Friday, August 12, 2011

The Shopping

So ... here's how we do our food budget.  It does take time, but I'm on the go most days anyway.  Some things are just a quick run in for one thing, so while this looks like it's horribly time consuming, it's really not.

Monday, I usually run to Walgreens for a few of their great deals -- anything that's free or super cheap, I will usually get if it's something we can or will use.  Also Monday, I pay for a produce co-op online (bountifulbaskets.org) and pick it up on Saturday mornings.  It takes just a couple minutes on Monday to pay and about 15 to pick up, depending on how busy it is.  We get a lot of fruits and veggies, but it's all random.  We often run out of fruit before the next Saturday because we eat more fruit than veggies, so we've figured out that when I go couponing on Tuesdays, I need to grab some from Walmart (price matching the best prices from whatever grocery store) OR price match the produce sale at Buy-Low on Wednesday or Thursday. 

Tuesday, the local Walmarts double coupons up to a dollar, so I go there for whatever is free or cheap.  In our state, there were milk coupons (only available to use if you live in Utah or Idaho) for 75 cents off a gallon.  My printer was wonky, but I did manage to print 3 coupons (2 from one computer and one from the other), and got three gallons of milk for $1.38 each.  I grabbed a couple other things as I ran through the store and only spent $8.  That's pretty normal for me. 

A friend of mine called me a couple days later to see if I was going to our local grocery store's meat sale.  Yes, yes indeed.  See, Buy-Low has amazing prices on different meats every Friday and Saturday, and Wednesday and Thursday they do produce sales.  So she went to Walmart and price matched the produce and grabbed some for me.  She gave me some $ and I went to the meat sale today and got the meat she wanted.  I also picked up some stuff for my mom.  There was a pork rib coupon online (that expired today) for $2 off two pounds or more, and their ribs were $1.79 per pound.  They were packages of 2.5 to 4 pounds.  I had 6 coupons and mom had 4, so we got a LOT of meat for not much money.

Since the husband gets paid on Friday, I do the meat run and other shopping on Friday.  Sometimes I go to Walmart and price match, but other times I just go to a local store.  But first?  I check grocerysmarts.com for my area and see which stores have the best coupon deals for what we need, OR what we will need coming up.

This week, I just stayed at Buy-Low and got:
17 pounds of pork ribs (approximately)
11 pounds ground chicken
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken legs
3 pounds ground beef
2 pounds cheese
4 boxes fruit snacks
2 boxes fruit rollups
2 boxes cereal (I stocked up on cereal at Smith's a little while ago so didn't get lots)
4 packages cookie mix
2 boxes granola bars
4 boxes toaster strudel
1 bag bugles
1 bag chex mix
1 box of 100 poxiples (how my son says popsicles)
green onions

I spent $80.22 out of pocket for all of that and saved about $30 just in coupons -- I have no idea how much I saved on the meat.  My produce from my friend was only $1.50 for 6 nectarines and 6 pears, so not too bad at all.

Stay tuned for Monday:  The Cooking!

4 comments:

musicmom said...

Holy Smokes girl!! You are amazing. Sounds like it is worth it to me. I sure wish there was more than just 1 grocery store (Albertsons) here. I spent $80 on just a bag or two. :( I am 2 hours away from good shopping. But some day I will move back to civilization and take a book from your coupon-ing. SOunds like fun to me.

Kristina P. said...

OK, I need to go shopping with you. You got so much meat!

I am a new food shopper. Adam and I have eaten out almost daily for probably 3-4 years.

I've known how much we spend but basically ignored it, until I've been doing a really solid budget during our house hunting and just can't ignore it anymore. There is no reason why I can't cook and make meals we can take to work.

So, I stocked up this week on tons of groceries and am planning a lot of meals I can make and freeze. Just bought a couple of rotisserie chickens tonight, and shredded them up for soup and enchiladas.

My issue is coupons. I want to be able to know what to do, and even signed up for a coupon site, but it seems like a lot of work and for various reasons I need to blog about, I ended up spending more damn money trying to get coupons, than I saved.

stewbert said...

I am somewhat sickened by how much we have spent (that we didn't have!) on eating out over the last depressing year or so. lol. Things are better now.

Laura, Albertsons is one of THE most expensive stores, but they can have good coupon deals. At least, that's how it was here when they existed here, but they don't anymore.

KP, that was just *my* meat in that $80. My mom got about 10? pounds of ribs, and my friend got about 10 pounds of ground chicken. They both paid right around $13. Buy Low is in Provo, but you can price match their stuff at Walmart! here's the ad. http://www.buylowmarket-utah.com/weekly-specials.php You can come couponing with me sometime, just let me know. Or there are free classes around; this lady does some and can get you some good deals on subscribing to the paper (saves $ versus newsstand prices).
http://savvyshopperdeals.com/utah/article_dd0b08f8-3c26-11df-9f58-001cc4c03286.html

Danielle said...

that is AMAZING!!!!! I wish you could hop in that darn teleporting machine and come shop with me! (actually vice versa, as it seems like there are better deals where you are!)