As some of you know, I had severe anemia last pregnancy, so severe, in fact, that I ended up being hospitalized for a week to run tests and monitor me because the doctors and specialists were sure I must have some kind of disease or disorder other than pregnancy for my body to be in such bad shape and unwilling to respond in any way to the many different varieties of supplements, iron pills, and other such remedies they gave me for weeks in order to get my hemoglobin and platelet levels to bounce back up to a somewhat decent range.
The final verdict, after more poking and prodding and testing than I'd ever desire to endure again, was that I was healthy as a lark in all respects except for my hemoglobin and platelet counts and those were directly related to nurturing a life inside of me. And so I was induced early last time around and within a few days of the baby being born, my health had almost returned to normal levels. Which was a huge praise!
With this pregnancy, we've taken a number of precautionary measures to, if possible, avoid the difficulties I had the last time around. I've been eating a high-iron diet and taking double the normal iron supplements, in addition to a number of things.
And now that I'm 20 weeks along and starting to feel some anemia coming on, we're upping our grocery budget in order to allow me to buy extra meat each week. I'm not usually a meat eater–especially a red meat eater–but since it seems to be one thing my body does find helpful in warding off anemia, I'm eating it and lots of it. And it's very worth the extra $20 per week we've decided to spend if it means that I'm able to stay more healthy this time around.
So all that said, yes, we're temporarily raising the grocery budget to $60 per week as opposed to our usual $40 per week. The plan is to do this for the next 18-20 weeks or so while I get through the rest of my pregnancy. And then we'll re-evaluate and see what would be best for our family.
I wanted to openly and candidly share about this because I think it is important that all of us don't become so stuck upon a certain budgeted dollar amount for groceries that we overlook the needs of our families. $40 usually works pretty well for us, but I'm flexible if we need to raise it for a season–or even permanently–to better accommodate needs in our family or our current life situation.
For you, maybe $80 is what works best. Or $100. Or $150. I hope that our lower grocery budget can serve as an inspiration to many of you, but I don't ever want anyone to feel as if a certain dollar amount is the "gold standard" of grocery budgets. Because what works for one family, will likely not work for many other families. Do what works for your family and challenge yourself to do the best you can do with the time, energy, and resources you have. That's truly what frugal living is all about!
Now, with all of that said, here was our shopping trip from yesterday:
(isn't my daughter cute? She asked if she could please be in the picture!)
We hit Kroger (Dillons) and Walgreens and spent $42. I still need to hit Aldi for cheese, eggs, butter, frozen veggies, and a few other things so I'll likely spend most of the remaining $18 of our budget there.
At Dillons, I did the cereal promotion (buy 4 boxes of cereal bars or cereal, get $4 off instantly) three different times. They were $0.50-$1/box after coupons and the sale–which is a great price for our family since these are special treats for us!
I also got 8 packages of frozen meat that was reduced and Horizon milk and yogurt that was reduced and I had a coupon for. In addition, I got a free bag of Steamfresh meals for two (they had sent me a coupon as part of a promotion), toilet paper, whole wheat flour, and spinach, apples, and bananas all reduced.
All totaled, I spent $42 at Dillons and was very happy with all I was able to snag for that!
At Walgreens, I did a very sweet transaction: 2 Sure deodorants (free after coupons), aspirin (free with a coupon Walgreens sent me), a Schick Quattro razor (free after coupons), and two bottles of Arm and Hammer detergent (on 4-day special for $1.99 and I used one $1/1 coupon).
My total before coupons was $26 and after coupons was $3.98. But here's where it gets really good: Walgreens had sent me a $5 off check because we'd just moved to the area. So they were able to run the $5 off check to cover my $3.98 and I paid nothing out of pocket. Plus, I got a $5 Register Rewards back for spending $25 at Walgreens during their 4-day sale. Yay!
How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.**