Tops Trip and Rite Aid Trip 8/8

We ran to Rite Aid (the new one in Horseheads -it is really nice and the associates are very friendly) and then to Tops to get some much needed food. Last week, money was pretty tight so we needed to get quite a bit this week. I also want to run to Aldi's later this week and get rolls and fresh fruit. Here's what we bought.

Rite Aid Trip 8/8

• Venus Spa Breeze Razor. Regular price $9.99, on sale for $7. Used $2 coupon and there is a $5 rebate so this will end up being FREE AFTER REBATE
• Garnier Fructis shampoo. Regular price $4.19, on sale for $2.99. Used $1 coupon and there is a $2 rebate so this ends up being FREE AFTER REBATE
• 4 1-liters of Crest Pro-Health Rinse. Regular price $6.49 each, on sale for $5 each. Used 4 $1 coupons and there is a rebate for $10 when you buy 4. This brings the price down to 4/$6 after rebate

Original Total: $42.53
Amount Saved: $34.14
Total Paid: $8.39 (saved 80.3%)

Tops Trip 8/8

• 6 2-liters of Diet Pepsi. On sale for $1 each + deposit .05 each (.48)
  
• 6 4-packs of Hunts snack packs. On sale for $1 each. Used two internet coupons for $1 off 1 4-pack and another coupon for a free 4-pack when you buy 3. So, these ended up being 6/$3
• Quaker rice cakes on sale for $1.50. Used $.50 off 1, which doubled to $1, making these $.50
• Kellogg's Strawberry Mini Wheats -on sale for $2.50. Used $.75 coupon (from back of regular Mini Wheats box) which doubled to $1.50, making these $1
• Kellogg's Fruit Loops on sale for $1.99.
• 2 bags of single size M&Ms. On sale for $.50 each. Used 2 Free chocolate Friday coupons to make these FREE
• Wishbone salad dressing $2. Used $1 off 1 internet coupon to make it $1.
  
• 4 packets of Knorr Rice sides on sale for $1 each. Used two $.60 off 2 coupons, which doubled to $1.20 off 2, making these $.40 each
• 2 jars of Skippy peanut butter $2 each. Used coupon for $1 off 2, making these 2/$3
• 2 boxes of Tops instant oatmeal (need to check at Aldi's and see if they have them again) on sale for $2 each.
  
• Jiffy popcorn $1.47
• flip flops for my daughter's birthday on sale for $3.
• 2 boxes of Playtex gloves on sale for $1.50 each. Used two $1 off coupons to make these $.50 each
• 8 ears of cob $2
• 3 pounds of potatoes $3.99
• 2 pouches of Margerita pepperoni slices on sale for $2 each. Used two $.75 off 1 coupons, which doubled to $1.50 each, making these $.50 each
• 4 1/2 gallons of Turkey Hill iced tea on sale for $1.50 each. Used two $1.00 of two coupons, making these $1 each
• Tops gallon of skim milk $1.69
• Boneless Skinless Chicken breast $1.88 a pound = $8.27
  
• 80% ground beef $1.99 a pound = $9.89

Original Amount: $113.33
Amount saved: $57.13
Total paid: $56.96
Grocery Challenge Amount: $52.68

I am working on this week's Tops deals tonight. As you may be able to tell, some of the items I got on sale are on this week's sales and some are last week's. I guess this is one of the perks to going shopping on a Saturday evening. I will post the deals as soon as I can.

All You Grocery Challenge Week in Review

Sunday - Day 14

Today was one of those lazy Sundays where no one really wanted to do much, including me. LOL. At least we only spent $1.25 today. When hubby went to get a paper, he took the little princess with him, and they ended up getting 5 of those 25 cent granola bars (my daughter calls them 'bars'. lol).

For breakfast we had cereal and the little man had oatmeal. We also had yummy strawberries. For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches and canned pineapple chunks. Dinner was breaded pork chops, corn and scalloped potatoes. I also made a chocolate cake which was supposed to be for my mom's birthday Tuesday, but somehow I got persuaded to get out frozen strawberries and whipped topping, and we ate some of it. Oh well. I guess I will just have to make another one tomorrow night when I get home.


A Week in Review

This is our second week of participating in the All You Grocery Challenge and we are still doing pretty well. I had been hoping to only spend $50 this week on groceries, but my local store had some really good deals this week and I ended up spending a little over $50 in one day (but that was 3 different stores). I also needed to get some more meat and a few other things later in the week and ended up spending a little over $10 on that trip.

So, I didn't make my goal budget, but I was still well under the All You budget. Here's a chart and graph showing my week 2 spending:

As you can see we spent $74.13 out of the budgeted $125.00, and had $50.87 that we could have spent if we wanted to. My goal for this next week is again $50. I need to buy some chicken this week, so I am hoping to still be able to stay under this amount. It may be difficult because I will be going back to work this week and hubby will be preparing the meals during the weekdays. We shall see.

