OUR $200/MO. GROCERY BUDGET: WHAT I SPENT & SAVED (9/13-9/19)

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!

There are affiliate links in this post for your convenience.  Please read my full disclosure policy. 

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: $71.31
Total Saved with Coupons: $34.41
Total Saved with Sales: $37.84
Total Saved: $72.25

Giant: $28.23
Saved with Coupons: $26.00
Saved with Sales: $31.84

The Kid Fresh and Turkey Hill Ice Cream/Gelato were part of Giant’s gas reward deals.  Basically, after coupons, sales and gas savings, the Kid Fresh nuggets were a money maker of $8.00.  The Turkey Hill products were just $0.50 each after coupons, sales and gas savings.  We love both the Kid Fresh nuggets and the Turkey Hill ice cream, so these were really fun buys!

I usually make my own homemade yogurt, since it’s cheaper and healthier.  But I decided to go ahead and get some Yoplait kids yogurts this week since they ended up being a money maker of $0.03.  The kids thought it was fun to have these little cups of flavored yogurts for something different!

I needed more potatoes and Giant had them on sale for buy one, get one free.  Did you know that for most stores, you actually don’t have to buy 2 of an item to get the buy one, get one free price?  For instance, these potatoes were $4.00 a bag.  Since I bought just one, I was able to pay $2.00, or half the price.

Butterball turkey bacon was on sale this week, but the store I went to was out of it.  Instead of writing me a rain check, they said they would rather give me a pack of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon for the same price.  I didn’t really care about the brand, so I agreed.  I had a coupon to use on the Butterball brand though, and was concerned that might be a problem.  They just put it through their system manually, allowing me to get the same savings I would have gotten had it been the Butterball brand!  I’d say that’s some great customer service!

BOUGHT:

• 8 Yoplait kids yogurt $1.59 each
  – got back $0.75/2 via Saving Star
  – used four $0.75/2 Yoplait printable coupons (doubled to $1.00 each)
  – saved $8.00 instantly (save $4.00 on every 4 purchased)
• 11 Kid Fresh chicken nuggets $2.50 each
  – got back $1.50 via Ibotta
  – used seven $1.50 Kid Fresh printable coupons
  – used two $1.00 Kid Fresh printable coupons
  – used $1.50/2 Kid Fresh printable coupon
• 3 Turkey Hill ice cream $3.50 each
  – used $1.00 Turkey Hill coupon received via manufacturer
  – used $0.50 Turkey Hill coupon received via manufacturer (doubled to $1.00)
• Turkey Hill gelato $3.50
  – got back $2.25 via Ibotta ($1.25 for purchasing gelato and $1.00 for meeting an Ibotta bonus)
  – used $0.75 Turkey Hill coupon received via manufacturer (doubled to $1.00)
• 5 lb. Giant brand red potatoes $2.00
• Oscar Mayer turkey bacon $2.00
  – used $0.55 Butterball printable coupon
  (yes, I they used a Butterball coupon on an Oscar Mayer bacon…see details under picture above)

GOT BACK:

• $30.00 in gas reward savings for purchasing the Turkey Hill and Kid Fresh

Rite Aid: $0
Saved with Coupons: $8.41
Saved with Sales: $6.00

Back when CFL’s came out, there were all sorts of sales on them and I got a ton of free light bulbs as a result.  But it’s been a long time since I was able to get a good deal on them!  I hadn’t planned to go to Rite Aid this week, but then I noticed that I could actually make $1.00 on a 2-pack of CFL light bulbs.  Since Rite Aid is only a couple of blocks away, I was able to easily swing by one afternoon when I was out doing other business.

BOUGHT:

• GE lightbulbs $7.99
  – used $1.00 GE printable coupon

OTHER COUPONS USED:

• $7.41 in Plenti Points earned by purchasing items previously at Rite Aid

GOT BACK:

• $7.99 in Plenti Points for purchasing the Colgate (can be used on next purchase of any item)

Aldi: $19.93

You regular readers know how much I love Aldi!  They have great products, at great prices and shopping there is a wonderful way to reduce your spending.

A couple of things to note this week:  Coconut, a seasonal item, is back in stock!  I was happy to see that, since Aldi’s price is always way cheaper than I can get it at my local bulk food store.  The price on brown sugar jumped $0.10, but the price on canola oil dropped $0.50.  Aldi’s prices seem to always be jumping around a little, it used to bug me, but then I realized that in the end, it really kind of all evens out.  Some things drop significantly and others jump.

BOUGHT:

• 3 lb. sweet potatoes $2.49
• pretzel sticks $1.29
• 2 Ranch dressing $1.29 each
• mayo $1.89
• 2 coconut flakes $1.29 each
• brown sugar $1.29
• mushrooms $0.69
• 2 black beans $0.59 each
• 4 great northern beans $0.59 each
• 2 canola oil $1.79 each

Sharp Shopper: $23.15

Found some great bargains this week at my local discount grocery store!  We were almost out of block cheese, so I jumped at the chance to get some Cracker Barrel Asiago for $0.99 each!  With cooler weather arriving, cheese is just a handy thing to have on hand to eat with soup.  I also bought more 100% grapefruit juice for my husband to enjoy.   And more Ball Park hot dogs too.  I had bought some last week too, but since they were hickory smoke flavored, I kind of wanted to try them first before I bought more.  (Once I bought the Ball Park BBQ ones and they were too spicy for the kids to really enjoy.)  I made some last week and we all really liked them!   Since I have plenty of freezer space I bought more and just put them in the freezer.  They’ll definitely give me some handy, quick meals, which is always nice!

If you’ve been reading these posts regularly, you know that I’ve been buying quite a bit of bacon because Sharp Shopper keeps having it for $1.99.  It’s just hard to pass up that kind of price!  But I really debated this week whether I should buy more.  I ultimately decided to go ahead and get some since it freezes well.

I talked recently on Periscope about how buying in bulk can save significant amounts of money.  That was the reason that I bought the 5 gallons of apple cider vinegar, the big bottle of cinnamon and the 5 lbs. of carrots.  I use all of those things often enough that it made sense to buy the larger quantities since they were quite a bit cheaper than buying them in smaller amounts.

• Tropicana 100% pure grapefruit juice $0.99
• 3 bacon $1.99 each
• 5 lb. carrots $1.99
• 5 Cracker Barrel Asiago cheese $0.99 each
• pumpkin pie spice $0.89
• Ball Park hot dogs $1.49 each
• cinnamon 12.5 oz. $2.39
• 5 gallon apple cider vinegar $2.99