Shopping Trip, 10/9

I hit 2 stores and a farmer's market and spent $69.66; this price includes $10 for Halloween candy. The candy is not pictured because it is currently hidden. I do need 2 other items that somehow I forgot and I believe the total for those 2 items will be $4, so $64 for my family of 3 for the week.

Other items not pictured include a case of water ($2.89), a 12-pack of Sprite ($4 -- really, it's getting ridiculous!), a medium-sized pumpkin ($2.50), and my snack of Caramel Puffed Corn ($1.69).

Aldi marked down their instant brown rice to 69 cents a box!!! I bought 5 boxes. I have 8 boxes of instant brown rice in my stash which means I'm now set for the rest of this calendar year. Woohoo! My daughter loves the brand of cereal that Aldi carries (Millville I believe) and especially loves their frosted shredded wheat, so that's 1 of the 2 boxes of cereal. My baking purchase for the week was a container of cocoa ($1.89).

Then it was on to Kroger.

• Eggs are on sale for 77 cents a dozen. I already have a dozen, so I just bought 1 carton. I forsee breakfast for dinner in our future!
  
• The boneless pork loin was $1.57/lb, which is 10 cents more than a few weeks ago. I bought 1 at 4 lbs and will be slicing it into 1/2-1 inch slices, which will be used in much the same manor as pork chops, but way cheaper!
  
• The gum cost me almost as much as the pork loin, so I wasn't too happy about that, but it's a pick-your-battles thing and I'm not willing to argue about my husband's gum. It's better all around if I just shop around until I find the best price and then stock up.
  

Milk aside, it was a heavy drink week and you can see where a big portion of my budget went. I bought a diet Arizona tea, Sprite zero, and 4 gatorades and most of this will be consumed by my husband. I bought an apple juice and 2 frozen juices, all of which are watered down when served and these are consumed mostly by me and my daughter. The bottled water is mostly for my husband, but my daughter will use a couple of them for soccer practice or games and I will drink a couple as well. I'm currently saving the bottles to reuse them before we recycle them. We use a water filter pitcher, too, because we drink a lot of water in this house.

Shopping Trip, Friday 10/2

I had awesome shopping today! Went to Aldi first for a lot of my basics. I did splurge on a $1.89 container of French Vanilla mix which will be used to flavor my coffee. I also bought some marked down chocolate pudding cups. My daughter loves to dip a banana in them! Then I went to Kroger to scoop up some deals. Now is the time to be buying and enjoying apples, potatoes, and squash. One of the better deals this week was 5lbs of gala apples for $1.97. Another was 10lbs of russet potatoes for $2.98. I also stopped by Dollar General, because it's one of 2 stores (Big Lots being the other) where I can get black beans for only $1/bag. Total out for the week was $49.19!!

One thing I didn't buy this week was salad fixin's. The temps around here are in the 60s most days and I just don't have it in me to eat a bunch of cold produce when I'm already chilly. Instead I bought some sweet potatoes, yukon golds, and a butternut squash so I could make this dish instead. I'm going to be replacing my salads with roasted vegetables, vegetable soup and baked sweet potatoes. I can make a big pan of roasted vegetables or a crock pot of vegetable soup each week and just use that in place of my summer salads. It's vegetables. They're in season making them cheaper. And they are so good for us! I really believe everyone should have a vegetable filled lunch.

I'll be sure to update with pictures and maybe even a cost breakdown of my roasted vegetables when I make them later this weekend.

iPod Touch Price Book & Shopping Trip for Friday 9/25

When my family and I moved to Indiana 3 months ago my husband sought out and signed up for a bundle package for our phone, internet and t.v. Four weeks later a free gift showed up -- an iPod touch. (Pretty nice free gift in my opinion.) I heard on the DS Forums about a price book app you could buy for $2. I checked it out and bought it; it's the only app I've paid for and IT'S BEEN WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY! ...even though I *just* started using it... I used it today to check if some walnuts on clearance were a good deal; they were not. And that really bugged because I'm sure someone is going to scoop them up thinking it's a great bargain and while it's not a huge savings you can save 64 cents buying the bag in the produce section rather than the reduced-for-quick-sale smaller bags.

Today's shopping was at 3 stores! Actually, I stopped yesterday by Big Lots to buy a rake and they had Cap'n Crunch cereal marked down to $1.25/box. I bought only 2 boxes because the sell by date is in a month.

I spent most of my money at Aldi's buying our usual weekly fixes -- romaine hearts, salmon, skim milk, turkey bacon, egg substitute, brown rice, fruit, and a few other things. Total out was $41.12.

