Sunday, March 21, 2010

Week 3 Grocery Recap

For the third week of March, I once again barely squeaked in under $40/week for groceries.  I'm still not happy, though.  I'm still buying things we don't need.  It's not just about the money, it's about reducing and rotating our stockpile instead of adding to it right now.  It's also about making it easier to empty that deep-freeze and get it defrosted, which is what we'll probably be doing today.  Meh.

Here are the numbers for Week 3:

Needed: 1 head lettuce, 1 lb. radishes, 1 lb. smoked turkey breast slices, 1 lb. smoked ham slices, 2 lbs. frozen corn, 5 lb. flour, 1 bunch green onions, 2 lbs. grapes, 1 lb. strawberries, 3 Roma tomatoes, 1 gal. milk. 2 dozen eggs.

Not needed yet: 2 lbs. breakfast sausage, 2 lbs. cubed ham, 1 whole chicken, 2 more lbs. frozen corn

Probably not needed at all:  2 pkgs. jumbo franks, 2 (2-ltr) bottles of Coke, 1 bag tortilla chips, 1 bag cheese curls, 1 bag pretzels.  For some reason, hot dogs seem junky-er than breakfast sausage, but there probably isn't a lot of difference.

I had coupons for the ham slices, ham cubes, turkey slices, sausage, chicken and corn.  Total spent for food = $38.97.  

The good news is that I had a Hy-Vee gift card from transferring a prescription that took care of $20 of it, so my actual out-of-pocket was 18.97.   That sounds much better, but I still brought home more than needed.


We did better than last week in our other categories, although I've had to add "dining out" to the list this week.  (Remember, all of these are separate from our grocery budget):

Health/Beauty - We bought nothing, but we received a rebate, so we're actually ahead $8.99

Paper products, cleaning/laundry supplies - $0.00

Cat food/litter - $0.00

Lawn/garden - $0.00

Dining Out - 3 of us last Sunday, 2 of us on Wednesday + tip - $41.29

6 comments:

Sheila said...

Not bad at all. I really should keep better track than I do now--I know we could save so much more if I did.

Annie Jones said...

Sheila: I'm not sure how much anyone is paying attention to these weekly posts, but they keep me on track. I probably won't post them in April, though.

Sheila said...

Annie Jones,
I like these posts--makes me realize how much money I waste each month. I really try but it seems like when I get to really saving money on groceries and such--someone--who shall remain nameless starts nagging about no food or nameless wants something special. It never ends!!
Some times I just give up in frustration.

Doug Robertson said...

I like reading these, shows what can be done when one pays attention.

A.Marie said...

I love your posts! I am right with you on the freezer thing. My freezer is slowly getting emptied, because I said I am not buying anything more until I use what is in there! I found some packaged cheese that I bought a while back. I needed some for a recipe and instead of running to the store, I decided to check, one more time, and there it was!! :)

Annie Jones said...

OK, I'm easy. Truth is, I kind of like these posts, but I was afraid I was boring everyone. But since my readers (all three of you) have spoken, I'll keep going. At least through April. ;)