Saturday Savings

Each week our family of four attempts to maintain a $125 grocery budget.  Generally speaking, this includes as much organic dairy and produce as our budget will allow and the stores carry.  I try to buy our meat from a local grocer who is supplied by an Amish community in Ohio.  Although it is not organic meat, I think it is pretty close, without being outrageously priced.  When our budget and grocery list allow I try to stockpile as much as I can.  Items stockpiled are highlighted in yellow below.  We rarely eat out and I am learning to cook from scratch (it's an on-going process :), you could say cooking is not one of my talents.

It was interesting week shopping.  I'm not sure whether I did well or not so well.  I definitely got some good deals & I know I saved a fair amount, but I was also over budget and will only have $100 for next week. 

The highligts include tuna for $1 a can, 6 - 16oz bags of choc. chips for $1.38 each, 2 bags of peanuts for $1.79 each, 2 bags of dog food for $8.50 each (dog food has gotten so expensive) & 3 - 6 packs of Ivory soap for 19 cents each. 

26-Aug
CVS
2 BB Solid White Tuna	$3.00	$1 coupon
Lipstick	$6.99	$3 coupon
		$6 in Register Rewards
Total Spent	$0.41	(tax only baby!!!)
Total Saved	$12.48
Total Coupons	$10.00
RR earned	$5.00
Walgreens
5 cans Solid White Tuna	$4.95	Walgreens coupon
Notebook	$0.15	Walgreens Coupon
Total Spent	$5.11
Total Saved	$5.04
Total Coupons	$5.04
Kroger
2 lg. tubs Cottage Cheese	$3.98
1/2 gal. Org. Milk	$3.19
3 2 liters soda	$2.37
Applesauce	$1.39
Org. Eggs	$3.99	$1 coupon
16oz Cheese	$3.29
2 Org. Cereal	$6.38	$1 coupon
3 Org. Garbanzo Beans	$2.67
Watermelon	$3.99
Org. Yogurt	$3.50
4.11 lbs. Bananas	$2.64
Celery	$1.52
Org. Butter	$4.99
Frozen Org. Mango	$3.35
Org. Apples	$1.99
Total Spent	$47.38
Total Saved	$7.40
Total Coupons	$2.00
Meijer
3 3 packs of Ivory Soap	$3.57	3 - $1 coupons
4 Suave Bodywash	$8.00	2 - $1 coupons
3 Cucumbers	$1.50
Org. Pizza Sauce	$1.50
Org. Romaine	$6.98	$2 coupon
1 pint Grape Tom.	$2.50
$25 Gift Card	$25.00	$3 coupon
2.31 lbs. Grapes	$2.29
4 Cans Org. Green Beans	$3.96
2 Hebrew All Beef Hot Dogs	$5.00
2 Org. Strawberries	$5.00
2 Blueberries	$5.00
2 Dog Food	$19.98	2 - $1.50 coupons
Red Pepper	$1.00
6 pack Pepsi Max	$3.34
3 Brownie Crunch Cereal	$7.50	3 - $1 coupons
4 Progresso Soup	$5.00
3 Pretzels	$3.00
4 Pepperoni	$4.00
2 Cans of Pineapple	$2.00
6 Bags of Choc. Chips	$8.22
2 Bags of Peanuts	$3.58
		Body Wash was buy 4 get 1 free
		$1 of Health & Beauty
Total Spent	$110.18
Total Saved	$53.00
Total Coupons	$15.00
Local Meat
1 lb. Cheese	$5.95
1 lb. Bacon	$4.18
2 lbs. Chicken	$6.88
Total Spent	$17.01
Total Weekly Spending	$149.57	Subtracted $25 gift card
Total Savings	$60.40
Total Coupons	$17.00
Total for August	$523.57
Budget	Over by $24.57
Monthly budget	over by 24.84
Yearly Spending	$2,851.73

CVS & Walgreens Trips

My favorite part of Christmas (well the gift giving part of Christmas) is stockings.  When I was a little kid my mom knitted my brother and I these HUGE stockings.  They were HUGE to begin with, but they also stretched to way beyond our height!  It was awesome.  I would wake up early and rush to get my stocking, which we were allowed to open before everyone else got up.  It would be filled with all kinds of stuff, from underwear and socks to nail polish or books.  All of it was little stuff, but I loved every bit of and usually more than any of my presents.  It was just fun stuff. 

Fastforward many years and I am now one of the people responsible for filling stockings and unfortunately times have gotten a bit tougher.  We are all tight on money.  A couple of years ago we decided we would just do stockings for the kids.  It made me so sad, it still makes me sad because stockings are still my favorite part.  So, in keeping with my new "frugal fashion" I have been saving all of my drugstore/grocery store free stuff to create stockings for the adults.  I have so much and a suprisingly wide range of items.  I will have to show you sometime soon.  But the reason I am telling you all of this stuff is to say that I have been so disappointed in what the drugstores have had on sale lately.  It seems like all I can add lately are toothbrushes and toothpaste and I "gotta"  tell you I already have plenty of them.  So I have been abstaining from many of the drugstores' deals lately and just buying the things we need in terms of groceries.  That is what I did this week and I'm pretty excited about how it turned out:

Ignore my dirty counters, please :)

CVS
2 BB Solid White Tuna	$3.00	$1 coupon
Lipstick	$6.99	$3 coupon
		$6 in Register Rewards
Total Spent	$0.41	(tax only baby!!!)
Total Saved	$12.48
Total Coupons	$10.00
RR earned	$5.00
Walgreens
5 cans Solid White Tuna	$4.95	Walgreens coupon
Notebook	$0.15	Walgreens Coupon
Total Spent	$5.11
Total Saved	$5.04
Total Coupons	$5.04

