn't an option for her in the afternoons.

Link Love!

• For some other fabulous posts about Green Living on a budget, check out these blogs!
• Wealth Junkies posts about Going Green in the Wallet
• Frugal Mom LA is Getting on the Green Bandwagon
• My Two Dollars had some other great links in honor of Earth Day too.
• Notes from the Frugal Trenches says Going Green Helps You Be Frugal!

Grocery Shopping - This Week's Results

I'm still in love with the Grocery Game. If you're interested in joining, leave me a comment here and I'll send you a referral. For every 3 referrals that sign up, I will get 12 free weeks. :) Every little bit helps!

And now, for the results:
Publix:
Actual Price - $73.07
Price Paid - $36.25
Saved - $36.82 or 50%

Kroger:
Actual Price - $159.16
Price Paid - $80.89
Saved - $78.27 or 49%

CVS:
Actual Price - $24.74
Price Paid - $9.75
Saved - $14.99 or 61%

Total Savings of $130.08 or 51%

Lemons out of Lemonade

Before I left for work on Monday, I took the easy way out for dinner and put a pork tenderloin roast in the crock pot with some diced tomatoes, garlic, and spices. This pork roast is a favorite of Momma's family, because it means one thing... CARNITAS! I always make 3 meals from our pork roast. First night is homemade Carnitas. The second night is tamales. The third night is barbecue. So, from the first moment that roast goes into the crock pot, we all know what's coming. We all anticipate it with great enthusiasm!

Monday afternoon, upon returning from work, we had a problem. The roast was not done, nowhere near. Having no Plan B, I unplugged the crock pot, gathered Wes and the children, and we all went out for Chinese. When we got home, I put the cooled pot into the refrigerator for a "do over" on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, Wes turned the crock pot back on low and we headed out to our respective days at work again. About 2:00 PM, I received an IM from a friend reminding me that we'd made plans for a cook-out with them that afternoon! OH NO! So, I asked Wes to stop at Costco for grilling meat on his way home, and when I got back to the house, I unplugged the crock pot again.

So, yesterday afternoon, I took the roast out of the refrigerator, shredded the (now overcooked) pork roast, added some more diced tomatoes, a cup of salsa**, half a bottle of barbecue sauce, whole kernel corn, and some Worcestershire sauce. VOILA! Homemade Brunswick Stew! I also made two pans of cornbread. It has to have been the best Brunswick stew ever.
** I use salsa because it's cheaper than keeping fresh tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic on hand, and it saves oodles of time with the prep work.

Even Wes, a BBQ joint connoisseur of Brunswick Stew, was digging into it with enthusiasm. So, hooray for making lemons out of lemonade. Today for lunch, LEFTOVERS. I really can't wait.

The Grocery Game - Unexpected Benefits

I posted last week about The Grocery Game. Since then, I've come to believe it's the smartest move ever!

The Investment
Cash
Each week, I spend $2.35 on a double edition of the Sunday Atlanta Journal Constitution. This gives me two sets of the week's coupons. The cost of the website is $20 every 8 weeks ($10 for the first store and $5 for each additional). So, for the service, I spend $2.50 or $.83 per store per week.
Total expense per week: $4.85

Time
I spend 30 minutes reviewing the list for each store on the Grocery Game website and checking the boxes of the items I'll be purchasing. I choose the option of hiding all of the items I'm not choosing, as well as all supplemental notes on the page, and print the pages.
Then, I get out the coupons and spend an hour organizing them. This includes:
-Labeling the current week's packet of coupons with the date they came out
-Clipping the coupons* for each grocery list I printed
-Putting the coupons and the list in the envelope**
Total Planning time: 1.5 hours

*I only clip the coupon when I need it. It's incredibly simple to keep up with and makes life easier, as all of the coupons on the Grocery Game are listed with the date and circular that the coupons came from. Instead, I write the date of the circular on the front and then use a large rubberband from the newspaper to hold the stack of circulars, then file them in date order when I'm finished clipping.
** I use one envelope for each store so I don't have to dig through the coupons as I shop. I know exactly what I have with me and exactly what I'm buying, so I only have to take the coupons out at the checkout line.

Shopping
The Publix and Kroger are across the street from one another. The CVS is on my way ho me. So, I stop at Publix first, drive across the street to Kroger, then hit CVS on the way home. I make one small circle and there is no running all over town.
Total Shopping Time: 1.5 hours, including driving.

Special note on the shopping time: I now shop with lists, so I don’t forget anything. I no longer have to stop at the store during the week, which saves me about an hour or so every week. This evens out the planning/clipping time completely.

The Benefits
Cash
Between the sales, the coupons, gas, and not stopping the store during the week to pick up random things and adding impulse buys, I save about $100 - $150 a week.

UPROMISE
SO many of the name brand items that I have coupons for are also UPromise items. These are things I would never buy the name brands of before it was exceptionally more affordable. (Rice A Roni for $.12 a box this week.) Not only do I get the food at insanely low prices, but I get a percentage of the original price applied to the children’s UPromise accounts.

School Donation
Another benefit of being able to buy name brand items at incredibly low prices are the Boxtops For Education labels. A good percentage of items I have coupons for have these labels. Our PTA program receives $.10 for every Boxtop redeemed. This is not a direct benefit to me, but it definitely helps out our children.

Other Donations
There are, often times, coupons and sale prices that combine to make the price of the items FREE. Except that, some of these free items, no matter how great, are not a good fit for our family. Diapers, Formula, and Cat Food are not items we will ever need. Wes is allergic to cats, and our baby days are far long gone. Rather than let these deals go to waste, I go ahead and get the free items and donate them to animal and people shelters. If one wanted to work the system, these donations are tax deductible at market value. I haven’t done this, but if it turns out that I make enough of these donations, I may just go for it.

I'm sure I'll post about this again, as I get ramped up. But, let me just say that my freezer and pantry are filling up. There is less money going out the door for food. My children are loving the variety of new things I'm stocking, and I'm saving enough money that I don't have to scrimp when it comes to rising food prices on fruit, milk, eggs, and meat.

Recipes

I have a love of cooking and fun recipes. I have almost a dozen cookbooks, but only one that we use religiously. It's a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with all the basic instructions for types of food and base recipes in the front of each section. This has, many times, been invaluable to me.

I also have a drawer full of printed pages from various websites I use to track down recipes for specific things. This houses our favorite Tilapia recipe, the Cranberry Crumb Pie that we are required to bring to all gatherings between November 1st and New Year's Eve every year, and a few dozen hand written attempts at keeping track of my waffle recipes.

One thing that most of my recipe favorites have in common is simplicity. They have basic but versatile ingredients and I don't have to stock exotic items to have our favorite meals. They don't require a lot of steps to make wholesome and fun meals for my family.

Recently, I was hanging out a friend, pilfering her basement for interesting items for our upcoming costume party, and spotted FOUR boxes of the old recipe cards from the 60s/70s. Noticing my interest (squeal of delight), she kindly offered (was thrilled to be rid of) them to me. Since then, I have been happily experimenting with these recipes. One thing I've noticed is that the ingredient lists are much simpler than anything in my cook books.

My family loves the foods I've been experimenting with. They are relatively inexpensive and quite likely to use ingredients I have on hand, or need to use up anyway. I have a feeling we'll be adding a few new frugal and fun favorites to our lists.