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...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year. Sorry for the long blog silence. All is well here, we have just been busy. Something had to give so I stopping blogging for a little while. Now that the holidays are over, I have more time. Hopefully I will be able to write more often.  2020 has lots of exciting things ahead. The biggest one being Oldest Daughter's wedding this summer. The venue is booked, the DJ and photographer are booked. The wedding dress is ordered and the first fitting is at the end of the month. YD already got her bridesmaid dress. We just found shoes so now we can take her for her fitting. I have looked at a few dresses but haven't found the one yet. Save the dates went out. My next project is planning the bridal shower. I am doing one in NY and OD's future MIL is doing one in Maryland. We think it will be easier that way.  Hubby and I made our budget for the year. We did great in 2019. We are paying for part of the wedding, for the bridal shower, ...

We went to upstate NY for part of last week. We wanted to enjoy all of the beautiful fall colors and activities. This will be what I have gotten the last 2 weeks.  I bought 4 pumpkins from Aldi. They were on sale for $2.99 each. I will cook them up after Halloween.  Vegetable oil was on sale for $3.49 each, limit 2 so I grabbed them.  Whole peeled tomatoes were marked down to 21¢ each. I bought all of them.  Soups were marked down to 67¢. I only grabbed 2 for my son since I don't know if he will like them. I can't eat them because of the sodium and Hubby can't have them because they contain dairy.  Whole chickens were on sale with a coupon for 69¢ a pound, limit 2.  Pepsi was on sale for 77¢, limit 4. We host Thanksgiving so I got them early.  Taco kits were on the marked down rack. We love tacos.  They were $1.24 each. If the shells are broken, I will make a taco salad with the...

I am going to be so sad when my Stop & Shop is done being remodeled. I went several times this week because they just keep marking items down. I am taking full advantage of the deals while I can get them. On my first trip, I scored organic ground beef. Usually it is so out of my price range but this week it was $1.87 a pound. I see lots of chili and tacos in our future. I also grabbed mozzarella that was on sale for $1.99 each limit 4.  The 20 packs of Cascade were marked $1.74. That is less then 9¢ a piece.  8 packs of dog food were $1.12.  That is 14¢ each. Oreo isn't picky and will love these. These are great for traveling.  YD and I went on the way to the movies. It was POURING rain. There had been racks of makeup marked down. She bought a bunch of stuff. Her most expensive item was $3 and it was originally $15. She did really well. She even got a few items for some friend's upcoming birthdays.  I grabbed ...