Making Cents Of It All

Our regular grocery budget is $500 a month. That is for 4 adults. Hubby has a dairy allergy, YD can't eat gluten and I am on a low sodium diet. This includes all of our food, cleaning and hygiene items. I was hoping to spend $100 or less in January. Our pantry is full and so were the freezers. But plans change sometimes. I came across a great sale on ground beef that I couldn't pass up. And then a friend let me know of a sale on chicken breasts that were 99¢ a pound. YD and I went to see if anything was left.  And there was. I ended up getting 44 pounds of chicken cutlets. YD lives on chicken so she was very happy about this.  I repackaged everything into smaller bags for future meals.   I also bought 2 juices that were on sale and GF bagels. The total was $56.68. My previous total was $125.54.  My new total is $188.22. I am good with that. I bought 80+ pounds of meat this month.  What did you buy this week? 

I ended last week at $100.53. I have upped my amount to $150. Let's see what I got this week. I went to BJ's and got milk, soy milk and bananas. We eat a lot of bananas.  I went to Meat Farms later in the week. More bananas, other fruit and veggies. Hubby asked for OJ. I bought the bread because we had pasta and meatballs for dinner.  My total was $12.35. Total for the month is at $125.54.  I made sausage and peppers. My son wanted it on pasta so that is what I did. I used peppers that I had frozen over the summer.  I made a pot of sauce and Hubby made his meatballs, putting the ground beef that I got on sale to good use. I forgot to take a picture. These 2 containers went into the freezer for future easy meals.  I made chicken rice soup. I was sweating the veggies first. We had tacos, breakfast for dinner, chili from the freezer and leftovers throughout the week. We had steal cut oats for breakf...

I was at $19.45 from last  week . Let's see how I did this week.  I ran to Stop and Shop for a few items. I had some good digital coupons that I wanted to use. The Kind bar was free. The sugar was 19¢. Total spent at Stop and Shop was $5.35. I was making a chick pea salad and ran out of Oregano. Hubby was out at the time so I asked him to stop at Dollar Tree. He got english muffins too. $2 spent at Dollar Tree. I stopped at Dollar Tree later in the week. We were running low on tissues. I got a few other things while I was there.  I spent $15.95.  I went to Aldi's for eggs and fruit. This is where I went off track.  I bought 32+ pounds of  ground beef . I spent $38.36 on it. Eggs were 96¢ a dozen. The cheeses were $1.99 each. The bananas were $1.17. Milk was $2.89. Potatoes were 4.29. Oranges were $2.29. The onions apparently didn't ring in. I didn't notice until I was home. Total spent was $57.78. I did...

I am addicted to food shopping! There I said it. I love food shopping. I love matching coupons with sales. I love going through the clearance racks. I love checking every department to see what is marked down when all I needed is bread.  I went to Aldi for eggs. They are on sale for 96¢ a dozen this week. I also wanted to get some fruit and veggies. Aldi is on my way home from work so it isn't out of the way. I made the mistake of looking at the meat department. I saw lots of red mark down stickers. If you shop at Aldi, you know them. They put them on the items that they want to get rid of soon. Well, the next thing I know, I am checking out with 32 pounds of ground beef.  Each pack had $7 off in coupons. They all were priced at a little over $13.  I got 35.27 pounds of ground beef for $38.36. That comes to $1.18 a pound. I couldn't help myself. I am supposed to be doing a $100 grocery challenge. That isn't going to happen, so I am going to try to sta...

Whenever I do a challenge like this, I immediately run out of something. I thought I had another Smart Balance in the freezer but I can't find it. I went to BJ's and spent $19.45 for the week. All of the prices are below.  We ate very well this week. I cooked a turkey that I bought before Thanksgiving for 39¢ a pound. It was a 16 pounder. We have gotten several meals out of it. It was the 4 of us and YD boyfriend. I brought a meal to a friend. She started working a second job so she doesn't have a lot of time to cook. I also brought a meal to the gentlemen I help.  Hubby sliced the breast meat very thin to use for sandwiches this week. I made stock from the bones and made a batch of turkey soup too. We ate some for dinner and some for lunch the next day. Again I brought some to the man I help. The rest of the turkey I froze for future meals.  Hubby was in the mood for chili so I made up a pot. We always put it on rice. 3 containers went into t...