Grocery Spending: August Round-Up

So, here we are at the end of August. Oy! This past Sunday was my 3rd week of couponing to help reduce our monthly grocery budget.  Since it was the last week in the month, I had planned for this week to be the "freezer week."  Meaning, mainly eating meals that I had froze earlier in the month, or using ingredients (mostly meats) that were previously froze.  I did want to get one fresh meal this week, so this is our meal plan:

Monday: Shrimp rolls (think Lobster Rolls, but with shrimp) with chips - Fresh
Tuesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce (meat was frozen, sauce and noodles from pantry), garlic bread (bought, frozen) and salad (fresh)
Wednesday: Chicken enchiladas. Chicken is coming from the freezer, just had to buy some sauce, cheese and tortillas.  This will yield one batch for dinner and another for a future freezer meal
Thursday: South of the Border Quiche (freezer) with salad (fresh).

For this week's shopping trip I had a whole stack of coupons ready to use, but it turned out that the generic brand prices beat my coupon prices so I think I only used 1 coupon this week.  Since so many of the meals were already in the freezer, this was a very light week - as was the plan. 

This week's deals:

Safeway Brand Mexican Cheese: Original Price = $2.99
E-coupon: -$1
Total Cost: $1.99, Savings of $1


Mama Bella Brand Frozen Garlic Bread (2 loaves): Original Price = $4.29
On sale for: $2.99
Manuf. coupon: -.50
Doubled: -.50
Total Cost: $1.99, Savings of $2.30

Shrimp: Original Price = $5.06
On sale for: $3.22
Savings of $1.84

Told ya there was nothing exciting this week...


Total Cost Before Coupons: $54.41
Total amount of coupons and e-coupons: $2.00 (ha!)
Loyalty card savings: $13.70
Total Savings: $15.70


Total Cost: $38.71

Total Savings: 30%

AUGUST TOTALS:

Week 1 (hadn't started couponing yet) = $85.34
Week 2 (couponing begins!) = $64.21
Week 3 = $56.08
Incidental (Tide was on sale Friday only for $5, I had a $1 off coupon, so I made a special trip) = $4.00
Week 4 = $38.71

GRAND TOTAL FOR AUGUST: $248.34

Compared to July ($430.84): Reduced our grocery spending by $182.50!!
42% Reduction thanks to couponing and freezer meals!

Let's hope September brings some great deals and we can keep this up. And for fun, here is a picture of what it looks like when I plan for the week.  Surrounded by grocery ads, my coupon stack, my grocery list, a cookbook and my computer to look up e-coupons. Takes about 2 hours to complete my list.

Week 2 of Couponing

Alrighty, so week 2 wasn't as good as the previous week, but still a good amount of savings nonetheless.  One thing I forgot about last week was to give you my meal plans so you can see what we're eating compared to what it cost.  So this bill was for the week that just past, and here is the meal plan:

Monday: Homemade (well, mostly) pepperoni and mushroom pizza
Tuesday: Steak (cheap ones!) with fried zucchini and oven fries
Wednesday: Hot dogs with tomato and cucumber salad
Thursday: Typically, I would make a 4th meal here, but we had a dress rehearsal and just had to pick something up on the way.

Freezer Meal: South of the Border Quiche with mainly left over ingredients from the previous week.

Note: I was given the largest zucchini known to man by a coworker that we ate some of on Tuesday and the rest is now transformed into 3 (!!) zucchini breads which are in the oven as I type this.

Ok, on to the deals!


Orbit Gum: One pack was on sale for .69 and another was 1.39 = 2.08
Manuf. Coupon: -.50 off of 2 packs
Doubled: -.50
Total Cost: $1.08, Savings of $1.00

Wishbone Dressing: Original Price =  $3.39 each, $6.78 for 2
Sale: Buy one get one free
E-Coupon: -$2.00 when you buy 2
Manuf. Coupon: -.50
Doubled: -.50
Total Cost: $.39, or just .19 each! Savings of $6.39!

Pillsbury Pizza Refrigerated Pizza Crust: Original Price = $3.29
E-coupon: -$1.30
Manuf. Coupon: -.40
Doubled: -.40
Total Cost: $1.19, Savings of $2.10

Precious Brand String Cheese Sticks Pack of 16: Original Price = 5.99
E-coupons: -$3.00
Total Price: $2.99, Savings of $3.00

5lb Bag of Russet Potatoes: Original Price = $2.99
Safeway Mailer Coupon: .49 ea!
Total Cost: .49, Savings of $2.50!

