See the details of my $200 a month grocery shopping trips and learn the things that I do to save and live well on a low budget with my family of five!
Some of you have wondered where I get my printable coupons. Here are the main coupon sites that I use: Coupons.com, Ibotta, and Fetch Rewards. Manufacturer websites and Facebook pages are also great sources.
If you are new here and unfamiliar with my weekly What I Spent & Saved posts, it probably is helpful to understand a bit about how I shop. I do something called stockpile shopping. This simply means that when I see an item at rock bottom prices that I regularly use or know that I can use, I’ll buy several of it. This might seem kind of crazy, but it honestly saves me hundreds of dollars a year! Simply put, by buying 6 bags of frozen veggies when I can get them for $0.50/bag with a coupon and sale instead of paying the full price of $1.50, I save $6.00. This savings adds up pretty quickly! Want to know more about this kind of shopping? Check out my post on How to Start Building a Grocery Stockpile.
I also buy meats and veggies in bulk. The meat I either can or freeze and then obviously have it on hand whenever I need it. I purchase large quantities of fruits and veggies when they are in season and I can get them at really great prices. By canning or freezing them, I save a lot and we are able to enjoy great produce for less cost all year long. I do still buy some fresh fruits and veggies too. In fact, every 7 to 10 days I go to our local farmer’s market and get several heads of lettuce so that we can enjoy salads at least 4 times a week.
I hope that helps you make sense of some of this. I realize at first glance it can look like we eat rather strangely but I think we really eat quite well! Of course, if you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments! I’ll be more than happy to try to answer them.
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Total Spent: $38.71
Total Saved with Coupons: $18.35
Total Saved with Sales: $25.02
Total Saved: $43.37
CVS: $5.13
Saved with Coupons: $9.00
Saved with Sales: $13.10
I was super glad that I got a couple of rain checks several weeks ago when CVS had eggs on sale but were out of stock, because egg prices around here are somewhere around $2.50 a dozen if I remember correctly. I looked at Aldi, but I don’t remember the exact price, I just know it was well over $2.00. At any rate, it definitely made $1.69 sound good!
A friend told me about a local egg farm that sells their egg seconds for super cheap. I keep wanting to check it out, the problem is, I rarely get over to the area that the farm is located. Maybe one of these days!
The Kotex was a money maker of $1.00 after coupons and sales. It’s always fun when I can get personal care products for free!
BOUGHT:
- 6 dozen large eggs $1.69 each
- U by Kotex tampons $3.99
– used $2.00 Kotex CVS printable coupon
– used $2.00 Kotex coupon from Sunday newspaper coupon inserts
OTHER COUPONS USED:
- $5.00 in Extra Bucks earned by purchasing items previously at CVS
GOT BACK:
- $1.00 Extra Bucks for purchasing the Kotex (can be used on future purchase of any item at CVS)
Giant: $12.26
Saved with Coupons: $8.25
Saved with Sales: $11.92
Yes, more Kid Fresh chicken nuggets! I know, if you regularly read these posts, you know that I’ve bought a lot of them lately. But seriously, people, when you can get them for free or make money on them, it just seems silly not to get them! This time they were a money maker of $0.50.
The banana cost me all of $0.01 after a Checkout 51 offer. Saving money on fruit is always awesome!
BOUGHT:
- 8 Kid Fresh chicken nuggets $2.50 each
– used four $2/2 Kid Fresh printable coupons - banana $0.26
– got back $0.25 via Checkout 51
Aldi: $21.32
I bought more pumpkin at Aldi. Some years I’m not that into pumpkin-y things, but for some reason this year, I’m just all over pumpkin. I know I bought 5 cans a couple of weeks ago, but since there is a pumpkin shortage and since I am guessing I may be taking a pumpkin dessert to a couple of functions, I thought I’d better buy some more now while I can still find it.
You just can’t beat Aldi’s prices on most things, cream cheese being one of them. Where else can you get it for $0.89? I love cream cheese and when I can get it this cheap I don’t mind using it a lot. We love Cream Cheese Potato Soup with Ham and of course No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I keep wanting to make a cheesecake too, but somehow I never get it done. There is a chocolate chip one that we love that is absolutely fabulous!
Another thing that I love buying at Aldi is taco seasoning mix. It’s the only bought taco seasoning that I’ve found that is MSG free.
BOUGHT:
- 2% milk $3.52
- corn chips $0.79
- canola oil $1.79
- saltines $0.79
- 2 taco seasoning mix $0.35 each
- 4 cream cheese $0.89 each
- 5 lb. red potatoes $2.99
- ranch dressing $1.29
- 2 black beans $0.59 each
- 2 heavy whipping cream $1.69 each
- 3 great northern beans $0.59 each
- tomato paste $0.39
- whole kernel corn $0.49
- 5 canned pumpkin $0.89 each
Target: $0.00
Saved with Coupons: $1.10
Remember last week how I had the issue at Target where they gave me a gift card for the coupon that I forgot to use? I ended up using that gift card to pay for this purchase, which is why I show it as costing me $0 above.
I use my dishwasher more and more- we probably run it every 1 ½ days. I figure it’s a cheap maid! (I used to run it every 3 to 4 days.) As a result, we are going through dishwashing detergent faster and when I saw this deal at Target where I could get Finish tabs for just $0.08/tab after coupons and sales, I knew I really wanted to try to get some! My buy price for dishwasher tablets is $0.10/tab or less, so I felt like this was a great deal.
BOUGHT:
- 2 Finish dishwasher tabs $5.69 each
– used two $0.55 Finish printable coupons
GOT BACK:
- $5.00 Target gift card for purchasing 2 Finish products
Misc.: $0
I love OB tampons and several weeks ago requested a free sample. I was extremely surprised when it arrived in the mail this week and was a full-sized box plus a coupon for another free box! Talk about generous. It appears like you can still request the OB sample (no longer available), so hopefully you can get a free box too!
Credits: $5.50
I know I just cashed out my Saving Star earnings last week, but I already earned enough to cash out again! I always just roll the earnings back into my grocery budget since I earned it for purchasing grocery items.
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