My Shopping Trip: ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Best Market and Rite Aid

I’m back!  Yippey!  It felt so good to actually do a planned coupon shopping trip last night.  Starting about a week before we moved up until this past weekend we have been eating pizza, subs and running to the store to pick up items we needed.  Actually, I would usually send my kids so I really don’t know how much things were costing, which is probably better I didn’t.  With mounds of boxes and no food in the frig or freezer, we just needed to survive.  So, with a large cushion of $549.58 in my grocery budget envelope, I decided that I would just let things roll.  And, they did…right out of my grocery envelope.

The one great thing was that my son totally gets what I do now.  We moved in on a Friday the 8th and on Sunday, the girls and I attended my niece’s dance recital with my parents.  We left my son and husband home to continue unpacking.  My parents were going to stop at the house on their way home from the recital, so my husband quickly sent my son to the store to buy stuff for dinner.  Well, $75 later, we had a nice BBQ Chicken dinner with salads, etc for 7 people.  Yep, $75!  My son said, “Mom, I’m sorry I spent so much but now I totally understand why you use coupons.  This stuff is so expensive and this is way more then you spend in a week and this was for just 1 meal”.  And he is so right!

So, after over 2 weeks of not paying any attention to deals, I finally sat down and counted what was left in my grocery budget.  My total left was just $252.02.  But, I feel very fortunate that I had that cushion to work off of.  It just reassures me even more that the couponing, stockpiling and saving that we do is worth every penny.  The stress I would have felt, if we did not have a cushion in our grocery budget, would have just made me crazy.  And trust me, with your life packed up in boxes and being moved all around, more stress is something I did not need.

But, now I’m back.  And, it felt so great to be planning out my deals.  I am a bit slow getting into it again as I don’t know where all the stores are yet and, the worst part is, I don’t know where anything is inside the stores.  But, I know I’ll pick up quickly.

Here is what I did last night:

ShopRite:

• 1 Joy Cake Cups – $0.99
• (2) Pepperidge Farm Italian White Bread – $1.99
• (3) Dole Salad – $1.67
• (1) Banana Bag (3.03 lb) – $1.48
• (1) Florida Naturals OJ – $1.99
• (1) Milk – $2.59
• (2) Natural Instincts Hair Color – $5.99 (round 1)

Coupons Used:

• -$0.55/1 Joy Cake Cups (doubled to $0.99)
• (2) $0.40/1 Pepperidge Farm Bread (5/6 SS)
• (1) $5/2 Natural Instinct Hair Color (6/17 SS)
• - $10.00 Catalina (Gift Card Deal from last week)
• Tax – $0.84

Paid: $13.00
Catalina – $6.00 (Natural Instincts)
Received: $13.98 towards ShopRite Gift Card deal for this week

Stop & Shop:

• (2) Magnum Double Carmel – $3.50

Coupons Used:

• - (2) $2/1 Magnum Coupon (NLA)
• -$2.00 Instant Savings

Total Savings including sale prices and coupons: $47.76 + Best Market Savigns which I will be adding to the LRWC Reader’s Grocery Savings Counter.  Be sure to add your savings so we can see how much we have all saved in 2012

Here is an update to my Grocery Budget:

• Total in envelope as of 5/17: $516.80
• $3.85 from shopping trip 5/18
• Total in envelope as of 5/19: $512.95
• $56 Farmers Market Trip
• $23.15 misc trips
• $150 added to the grocery budget envelope
• $17.52 from shopping trip 5/25
• Total in envelope as of 5/25: $566.28
• $14 misc trips
• $2.70 from shopping trip 5/30
• Total in envelope as of 5/30: $549.58
• spend $297.56 during our move for groceries and eating out
• Total in envelope as of 6/19: $252.02
• $55.02 from shopping trip on 6/18
• Total in envelope as of 6/19: $197

If you’re interested in seeing how we set up our budget envelopes, make sure to check out, How To Set Up a Budget and Stick to It.

How are you doing on your grocery budget?

LRWC Reader Grocery Savings Counter: Be sure to add your weekly grocery savings to the the LRWC Reader Grocery Savings Counter below. You can check out the counter in the sidebar to see how much we have all saved so far in 2012!

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