Our shopping trip today:
We had a great shopping trip today at both Aldi and Dillons (Kroger). I especially enjoyed the Dillons trip as we were about to get two big bags of apples marked down to $1.49 each along with some skim milk marked down to $0.73. I just always love the adventure of spotting mark-downs; you never know what you might find!
I also discovered, much to my delight, that the Goody Ouchless ponytail holders were on sale for $2 so using this $2/1 coupon, we were able to get five packs free. And just in time as we somehow lost almost every ponytail holder we own when we moved (how does that happen?!). I'm guessing these are on sale at all Dillons stores and maybe some other Kroger stores so be sure to check.
Before coupons and sales, our total was around $105 at Dillons. After coupons and sale prices? $26.76! Gotta love those deals; who would ever pay full price for this stuff, though?
I ended up spending a few dollars more at Dillons than I was originally planning to so I took a few minutes before going into Aldi to cross a few things off my list that I didn't have to get this week and also took a quick inventory of how much leftover grocery money I had stashed away from staying under budget in recent weeks.
At Aldi, we picked up a few staple items we needed, 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes for $0.99, and some fruits and veggies to round out our menu. Our total there was $15.07.
So all totaled, we spent $41.83–a little over our $40 budget, but using the extra cash from the past few weeks that we've stayed a little under budget, I didn't have to have them take anything off my order! Yay! And next time, I'm going to plan a little better and make sure I don't get carried away on deals at Dillons like I seemed to do a little of this week! 🙂
Here's our menu for the week (As always, this is using ingredients purchased this week and ingredients we've stocked up in past $40 shopping trips. We didn't buy any meat or many veggies this week as our freezer is still stocked with those from past sales.):
Breakfasts
Pumpkin apple breakfast bread, yogurt
Whole-wheat pancakes, yogurt, juice
Oatmeal with bananas, flaxseed, and brown sugar
Cranberry wheat muffins, fruit, milk
Banana peanut butter smoothies, toast
Granola over yogurt with fruit
Healthy Harvest Muffins, yogurt, juice
Lunches
Egg salad sandwiches, carrots
PB&J sandwiches, pears
Cheese quesadillas, grapes
Salmonettes, muffins, apples
Steamed veggies over rice
Rice cakes, yogurt, carrots
Dinners
Enchilada casserole, green rice (I'll have to share the recipe for this sometime soon; it's a family favorite!), broccoli
Goulash, homemade bread, veggies
Church dinner–I'm bringing scalloped potatoes, apple pie, and banana bread
Chicken broccoli rice, homemade bread, grapefruit
Homemade pizza, fruit
Steak stir fry over brown rice, homemade bread
Dinner out
Snacks–Muffins, yogurt, apples, carrots
For more menu inspiration, head over to Organizing Junkie.
Hi!
I am so very inspired by your blog and your awesome budget! I have just started getting into couponing/CVS. I am so excited at all the options ahead of me with couponing, etc but am limited on the time I can put into it right now as I work full time, an hour from home. I was wondering if you know of a website that has menu planning ideas within a budget, similar to what you’re doing? Our budget would be closer to 75-100 dollars per week….I am very determined to get where you’re at when I’m a stay at home mom, but for now, I don’t have the time to devote to all the baking, coupon clipping, preparation, etc! I have looked at sites such as kraft.com and allrecipes.com but none of them seem to be “money/budget minded”. Wasn’t sure if you’d have any ideas?
Thanks again for all the ideas and for taking the time to write your posts, I know I’m not the only one that eats it up! 🙂
I’ve had no problem printing or redeeming multiples of the Goody’s coupon. Thanks Crystal for your great site. You’ve really inspired me!
I wish we had a Dillins in Wisconsin! I just have not been able to get these deals here in a small town. I come close to having this good of deals, but I think with 6 people in our family, we just can’t go that low. Also, my older kids and husband are bigger eaters and love meat! The only stores we have available close by are Piggly Wiggly and Wal-mart. There is an Aldies 40 minutes away along with a family store, Quillins and Woodman’s. Does anyone have any ideas for those stores? Just curious.