Safeway Brand Wheat Bread: Original Price = $1.79
Coupon: -$1.00
Total Cost: .79, Savings of $1.00

Safeway Brand Hot Dog Buns: Original Price = 1.49
Coupon: -$1.00 (this was the same coupon as above for $1 off any safeway bread. 1 coupon that applied to multiple items)
Total Cost: .49, Savings of  $1.00

Athenos Feta: Original Price = $4.49
E-coupon: -$1
Total Cost: $3.49, Savings of $1.00

I also had a coupon on some cereal this week, but it was nothing spectacular.  Then I also had another $10 off Safeway mailer coupon which are always awesome.  Then we got the usual stuff: milk, stuff for lunches, fruit, some toiletries, etc. Here's what it boiled down to:


Total Cost Before Coupons: $93.68
Total amount of coupons and e-coupons: $26.40
Loyalty Card Savings: $11.20
Total Savings: $37.60

TOTAL COST: $56.08
TOTAL SAVINGS: 42%

Not So Extreme Couponing

Recently, I have been examining our budgets and spending, and realized that we spend a butt-ton of money on groceries.  For instance, in July, we spent $430 at the grocery store! We are only 2 people and I only cook 4 meals a week, what the heck is going on?  Now, this does also include toiletries and household items, so it's not just food, but it still seems like a lot.  I meal plan every week, almost always buy generic and rarely buy things that aren't on sale, but still can't seem to save enough money.

So I decided to try to make some changes.  I checked out a few books at the library that included topics like: Freezer meals, $5 dollar dinner ideas, strategic grocery shopping and 600 ways to reduce your grocery budget.  For the most part, all of the "tips" were either things I already did or were aware of, so nothing groundbreaking.  However, it did motivate me to try harder. My plan for the next few months will be this:

• Try to make one freezer meal a week or freeze an extra package of meat, etc. (by doing this, I am hoping that 1 week per month we can simply eat out of the freezer and only buy a few fresh things at the store)
• Try harder to match coupons with weekly sales
• Strive to use ingredients in more than one meal a week (if one meal uses cilantro, try to use that cilantro on at least one other meal to reduce waste and avoid buying more ingredients)
• Seek out different stores (Walgreens and Target) for toiletries and such because they tend to be cheaper than at our grocery store.

So this past weekend was my first shot at my new plan.  Some things to note: I had a BOGO coupon for some meat that my grocery store didn't carry (ANNOYING!), so I wasn't able to put something in the freezer this week.  Other than that, I had $5 dinner recipe on my list and was manned with some special store coupons from a Safeway mailer. Here are the highlights from my grocery bill:

Honey Nut Cheerios (big box): Original Price: 4.79 
-On sale for: 3.33.
-E-coupon my store loyalty card (will be referenced as "J4U" (just for you) from here forth) -.34
-Manufacturer coupon: -.75, "doubled" up to a dollar, so an additional -.25
Total Cost: $1.99, Savings of $2.80

Crunchy Nut Cereal: Original Price: 3.99
-Manu. coupon -.75, doubled for an additional -.25
Total Cost: 2.99 (ok, that wasn't that cool), Savings of $1.00


Soda: Coke was Buy 2, Get 2 free - and yes, we drink that much soda
Original Price for 4 = $24
Total Price: $12, Savings of $12

Freezer Sale: Buy $15 worth of frozen items and get $5 off
So we got 4 Lean Cuisines for lunches at $10
We got some 2 personal pizzas, again for lunches, $3
So, you're thinking, you didn't spend the $15. True, but we also bought ice cream (see below) that qualified us for the deal.  So, we really got all this for only $8. 

Breyers Ice Cream: Original Price = $5.99
On Sale for $2.99
E-coupon for $3 Off
Total Price: FREE! Woohoo!

Store Mailer Coupon: Every month or so, Safeway mails out these coupons that feature 1 item for 3 different meals.  This month it was bacon, so there were coupons for breakfast items, BLT items and loaded baked potato items.  Well, I'm only making the breakfast meal, but I can use some of the same ingredients of the other meals:

Safeway Eggs, 1 dozen: $1.24 with a -.75 coupon
Safeway Shredded Cheese: $.99 with a -1.50 coupon
Safeway Orange Juice: $1.50 with a -.50 coupon
Safeway Sour Cream, 16oz: $.88 with -.67 (??) coupon

Blueberries: BOGO
2 pints of blueberries, original price: $10
Total cost: $5, savings of $5

Catalina (printed at register) coupon from a previous shopping trip: $10 OFF

Then we got a bunch of other stuff, mostly produce, canned goods and some toiletries, but the above were the best savings.  Here's the grand total:

Total Cost Before Coupons: $116.34
Total amount of Coupons and E-coupons: $24.76
Loyalty Card Savings: $27.37
Total Savings: $52.13

TOTAL COST: $64.21

TOTAL SAVINGS: 46%

Certainly not the crazy 96% savings you see on Extreme Couponing, but this is a personal best for me! Almost half off my grocery bill is pretty dang good! Assuming I can keep this up for a month, I can reduce my monthly grocery bill by $200 a month.  Let's see if I can actually do it...stay posted!