All You Grocery Challenge

Thursday - Day 11

It's been a pretty uneventful week on the food front this week. We had cereal for breakfast on Thursday with cut up bananas. For lunch, the husband and kids polished off the last of the deli meat that was left over from Saturday. I ate while I was out shopping (see below). We had these on homemade bread with lettuce and strawberries for dessert. For dinner, we had chicken and biscuits (has veggies in it) with strawberry shortcake for dessert. I made up several pizza crust doughs tonight. I baked two of them, one will be used on Friday for dinner and the other was wrapped and put in the freezer. I also put some dough in the freezer after the first rising.

Spending: Today I spent a little bit of money. I took my friend Yan with me shopping for clothes for my new job. I actually did really good and spent only a little over $200, and I ended up getting a few things on clearance for the kids. We were going to go to Friendly's in the mall but after waiting 15 minutes for a waitress to even come ask us what we wanted to drink, we left. We were pretty thirsty by that point, so we grabbed drinks at Aunti Anne's for $3.33 for both, which I paid for. We ended up going to Salasaritas for lunch. Yan had never had Mexican food and I had never eaten there before because it's only been there a few months. We ended up getting a chicken quesadilla to share and two soft tacos. We didn't get any drinks because we still had our drinks from Auntie Anne's. They gave use a discount because we had never been there and we ended up paying $6.30 for lunch for two. Yan gave me $3 towards lunch, reducing my cost to $3.30. It was very good and Yan really liked it.

I almost forgot. I stopped at Tops on the way home to get a couple things I had forgotten the other day when we were there. I ended up buying 2 ham steaks at $2 each, severeal pounds of boneless pork chops for $1.99 a pound, and 8oz of mozarella cheese. My total spent at Tops was $11.92.

Total Spent Today: $18.25
Amount Saved at Tops: $10.39

Friday - Day 12
For breakfast we decided to have eggs and toast and then some blueberries and strawberries in yogurt. Lunch was leftover italian pasta from a couple nights ago with fruit cocktail. For dinner I made a homemade pizza with sausage (from Aldi's), pepperoni, peppers and onions. It was very yummy, as always! We had green salad with dressing with it and chocolate pudding for dessert.

Spending: no money spent today.



Saturday - Day 13
We still have a lot of cereal (bought cheap) so we had that for breakfast with strawberries and blueberries. For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches with green beans from our garden and a can of peaches. I was trying to get a lot done, because I start work on Monday, so I wanted something quick and easy. I decided to make pancakes with chocolate chips (these were the ones bought on clearance a week or so ago), eggs and toast. For dessert we had jello with fruit cocktail in it.

Spending: no money spent today

Shopping Trip 7/21

We ended up doing our grocery shopping tonight and we did pretty well. We went to 3 stores, all within a few miles of each other. We still need to go get ground , chicken and some fresh vegetables later this week. I went over my intended $50 budget for the week, but it was unavoidable. The last few weeks, Tops has not had that great of deals so I didn't stock up on much.


ALDI'S

Our first stop was Aldi's. I shop at Aldi's for things that usually don't go on sale or for things that are cheaper no matter what. These are usually baking goods, and they have really good prices on milk and eggs.

• 2 sponges with green scrubby surface $.99 (+.08 tax) - non-food
  
• 2 containers of Parmesan Cheese $2.39 each
  
• 3 lbs of unsalted butter $.99 each
  
• flour tortillas $.99
  
• 4 boxes of corn muffin mix $..35 each
  
• 4 5 lb bags of flour $1.59 each
  
• 3 packets of taco mix seasoning $.33 each
  

Amount Spent: $18.56
Approx Amount Saved: $11+
Grocery Challenge Amount: $17.49

TARGET

We then headed over to Target. I wanted to look at some of their frozen meat and dinners. I have several regular manufacture coupons which combined with the Target coupons, could have saved us some money. Upon looking at the prices at the store, I decided to wait and buy them at another time. I am hoping that they will go on sale. Upon looking at my receipt when I got home I noticed that the cashier rang in $1.30 instead of taking $1.30 off as a coupon. I am not sure what I am going to do about this yet, if anything.

