Saturday Savings 7/23 - The School Supply Edition

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.

Yesterday was such a rush this is the only picture I got and I got this one today.

This week turned out a lot better than it could have been, but I must admit the big savings total you see at the end is coming almost exclusively from school supplies.  I went over by $5 this week, but I spent over $14 on school supplies, so I will take that.  I would also like to pat myself on the back for scratching some things off my list when I knew I was going to go over budget. 

As far as stockpiling goes my main stockpiling items are the school supplies you see above.  I will use most of these in my classroom and I will keep a few for the kids as the year progresses (Grandma likes to take the kids and get their initial supplies).  I also bought a ton of yellow peppers, squash and zucchini that I need to cut up and freeze before they go bad - they were all marked down.  I was also able to get some shampoo, conditioner, and a toothbrush for my toiletry stockpile.  Those were free with expiring ExtraBucks.  Lastly, I got some snack and freezer baggies to use during the school year.  Well, here is the rest of it.  I hope you had a good week shopping!

22-Jul
CVS
Pantene Shamp & Cond.	$6.97	$3 off 2 coup.
Colgate toothbrush	$2.79	$1 coup.
5 packs of pens	$2.50
		Used $8 in ExtraBucks
Total Spent	$1.00
Total Saved	$26.06
Total Coupons	$4.00
Extra Bucks Earned	$4.00
Walgreens
30 - 10 packs pencils	$5.70
5 - 10 packs of mech. Pencils	$1.90
Total Spent	$8.06
Total Saved	$39.00
Kroger
10 - 10 packs pens	$3.34
10 notebooks	$1.50
6 crayons	$1.50
5 Sargento Cheese	$9.40	$4.55 in coupons
Sea Salt	$1.69
Popcorn	$2.69
2 Org. Garbanzo Beans	$1.98
3 - 2 liters Diet Soda	$2.37
2 Dannon Yogurt	$3.76	2 - $1 coupons
2 Kroger Mandarin Org.	$1.54
Watermelon	$4.99	my splurge!!!
Choc. Chips	$2.29
2 Kroger Pretzels	$2.50
1.05 lbs. Tom	$1.55
3lbs. Onions	$1.98
2 Mangoes	$2.00
2 Cascadian Farms Cereal	$6.38	$1 coupon
4.91lbs. Org. bananas	$2.70
Mushrooms	$2.07
1.94 lbs. org. apples	$3.07
2.54 lbs. oranges	$2.51
2 org. strawberries	$5.98
2 pints org. tom.	$5.00	$1 coupon off organics
Total Spent	$64.76
Total Saved	$58.69
Total Coupons	$8.55
Meijer
Zucchini - markdown	$1.07
3 org. green beans	$3.27
Yellow Squash - markdown	$1.28
2lbs. Org. carrots	$1.99
Yellow Peppers - markdown	$3.02
3lbs. Org. potatoes	$3.99
Dog Food	$11.78	$2 coupon
3 Cucumbers	$1.00
2 - 5lbs. Flour	$5.98
4 pints of blueberries	$6.00
4 - bags org. romaine	$8.00
Hormel natural turkey	$2.50	$1 coupon
5 Meijer salad dressings	$5.00
3 plastic baggies	$3.75
Total Spent	$56.56
Total Saved	$26.44
Total Coupons	$3.00
Total Weekly Spending	$130.38
Total Weekly Savings	$150.19
Total Coupons	$15.55
Total for July	$500.08
Budget	over by 5.38
Monthly budget	over by .08
Yearly Spending	$2,197.11

This is linked to the Grocery Cart Challenge.