Monday, March 15, 2010

Week 2 Of Our Grocery Reduction Act

Sorry I didn't post this on Sunday like I did for Week 1, but I really wanted to get my giveaway up and running yesterday. 

Anyway, I barely squeaked in under $40/week for groceries budget for the second week of March.  I noticed that our deep freeze could really use a good defrosting and cleaning; all the more reason to quit buying so much food.

Here are the numbers:

Needed: 5 lb. box of mandarin oranges, 1 gallon milk, 3 lb. onions, 23 yogurts (Kat and I eat at least 1 a day, every day when we buy it), 2 dozen eggs, 1 can baking powder, 1 head cabbage, 1 qt. half & half, 1 lb. pork sausage, 100-ct. tea bags.

Not really needed: 1 can crescent rolls and 2 bags of tortilla chips for the Red Gold Tomato recipes I wrote about yesterday, a 16-oz. bottle of Irish Stout for Irish Stew on St. Pat's Day, and 2 avocados to go with a Mexican meal later this week.

I had coupons for the oranges, onions, sausage, tea and all of the yogurt, so my Total spent for food = $38.77. 


We're gearing up for gardening.  That, along with three co-pays, some prescriptions and a great deal on cat litter pushed the numbers into the fat zone this week.  (Remember, all of these are separate from our grocery budget):

Health/Beauty:  1 box generic decongestant, 4 monthly Rx, 1 new Rx, co-pays on eye exams for Kat and me, co-pay for my trip to urgent care - $67.03 minus $40.00 in instant rebates on Rx = $46.86

Paper products, cleaning/laundry supplies - 0.00

Cat food/litter - 4 cans of canned food and 126 lbs (yes, 126!) of pine pellet litter =  20.77*

Lawn/garden - Potting soil, 15 packets of vegetable seeds, some onion and garlic sets, and some rhubarb plants - $42.32


*We use pine litter instead of plain or scented clay litter.  It smells fresher and, for us, lasts much longer than other litter.  Last week,  we found 7-lb bags on clearance for $1 each, which was 25% less than the cheapest we can find it elsewhere.  We "scooped" it all up; it should last us about a year! 

As for the canned cat food, four cans is a month's supply.  We open one can on the weekend as a "treat" for our cats.  They get dry food the rest of the week.

12 comments:

Callista said...

me and my bf eat a lot of yogurt too. i get the big 32 OZ tubs and make my own little yogurt cups. sometimes i just get the plain vanilla ones and add my own homemade jams and fillings (granola/coconut) to make them yummy. sometimes you can stretch a few pennies that way and by making your own cups, you create less waste with those little plastic containers. or better yet you can make your own yogurt.... lol but i'm not that brave yet.

:) have a great day!

Annie Jones said...

I have made my own yogurt in the past, and really should again sometime. Thanks for the reminder! And thanks for visiting. :)

Sonya Ann said...

You are funny! Scooped up the kitty litter!
Good job on the groceries! You are making me jealous.;)

Annie Jones said...

Some people call me funny; some people (my family) just call me dorky.

A.Marie said...

Good for You! I never thought of using pine litter...I don't know why! :)

I'd love to make my own yogurt. One of my college roomies used to make it all the time, but I never really paid attention to how she did it. Now I wish I had!

Sheila said...

I buy the big tubs of vanilla yogurt and add cinnamon applesauce to it--since I can't find my favorite yogurt any more. Some times you have to spend money to save money. I think you did good this week too.

Annie Jones said...

A.Marie: We switched to it several years ago. It was a little pricey but we liked it much better. Then we found the Equine Fresh litter at Tractor Supply Co. It's got larger pellets, but that's the only difference. It's much cheaper than the products labeled specifically for cats.

Sheila: You ladies are going to convince me to start making my own yogurt again...or at least start buying it in the bigger tubs. :)

slugmama said...

You did well this week with reducing your grocery bill.
I, OTOH, was a dismal failure at reducing mine. Well, my spendy week will even out to a frugal average if I can stay out of the stores for a couple of weeks and just eat what is here, right?lol

I am itching to garden too! Still trying to figure out how much of what we want to attempt to grow this year. Then it's on to buying seeds...but not today. It's raining and all I want to do is go back to bed. ;-)

Annie Jones said...

Thanks, Sluggy! Shane spent most of yesterday planting seeds in starter pots. He/we still need to plant out the rhubarb and garlic (a spring variety?) very soon, though.

Doug Robertson said...

That's a huge amount of cat litter, and an unbelievable deal! I was excited because I signed up for something or other online just to get a free 10 pounder of the stuff, seems like nothing now. Still free, though. I'm still trying to get a reasonable list together to container garden this year, I can't let myself go overboard with it for only myself, but it is exciting.

Frances said...

I am SO jealous of your medical expenses. I have never had a month that low. In January/February, we spent over $1400 out of pocket. Jealous???

Did you know you can make yogurt in your crockpot? I haven't done it, but know people that have.

Annie Jones said...

Doug: The unused pine litter can be used as mulch, too. Just in case we decide to send the cats packing.

Frances: I have to say we have excellent insurance through Shane's union. One other time I had insurance almost as good through a corporate job, but most don't compare. Also, those pharmaceutical company's instant rebates help a lot.

I haven't tried crockpot yogurt yet...nor heating pad yogurt, oven yogurt or insulated cooler yogurt. I have one of those gadgets you see in every thrift store that makes 5-6 little jars of yogurt at a time. It works well, though.