• 4 boxes of Kraft Mac N Cheese $.52 each = $2.08. I had a coupon for buy 3 and get one free and I believe this is where the cashier made the mistake by adding in the $1.30. Otherwise, I would have gotten 4 of them for $1.56
  
• Kashi cereal on sale for $2.99 (hubby wanted it lol) and I had a Target coupon for $1 off, making it $1.99
• Ghiradelli chocolate chips (yummmm) On clearance for $2.33 and I had a Target coupond for $.75 making it $1.58
• International Delight $1.57 and I had an internet printable for $1 off one, making this $.57
• 1 Degree fine fragrance deodorant and one spray. $3.64 each = $7.28. I had 2 target coupons for $2 off one, and a manufacture internet coupon for $1 off two. So, I ended up paying $2.28 for two. This is great since I really love the smell of these! -non-food
  
• 2 Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste sample size $.97, these were free after two coupons for free sample. -non-food
  
• 10 bottles of Sobe Life Water (hubby's idea)on sale for $1 each and received a $5 gift card to be used on a future visit
• 3 boxes of Kleenex with aloe 130 ct on originally $1.58 each, on clearance for $1.08 per box = $3.24. I had a $1 off 3 target coupon and a $.50 manufacture coupon which made them 3/$1.74 or $.58 each - non-food
  
• 24 ct of Crayola crayons $.27. - non-food
  
• 200ct of straws $1.00 - non-food

Original Amount: $45.70
Amount Saved: $22.35
Amount Paid: $23.35
Grocery Challenge Amount: $17.02

TOPS

Our last stop was Tops. By this time it was 6:40 and hubby was getting anxious because his baseball game was going to be on in 25 minutes! Nothing like being rushed through the store. So, needless to say I forgot a couple things. I had wanted to get a ham steak that was on sale for $2 and some pork chops that were on sale for $1.99 a pound. I guess I will just get it later in the week when we are in the area again. Here is what we bought:

• Spongebob pinata for birthday party. Original price $15.99, on clearance for $1.99.
  
• 5 2-liters of various Diet Pepsi on sale for $1 plus $.05 NY deposit
• 2 cans of Bumblee tuna on sale for $.89 each. Used internet printable for $1 off 2 to make them $.39 each
• box of Tops brand diapers, originally $18.89. On clearance for $9.44.
• 2 boxes of Tops instant oatmeal (Aldi's still doesn't have any) on sale for $2 each
• 2 kids character chairs (one pink with princess and the other red with Lightning McQueen - for the little kids) originally $6.99 each, on clearance for $3.49
• 4 Breyer's yogurts $.60 each. Used 2 Breyers coupons that said $1 off any 2 Breyers products, making these $.10 each
• 2 gallons of skim milk. $1.99 each
• 9 Weight Watchers yogurts 6/$4= $6, used 3 internet printables for $.55 off 3 which doubles to $1.10 each, making these $.30 each

Original Amount: $79.17
Amount Saved: $42.15
Amount Paid: $37.02
Grocery Challenge Amount: $17.53

I also wanted to let you all know that there are some coupons for Hunt's Snack packs, Chef Boyardee, and more, click here.

All You Grocery Challenge Week in Review

Sunday - Day 7

So, it's Sunday and the end of week 1 of the All You Grocery Challenge. Today we had a late breakfast of pancakes, eggs and toast, and milk. For lunch we had turkey sandwiches, made with the turkey and rolls that were given to us, a slice of watermelon each and chocolate milk. For dinner I plan on making Chicken and Biscuits (the kind I make has mixed vegetables in it), fruit for dessert (choice of strawberries, blueberries, or grapes) and juice (100% fruit juice) for our drinks.


A Week in Review

Well, we made it through the first week under budget. We would have spent a lot less but life got in the way. With the water being turned off on Wednesday, we ended up spending $20 on a sheet pizza. Then on Friday, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary. We ended up going to Olive Garden and spending $38.02. If you subtracted just those two things, we would have spent almost $60 less. Isn't it crazy how much you can spend just eating out?

Here is what my spending log I use looks like. I used all those wonderful skills I learned in my Advanced Spreadsheets class. You can click on it to take you to a larger picture of it.

I track each day's spending on food for each week. I also have a drop-down menu to use for my category - they are sorted by food, eating out and snacks/coffee. I then added each category up and did a nice pie chart to help me see where I am spending my food money.

I did a screen shot so that you can see how much I spent this week. Here is Week 1's Totals and chart. You can also click on the this picture in order to get a bigger picture.

As you can see in the above chart, I spent $67.90 on eating out (pizza and anniversary), $4.23 on snacks and coffee, and $20.38 on groceries. We still have $32.49 out of our allotted $125 budget for the week. The pie chart shows all $125 of our food budget, blue is eating out, red is snacks and coffee, green is groceries and purple is what we have leftover.

So, we did pretty good, all things considered. Next week will only be better. My local grocery store does have a few good deals so we will be stopping there sometime during the week.

Aldi's and Target Trip 7/7

We had to go to Aldi's tonight and then we headed over to Target to get a few things. They were out of the oatmeal for the kids at Aldi's, so we will stop in quickly the next time we go to work on the garden.