One Way I Haven't Been Completely Frugal Lately

I have an addiction, well probably a few, but the one I am talking about here is BOOKS.  I love books and it probably stems from my love of education (its the teacher in me).  Well, I recently went to one of my favorite bookstores - Half-Price Books, in search of a book for my mom.  Unfortunately, they did not have it, but they had a lot of what I was looking for!  Just about each of these are for my classroom,

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - such a good read!!!!  I loved this book and have been waiting to find a copy at Half-Price Books and it is a hard cover which is good because it will get lots of use! 
• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - I know, I know the controversies revolving around this book, but it really is a good read and lots of information about substance abuse and recovery and remember MOST of it is true.
• A User's Guide to the Brain by John J Ratey - This is really just to help this poor social studies teacher who has to teach a bunch of biology.  Don't feel too bad for me, this is what I find most fascinating about psychology.
• Lit by Mary Karr - This is another substance abuse book.  Lately I have been avoiding these because it often seems like if you have read one, you have read them all.  But this one comes highly recommended.
• TWEAK by Sheff - Another substance abuse book, but it is about Meth and I need to know more info about it since it has become such an epidemic.
• Weekends at Bellvue by Holland - This sounds so interesting!!!!  It is a psych ward doctor's account of nine years on the night shift in the psych ER.  I have read a similar book to this and I learned so much about various different psych disorders.  I hope this one is just as educational.
• Manic by Cheney - A Memoir about Bipolar Disorder.  My students often understand so little about this disorder, so I hope it will serve as a good example.
• Flow by Csikszentmihalyi - A peer of mine talks about Flow all the time and although I have a general idea of what it is for the most part I just shake my head and pretend I understand what she is talking about.  So I finally bought the book she loves and now I can discuss it intelligently, I hope :).
• Chew on This by Schlosser and Wilson - A book about what we eat today.
• Clean by Junger - "The revolutionary program to restore the body's natural ability to heal itself."  I can't wait.  I read part of it and was fascinated.
• Enough by Thurow and Kilman - "Why the worlds poorest starve in an age of plenty."  This is the social studies teacher in me.  When I taught geography I would read these books and then come in and share with my students and I promise it made the sometimes boring study of geography MUCH more interesting!
• This Land is Their Land by Ehrenreich - I read her book "Nickle & Dimed" and really enjoyed it and was quite happy to find another one by her. 
• The Developing Child by Bee - This is a textbook just to help my background knowledge or if I ever run into a question I don't have an answer to. 

Total amount set back (don't tell my husband!) - $67

Was it a frugal purchase?  Maybe, I can deduct it off my taxes, I got a 10% educator discount and I bought all but one at a used bookstore, but I probably would have been better off financially if I had not splurged quite so much!  Just a book or two would have been better. 

What have you read this summer that wowed you?  I would love to hear!

Friday Night Shopping, But it Took Me Until Monday to Post :)

Each week our family of four attempts to maintain a $125 grocery budget.  Generally speaking, this includes as much organic dairy and produce as our budget will allow and the stores carry.  I try to buy our meat from a local grocer who is supplied by an Amish community in Ohio.  Although it is not organic meat, I think it is pretty close, without being outrageously priced.  When our budget and grocery list allow I try to stockpile as much as I can.  Items stockpiled are highlighted in yellow below.  We rarely eat out and I am learning to cook from scratch (it's an on-going process :), you could say cooking is not one of my talents.

I unfortunately skipped a week of Saturday Savings last week (still adjusting to working), but I did track it and I stayed under budget.  This week I was a bit over budget, but I stocked up on meat, so I was ok with that.  Here are the totals:

19-Aug
Meijer
4 Cucumbers	$2.00
2.43 lbs. grapes	$4.59
2lbs Organic Carrots	$1.99	$1 coupon
Yoplait Yogurt	$1.99	$1 coupon
Baking Powder	$2.39
1lb org. baby carrots	$1.50	$1 coupon
Org. Potatoes	$3.99
Porkloin	$7.55
Dog Food	$11.49	$1.50 coupon
1.25 lbs tomatoes	$1.25
3 can org. Green Beans	$2.97
3 cans org. Corn	$2.97
Unbleached Flour	$2.49
Cantaloupe	$1.50
3 Quarts Stb.	$4.50
Watermelon	$3.99
1 pint grape tomatoes	$2.00
Frozen Chx. Breasts	$4.99
2 Red Peppers	$2.50
2 Tissues	$2.00	$1 coupon
2 Freezer Bags	$2.00
2 Blueberries	$5.00
2 Shredded Cheese	$4.00	$1 coupon
2 Org. Romaine	$4.18	$2 coupon
3lbs. Pork Chops	$9.22
Total Spent	$83.43
Total Saved	$33.60
Total Coupons	$8.50
Kroger
Unbleached Whole WW Flour	$3.99
3 Pretzels	$3.00
1/2 gal. Org. Milk	$3.19
Mom's Cereal	$2.00
Cascadian Granola	$3.19
Dial Soap	$0.88	.70 coupon
Cooking Spray	$1.98
2 Guacamole	$3.78	$1.50 coupon
6 pack Pepsi	$2.75
Org. Eggs	$3.99	$1 coupon
Org. Potatoes	$2.49
Mango	$1.00
Total Spent	$31.57
Total Saved	$7.01
Total Coupons	$3.20
Local Meat Store
2.49lbs Chx Breasts	$8.19
1lb Bacon	$3.99
1lb Sausage	$3.42
Total Spent	$15.60
Total Weekly Spending	$130.60
Total Savings	$40.61
Total Coupons	$11.70
Total for August	$374.73
Budget	Over by $5.60
Monthly budget	Over by .27
Yearly Spending	$2,702.16

This is linked to The Grocery Cart Challenge.