February 2012 grocery budget report:   

Most of what you will see us purchase this month will be sides, condiments, canned foods, snacks and miscellaneous things. There is very little meat on the list as I have been doing really well stocking up on that as I find it on sale or yellow ticketed.  My local Food Lion marks down their meat at about 5:00pm eat night so I try to stop by on my way home from work and check it out.  If they have a good deal I will pick it up and vacuum seal it before freezing it. This is saving us a lot in the meat department.

I decided that for this month we would have a budget of $250.00 which $4.31 per person per day.  Very tight I know but I want to challenge myself

I started with comparing all the grocery ads, pulling out the coupons and then comparing again until I had three lists which made the most sense to me, then I hit the stores.

First stop was Kroger:

I purchased two items that were not on the grocery list.. Green peppers (they would have been in the list but I forgot) and Chocolate Covered Cranberries (my new obsession).  Almost everything else I bought was either a buy one get one deal or on sale 2/$price and then I had additional coupons.

Total before savings  = $121.20 minus $16.80 in manufacture coupons and $37.23 Kroger Plus savings for a total of $54.03 (45%) in savings made the grand total spent $67.17 including tax.  I was hoping to hit 50% this time out but still it is a savings so I will take it.

Then it was off to Martin’s:

 

I bought a few things this time that weren’t on the list but were great deals.  The pre-made Turkey Burgers were on unadvertised special for $7.99, I had a $2.00 of coupon making them $5.99 for 12 (4 dinners), making them .50 each.  Can’t beat that a really good burger.  My favorite and only tea bag I use were on sale so I bought one box, and the laundry detergent was also on an unadvertised special so I used a $1.00 coupon and only paid $2.99 and lastly, the Frito’s.  Not on the list, not on sale but they are for Super Bowl Sunday.  Sometimes you splurge

Total before savings $128.94 minus $14.30 in manufacture coupons and $35.21 Martins Bonus Card savings for a total of $49.51(37%) in savings made the grand total spent $82.03 including tax.

And finally we ended with Food Lion.  I used the weekly ad to fill in the monthly list with a few items that were better priced here than at Kroger and Martin’s this week (hot dogs, rice and diet cokes) and also some items for the big game. The Super Bowl items and a few things I didn’t know I needed (until this morning when John mentioned then to me) put me at the end of the monthly budget  so I have officially declared grocery shopping closed for the month (except for dairy and produce or if I see an absolutely killer sale on something that will carry over into March or beyond )

Total before savings $146.14 minus $8.65 in manufacture coupons and $33.80 in  Food Lion MVP savings for a total of $42.45 (29%) in savings made the grand total spent $103.69 including tax.

Total Spent:

Total Retail Cost = $396.18

Manufactures Coupons = $40.05

Bonus Card Savings = $106.24

Total after savings = $249.89 out of $250.00 budget leaving me .11 cents

Using what I bought on the three grocery store outings along with what I already have on hand I created a list of over 30 meals for the month (not including the soups (both homemade and canned) that I have. The real challenge now is to see just how well we hold to this plan.

I am really happy with the results but the results won’t be known till the end of the month. Make sure you check back to see if I had to run to the store for anything other than dairy and produce.

Have a great day!