Here is what we got at Aldi's:

• 3 loaves of white bread $.79 each. I have started making my own sandwich bread, so these loaves are for those times when I don't have time (or energy lol) to make more of the homemade.
  
• 2 packages of 40ct paper plates $.99 each. These are to be placed in the basement and only used on certain occasions.
  
• 3 pack of green peppers $1.99. I will be chopping these up tonight or tomorrow and putting in freezer for future use.
  
• Tastes Like Butter $.99. We were out of the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, and I don't have a coupon for any other tub butter, so I decided to try this. My mom says it is pretty good, so I have to believe we will like it.
  
• 6ct of popcorn $1.49. This is a really good price. I usually pay $.99 for 3 on sale at Tops.
  
• 1 pound of ham $3.49, to make panninis with later this week.
  
• garbage bags $2.49
• 2 jars of strawberry spread $1.99. We thought we would try these since they are considerably cheaper than other spreads/jellies without high fructose corn syrup.
  
• bag of onions $1.99
• 2 packs of white American cheese slices $1.49 each
• 1 package of sponges with green scrubby on one side - 2ct $.99
• jar of salsa $1.49
• 1 lemon $.39
• box of animal crackers $1.29. This was bought only because my 3 year old daughter begged and pleaded with me. I would rather buy her animal crackers than candy or goodies.
  
• Canola oil $2.49. I buy this instead of vegetable because it is better for us.
  

Amount Spent: $30.84
Amount saved by shopping at Aldi's:at least $13

We then headed over to Target to use a bunch of Kashi manufacture coupons along with Target coupons. Of course, none of them rang up right, so the poor cashier had to ring each one in by hand. What a pain, but it saved me a lot of money. lol. If you would like to print the Kashi coupons (they expire on the 14th) click here to go to a Target coupon generator.

The picture below shows what I got at Target, except for the gift for my daughter and 1 box of Kashi bars (my husband broke into those on the way home lol).

Here's what I bought at target and the coupons I used:

• 3 boxes of Kashi Waffles at $2.54 each = $7.62. Used 3 $1.50 manufacture coupons, along with 3 $.25 off Target coupons to make these 3/2.37 or $.79 each
• 1 box of Kashi Waffles at $2.54. Used $1.50 manufacture coupon alone (because I was a bonehead and only printed 3 target coupons instead of four - but I wanted to use it anyway because it is still a pretty good deal and the coupon expires soon), making this box $1.04
• 2 boxes of Kashi cereal bars on sale for $2.50 each = $5. Used 2 $1.50 manufacture coupons plus $1 off 2 Target coupons to make these 2/$1 or $.50 each
• 2 boxes of Kashi TLC bars on sale for $2.50. I only had one manufacture coupon (I was bummed) which was $1.50 plus I used a $1 off 2 coupon to make them 2/$2.50 or $1.25 each
• Hanes 5 pack of ankle socks $5. At $1 per pair of socks, this seemed like a good deal and I desperately needed socks. The monster in the dryer has been eating mine lately. I got the ones with the pink on the toes so that my husband does not try to wear them when he runs out of clean socks. LOL
• 2 boxes of Kashi cereal $2.66 each. Had a Target coupon for Buy One Get One Free (I thought I had a manufacture coupon for the cereal also but couldn't find it - C'est la vie) which made them 2/$2.66 or $1.33 each
  
• Princess coloring table. Originally $12.98, on clearance for $9.08. This is for her birthday next month and will be deducted from her amount, making the balance about $76.
• Degree Fine Fragrance deodorant $3.64. I used a $1.25 manufacture coupon and a $1 target coupon to make this $1.39.
  
• Degree Fine Fragrance spray $3.64. I used a $1.25 manufacture coupon ans a $1 Target coupon to make this $1.39 (I bought Sexy Intrigue and it is awesome smelling!)
• Target brand antacid (generic Tums) Originally $2.29, on clearance for $1.60
  

Originally Amount:$57.19
Amount Saved: $29.02

Amount Paid: $28.17 (saved 50.7%)

If you don't include the socks and the gift (neither are part of my grocery budget), then the I saved more like 64% on this shopping trip for food and HBA. All in all, I think I got some pretty good deals, especially considering the amount of Kashi products I was able to get cheap.

As a side note, I just wanted to pass along to you that Target is having a clearance on a lot of their toys right now, and I only see them having better clearance prices. Most are at about 30%, but if this year is anything like last year, there will be even better toy clearance prices within the next month or so. This is the time of the year where they want to get rid of last year's toys, to make room for the new toys for Christmas. So, if you have a little extra money, this would be a great way to get some gifts for the kids.

Also, if you are looking for patio furniture, they have them marked down 75% off!!