If you ever want to do a post on husby lunch ideas I’d be all for it 😉 I know everyone has different tastes, but for whatever reason figuring out things to have on hand for my dh is the thing I have the most trouble with. He likes tings likes ready to go items that are easy to grab. Thanks for your blog!
I always enjoy seeing your menu and reading how your grocery shopping trip went. You did a great job.
Blessings
http://grocerydollars.blogspot.com
Could you share your recipe for salmonettes?
I was just wondering how you use multiple coupons with the deals you find. Most of the coupons limit one coupon per purchase. Love reading your blog!!
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Money Saving Mom here: The “limit one per purchase” verbiage means that you can only use one manufacturer’s coupon per ITEM, not per transaction. So if you have six of the same items and the coupon is $1/1, you can use six of those coupons. Make sense?
I just wanted to say that I enjoyed this site and all the great ideas. I am out of work right now and raising 6 children would not be possible if we could not find deals. SO thank you for doing such a great job.
Have you found there is a better time of the day to find things at those reduced prices? (like the milk)
Great job staying within your budget! I have also really enjoyed the mix and match sales the past couple weeks.
I did have one question for you though. Does your hubby eat the same breakfast and lunch from the menu? I was looking through your menu plan and thinking that my husband just needs to eat more than that.
I have really been cutting down with our family food budget and a few weeks ago my husband announced that he was losing weight (he doesn’t have weight to lose) and wanted me to buy more food. (We eat very healthily)
I know all guys are different, but I was just curious 🙂
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Money Saving Mom here: My hubby’s actually gained about 20-30 pounds since we’ve been married so I don’t think he’s having trouble losing weight! (He *needed* to gain the weight, though, as he was underweight before we got married!)
He usually just has cereal for breakfast or, on occasion, if he has time, and I’m making pancakes or something, he’ll eat those. He’s always been one to skip breakfast, so I just have stuff on hand if he wants to eat.
He often has business lunches (he’s an attorney) but if he doesn’t, then I pack him a great big ol’ lunch. (Sandwiches, veggies, fruit, cheese, cookies, yogurts, muffins, extra snacks, etc.) I just make sure to have plenty of this type of stuff on hand and then make homemade treats/snacks a few times per month and freeze them to use for his lunches. Sometimes I send leftovers with him, too.
If your husband is losing weight or feeling like he’s not getting enough to eat, definitely consider buying more at the store and making sure to have plenty on hand for him. I think it’s very important that we wives bless our husbands by seeking to cook to please them first.
Hope that helps!
I Have beeen watching all the deals that you get at Dillons each week, so I did a search on the internet to see where the closest Dillons is. I live in the Kansas City area and the closest store is Leavenworth, KS. This is less than 30 miles from my house. I decided to check it out to see if it is worth the drive once or twice a month. It definitely is!!! The deals at the stores in Kansas City don’t even come close to the deals I found at Dillons! I saved over $50. The nice thing is that the ad is available on-line. Each week I can check the ad to see if it is worth the trip. I am so excited to be able to shop at Dillons and save lots of money!!
Wow, great week! Wish we had a special on Oatmeal around here – looks like you were able to get a good deal.
Wow! You got some great deals!!
Valerie
Frugal Family Fun Blog
Good times on a budget!
http://frugalfamilyfunblog.blogspot.com
I was wondering how you were able to print out five of the goody hair product coupons? It only let me print two. Is there a trick to printing more? Thanks.
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Money Saving Mom here: Strange. I don’t know only that it let me print as many as I wanted to. I just chose to print out five since I thought that’d be plenty for us. I have not tried to print them again, though. Maybe they limited it. Anyone else know?
I was wondering if you carried over the money when you stay under budget. So I guess you do!
You did great, Crystal! And, you’re super efficient getting all the shopping done on Monday!
Great job this week!
Any advice on thanksgiving (complete with turkey) on a budget?
Would you mind sharing your whole wheat pancake recipe? I’d like to make the healthier variety! Thanks.
I went to both Dillons and Aldis today as well. I spent about $35. I have the picture of all we got on my blog.