OUR $200/MO. GROCERY BUDGET: WHAT I SPENT & SAVED (9/27-10/3)

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 – 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: $76.11
Total Saved with Coupons: $17.20
Total Saved with Sales: $16.26
Total Saved: $33.46

Giant: $7.03
Saved with Coupons: $8.45
Saved with Sales: $12.58

We were almost totally out of coffee again, so I made sure to stock up this week when it went on sale for buy one, get one free!  That is one of my favorite Giant sales and they typically run it every 6 weeks or so, especially through the fall and winter months.  Usually, there are $1.00 coupons available too and by combining them with the sale, I’m able to get good coffee for under $2.00 a bag!  We tend to go through a lot of it since my husband is home studying more now and since I have a homemade frappe pretty much every morning.

The pasta ended up being a $0.20 moneymaker by combining a coupons with a sale.  We don’t eat a lot of pasta, but getting it free sure is nice for when we want to enjoy it!

The banana was free as well after a Checkout 51 offer.  Can’t beat getting fruit for free!

BOUGHT:

• 4 Eight O’Clock coffee $2.70 each (on sale buy one, get one free)
  – used four $1.00 Eight O’Clock printable coupons
• 4 Barilla pasta $1.00 each
  – used four $0.70 Barilla printable coupons (doubled to $1.00 each)
  – got back $0.20 via Ibotta (good on any brand pasta)
• banana $0.25
  – got back $0.25 via Checkout 51

Weis: $2.06
Saved with Coupons: $2.75
Saved with Sales: $0.58

Excuse the blurry picture…not sure what happened!  

Our one Weis Markets has a small post office branch located inside it, which I love.  Because the only other post office that is nearby is downtown and it’s hard to find parking nearby, plus if I do want to park to go inside, then I need to pay for parking too.  So I often just end up going to Weis since I’m often over that direction anyway.

Why am I talking about post offices in this grocery spending post?  Well, because I wouldn’t have bought these Turkey Hill lemonades otherwise.  Since I was going to Weis to do some post office business, I figured I might as well see what deals were available too.  I got these two lemonades for $0.63 each after coupons and sales!  They were a fun little splurge, since I don’t often buy beverages.

BOUGHT:

• 2 Turkey Hill Pure & Chilled lemonade $2.00 each
  – used two $0.75 Turkey Hill Pure & Chilled coupons received from manufacturer (doubled to $1.00 each)
  – got back $0.75 via Ibotta

Rite Aid: $0
Saved with Coupons: $6.00
Saved with Sales: $3.10

One thing that a lot of people don’t realize when they are new to couponing is that you can using both a manufacturer and a store coupon for the same product.  I did that this week and was able to get both the Colgate toothpaste and toothbrush for totally free as a result!

BOUGHT:

• Colgate toothbrush $2.99
  – used $1.00 Colgate coupon from Sunday newspaper coupon inserts
  – used $2.00 Colgate coupon from Rite Aid ad
• Colgate toothpaste $2.99
  – used $1.00 Colgate coupon from Sunday newspaper coupon inserts
  – used $2.00 Colgate coupon from Rite Aid ad

Aldi: $18.84

I love Aldi!  I mean where else can you regularly get corn chips for $0.79, cream cheese for under $1.00 and heavy whipping cream for $1.69?

Someone recently asked me on the Thrifty Frugal Mom Facebook page what my buy price is for cream cheese.  I said I rarely will buy it unless it’s $1.00 or less and that is mainly because I can nearly always find it at Aldi for that price.  When the price jumps up to $1.19 like it does occasionally, I just don’t buy it as often.  I have even used their cream cheese for cheesecakes, although I do have to admit that the Philadelphia cream cheese does seem to work a bit better.  It’s not a huge difference though and definitely not a big enough difference to make me shell out the extra $1.00 or more, at least typically.

BOUGHT:

• oranges $2.29
• 2 Great Northern Beans $0.59 each
• mayo $1.89
• black beans $0.59
• 2 cream cheese $0.99 each
• Ranch dressing $1.29
• saltines $0.79
• 2 heavy whipping cream $1.69 each
• 3 brown sugar $1.29 each
• 2 corn chips $0.79 each

Misc.: $48.18

* $5.00
I withdrew $5.00 from our checking to use to buy lettuce from our local farmer’s market

* $34.54
I got some pre-made ham loaf for $1.99/lb ( $20.68 total) from a local grocery store.  I love using this for a quick Sunday lunch.  I make a homemade glaze for it and pop it in the oven.  It’s so easy and yet so good!

I also got some boneless, skinless chicken thighs for $1.39/lb. ($13.86 total).  I’m getting some boneless, skinless chicken breast from Zaycon Foods later this month, but I wasn’t quite sure I would have enough chicken to last me until then.

* $2.39
I’m getting pretty low on ground beef and have been trying to figure out a good place to buy it for a reasonable price.  I’ve been pretty spoiled that last several years because I’ve been able to get it from friends that have their own cows or from my in-law’s who had a cow given to them for the cost of butchering it.

Anyway, my sister-in-law found this ground beef at a small local Amish run grocery store.  She wondered if I wanted some and I had her get me 1 lb. because I wanted to try it first before I bought a larger amount.  From my experience, store-bought ground beef can really vary in quality, and I didn’t feel like buying 10 lbs. only to discover that it was not great quality.  I tried this ground beef tonight and was mostly impressed.  It did have quite a bit of fat cook off, but the beef itself was decent and didn’t have that odd smell that a lot of store-bought beef does.  (Once you get used to beef raised and butchered locally, you notice things about other beef that just make it hard to switch back!)

* $6.25
My have a wheat grinder and buy their own wheat.  I take advantage of that and buy fresh ground whole wheat flour from them.  I love using it in  my 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe and of course other things too.

And in case you are wondering, this is only about half of the amount that I bought this time.