Super Savings Saturday - $50.40 and three stores


Groceries purchased March 17, 2018.  My apologies for the dark photo - we need to replace the light over our stove and I didn't realize the photo would be that dark!

John and I had a major discussion about the food budget this last week (well, it was actually the budget in general) and decided that since the children are growing so much right now (over an inch a week each) and he's recovering from a major illness that may take upwards of a year to heal from, it is not the time to cut the grocery budget.  We have $50/week in the budget that includes the CSA we purchase each year, any trips to Sam's Club or other stocking up we do, and anything we purchase from the Farmer's Market.  We decided we needed other places to cut right now, since food is more important right now.

From that $50 budget this week, we decided to give the children each $7 to purchase snacks.  I am also planning on making No Bake Energy Bites and Oatmeal Cookies for snacking and we have yogurt, fruit and veggies all the time that anyone is welcome to.  We decided to do this because the children eat so much each week - easily individually what John and I eat combined.  We were getting weary of having to refigure dinner or breakfast because the children had eaten the ingredients! I love that they are eating fruits and vegetables, but I also love being able to just make dinner without having to think so hard all the time!

 So, we're starting by allowing them to choose what they want for now for that $7. That may change as time goes on.  The children went through the sale fliers and decided before hand how to spend their $7.  They ended up having to come up with plan B since several of the items they wanted were out of stock and there were no rain checks. I was a bit bummed that the inexpensive strawberries were all sold out and so were the inexpensive pretzels they had initially decided upon. In the end, I believe they were happy with their choices and are looking forward to eating the things they purchased this week.

We went to three stores - 3 out of four corners at an intersection near our home. I haven't done that for a while and decided that I really want to stick with one or two at most in the future.  This weekend we did go to all three. Here's what we  purchased:

Store #1:
1lb Bow-tie pasta $0.79
3lbs Gala Apples $2.89
38oz Tomato Ketchup $1.49
Oyster Crackers $0.79
1.5oz Almonds (For John's Easter Basket) $0.99
1.25oz Pistachios (For John's Easter Basket) $0.99
Cinnamon Crunch Cereal (Part of Missy's $7) $1.39

Total Spent Store #1: $7.94

Store #2:
Snyder's Pretzels (Buddy's Choice for his $7)  2@$3.19 = $6.38
Cheesy Puffs (Part of Missy's $7) $2.89
18 ct Fresh Eggs $1.09

Total Spent Store #2: $10.36

Store #3:
1 dry pint Blackberries $2
1 dry pint Grape Tomatoes $1.50
1.75lbs Seedless Grapes 1.75@$1.99/lb = $3.48
Fresh Spinach $2.99
1 dry pint pink raspberries $2
2.12lb bananas 2.12@$0.29/lb = $0.61
2 Frozen Fruit - Peaches, Blueberries (peaches for Missy from her $7, blueberries for all of us) 2@2/$5 = $5
1 Gallon Milk $3.79
2 8ct packages cinnamon rolls 2@3/$5 = $3.33
10 cups Yoplait Yogurt 10@20/$10 = %
Smart Balance $3.29

Total Store #3: $33.00

Total spent for all three stores: $50.40

And just for fun, here's what the children bought for snacks this week:
Buddy: Pretzel Rods (2 bags)
       Buddy has 62-cents left of his budget to roll over to next week.
Missy: Frozen Peaches, Cheesy Puffs, Cinnamon Crunch Cereal
        Missy has 22-cents left of her budget to roll over next week.

We still have lots of meat and veggies in the freezers, as well as plenty of other food in the pantry and freezers as well. Come back on Monday to see what we're eating!

How did your shopping go this week?

Popular posts from this blog

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 17, 2021

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 10, 2021

Frugal Things - The Month of December 2020