Next I went to Kroger. Apparently there's a pumpkin shortage this year, so I went ahead and bought 1 pumpkin (it's sooo gorgeous, but really next year I'm growing some Hubbard Squash) along with some yogurt, bologna, cheese, my husband's Active Lifestyle milk, 4 gatorades, and yogurt. There were more markdowns than usual, though not any really good ones in the fresh meat department.

• 1/2 gallon of my husband's milk for 50 cents. It has 4 days left on it, which, generally, is plenty of time for us to use for cereal and baking. If I still have some left in 3 days I'll freeze it in 1 cup increments for future baking projects.
  
• Quart of half-n-half for $1, some of which will be used for coffee the next couple of days and then the rest will be frozen to use for Christmas breakfast of (overnight french toast).
• Oscar Meyer turkey breast lunch meat for 99 cents each. I grabbed 3 and they are all in my freezer.
• Scoop cat litter -- 14lbs. for $3.39; that's a better price than Aldi's!
  

Total out at Kroger was $27.56

Total out for the week was $71.18.

Shopping Trip, Friday 9/18

I generally shop once a week. Lately it's been on Friday morning. When I start working this could change. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of my goods. I'll work on that!

I hit up 2 stores normally and lately that's been Aldi's and Kroger. I buy as much as I can that's on my list that I can't get a better price on from Kroger due to loss leaders. There is no tax on food in Indiana; this is not the case in Virginia, my home state. There is tax on household and pet items, both of which I needed this week. I also needed a lot of basics this week, so I spent about $100. Next week I'm only buying milk, bread, produce -- the bare minimum basics, so my bill will be lower. We got some fun items this week, too.

My normal purchases from Aldi, and which I got this week, include:

• egg substitute ($1.99)
  
• boneless skinless chicken breasts ($5.99 for 3 lbs. -- not bad for when no one else is having a sale)
• boneless skinless salmon ($3.99 for 4 fillets at 4oz. each; purchased weekly as my husband needs his fish oils for heart health)
• romaine hearts ($1.99)
• pecans ($2.49 for 6 oz. -- just getting what I need as I need it until the big holiday sales)
• eggs (89 cents)
• honey ($3.79)
• syrup ($1.39)
• tortilla chips (99 cents for 13 oz. -- my default was Kroger to get 10 oz for $1)
• grape tomatoes ($1.49)
• almonds ($3.49 -- also for my husband; these are so much better than him snacking on something with a lot of HFCS or sat. fat)
• kitkat bar (59 cents -- a moment of weakness as I was running behind schedule and starving; I should really remember to put a new box of granola bars in the car)
• feta cheese ($1.99)
• milk ($1.49 -- 1 gallon skim)
  

I also grabbed some household items that we needed:

• scoopable cat litter ($3.69 -- the best price I've seen outside of sales matched with Qs)
  
• gallon bags ($1.99 for 30)
• CFL bulbs ($4.99 for 3 -- best price I've gotten so far & they're brand name)

Shopping at Kroger is a bit more difficult; there's a lot more product, but they have awesome loss leaders, they take coupons and at my store they double Qs up to 50 cents. Pairing paper Qs with electronic Qs can give you some serious deals. This week they also had the whole "buy 10 of these items and get $5 off instantly at the register" so there was that to contend with as well. I buy a lot of meats from Kroger, the balance of my produce, whole wheat flour, and some treat items. I won't give a list of every item, but here are some of the better deals. Prices indicated are after store card discount, promotions, and coupons (electronic and paper).

• palmolive pure & clear dishsoap (free after rebate; actually it will be an overage since I only paid $1.24 and the rebate is for $1.99)
• 2 cans pringles (83 cents each)
• active lifestyles milk (99 cents for 1/2 gallon; this is the milk my husband drinks. It has plant sterols in it which are good for your heart and help lower cholesterol.)
• 1 box of ritz crackerfuls (free)
• 2 suave body wash (50 cents each)
• 2 digiorno pizzas ($2.97 each)
• 5lbs ground beef ($7.50 -- or $1.50/lb. 3 lbs will be cooked up and frozen in 1 lb. increments for the next time we want nachos or tortillas; the other 2 lbs will be frozen, also in 1 lb increments, raw for meatloaf or similar)

One thing to note is that a lot of the stuff lasts for a while. Yes, some things have to be purchased weekly (milk and produce come to mind), but many last us a few meals. The ground beef, chicken breasts, pizza, pringles, honey, pecans, eggs, and syrup will last a minimum of 2 weeks and many much longer than that.

On Monday I'll post my menu plan!