I seem to be putting myself on an every-two-week shopping schedule, without even meaning to do so! Two weeks ago, I shopped on Monday. This week, I didn't shop until Friday. So it wasn't quite two weeks, but it was close. And then I went 16 or 17 days between shopping trips the previous two weeks.
I'm beginning to think maybe this is not that bad of an idea because not only does it save me time but it also is saving us money. I'm not sure what it is, but I can't bring myself to spend more than $80 in a shopping trip, so if I only go every two weeks, that brings our grocery budget back down to our usual $40/week budget.
So I'm considering making the switching–at least for the next few months while we adjust to having a new baby at our house. We'll see. I could change my mind, but I think I'm going to give a shot for at least a month or two and see how it goes!
Here's what we bought at Aldi and Dillon's yesterday:
You can tell I'm getting closer to the end of my pregnancy (I'm "full-term" now by the way–an update is here, in case you're interested!) because my shopping trips are including more convenience foods in them these days. I love to make almost everything from scratch, but I also am a firm believer that there is a time and place to cut myself some slack.
On the days when I feel energized, I do some cooking and baking. Other days, when I'm feeling exhausted, we stick to really simple meals and snacks. In the long run, I'd much rather that we have quick and easy things to eat at home, than to fall back on fast food or carryout because I'm too tired to make lunch or dinner.
To recap some of our grocery shopping trip highlights:
ALDI:
We picked up some staple items, produce sale items, and a few snack foods at Aldi and spent a total of $23 there. I'm so excited that cheese is $1.29 for 8 oz. at Aldi right now, as opposed to the $1.99 it was all Winter long. We love cheese and can go through quite a bit of it, so the reduced price is definitely a welcome thing! And I also found King's Hawiian Rolls reduced to $0.99! Yum!
DILLONS:
My best scores were strawberries for $1.47/package, a bag of 100% Natural chicken breasts for $5.98, Gillette Body Wash for $0.50 each, and a few reduced items like Blue Bunny ice cream for $1.25! All totaled, I spent $53 at Dillons, which I was really happy about considering I got two packages of diapers in addition to a number of sacks of food.
You can check out more details on some of the deals I snagged here. (Our Dillons didn't have exactly the same prices, but many of them were very similar.)
All in all, it was a great shopping trip and I'm pretty sure I'll have enough food to last us for the next two weeks without a problem.
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Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below.
Note: Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.
i found steamfresh vegetables 10 for 10$ at kroger this week (the small 10 ish oz bags). Paired with a .35/1 coupon(no idea which insert, i didn’t plan this purchase), i thought they were a good deal and stocked up at .30 a piece.
Can anyone clue me in on where to find the clearance items at the grocery store? The only thing i have been able to find is the bakery section at wal-mart. But other stores such as aldi, or target, I can’t find any food items that are clearenced. thanks!!
My children love those little yogurt cups. 🙂 They don’t like their yogurt to have “pieces” in it. (Strawberry chunks, etc.) It seems that the smooth, artificial pink stuff is more to their liking! Ha!
I laughed when you mentioned convenience foods. We are 39 weeks, 6 days pregnant here (please baby, we are ready!) and my last trip to the grocery was nearly ALL “easy snacks.” I didn’t buy any fresh veggies or meats (did get fruit…it goes fast here!) and decided to use up what we have/use freezer meats. I don’t trust myself to remember to put the fresh items in the freezer in the midst of baby excitement, and I hate to see food go to waste.
Bless you in this time of excitement. You do such a great job stewarding your grocery dollars. Your discipline is an inspiration.
I also do my major shopping trips only every two to three weeks. It saves time, especially since I go to two stores (Aldi and Schnucks – a St. Louis chain). I make smaller, ocassional trips in between to pick up milk, eggs, produce, etc.
I agree with Dixie Gypsy … I struggle to find balance with couponing, hitting the sales, being afraid of “missing” a good deal, etc. Maybe you could consider that topic for a future post. I’m sure there are others out there who would also appreciate some advice in that area.
I’m trying to figure out how you can go a more than a week with only one gallon of milk! I have 4 kids and we go through about 4 a week. They all love cereal for breakfast (my husband most of all) so I don’t think I could change that. I do appreciate your posts though – thanks for all the tips and great advice!
And yes, Dixie Gypsy, I just started couponing last August and have felt panic many times at missing a deal! It just happens sometimes. I think it’s getting easier to know what I need or what I have time to do.
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Money Saving Mom here: We don’t drink milk at all, so that helps a great deal (none of us like it so we get our calcium from other sources). I can typically stretch a gallon of milk to last 10-12 days here, unless we’re eating more cereal, like we have been recently. Then a gallon can go in less than a week, if I’m not careful.
We’ve been eating more cereal here recently since I’ve been low on energy, but with all the good milk deals it’s not been a problem for our budget. For instance, this past week I took advantage of the buy 3 General Mills items, get a free gallon of milk. I ended up spending $4.50 total for three boxes of granola bars and a gallon of milk. If we drank more milk, I probably would have strategized more and done the deal multiple times.
Ways I stretch milk: I often water down milk in cooking. You can do 50/50 or even more without a noticeable difference.
Also, we usually only eat cereal a few times per week–if that. The other days we have pancakes, muffins, fruit smoothies, etc.
In addition, I have been using some powdered milk recently if we run out of milk before our store trip. It’s not my first choice, but it works in a pinch–especially in baking. If you mix it up and put it in the refrigerator overnight, you can’t tell much of a difference.
Hope that helps!
A great deal I picked up at Dillon’s this week was Wonder Bread Soft 100% Whole Wheat for 69 cents per loaf. The bread was on sale for $1.69 and had a 55 cent coupon on the package which could be used immediately and was doubled to make it $1 off. I stocked up.
Hi!
It’s funny to me to read about your decision to only shop every two weeks. Food is the one area where I do spend money regularly, since we don’t spend much on clothes, home items etc. I love to shop and grocery shopping is kind of my outlet for that since we stay on a strict budget. That said, I’m new to couponing, and I almost feel panicked I might “miss a great sale” if I don’t go every week. However, a week ago, I sat down and made a meal plan using every scrap of food in the house and realized we have 2-3 months of food in our stockpile. I feel so much calmer now…like..”okay…it’s okay to miss a week.” 🙂 I wonder if some of the other stockpilers ever struggle with this internal tension of bordering on hoarding and greed with stockpiling. As a Christian believer, I know there is a balance of trusting Christ for my supplies…not my stockpile. And like you said, I’d probably save money by not going as often, which is actually the point of the couponing!
Our Wal-mart has Dole strawberries on sale for 75 cents a lb now! Great for making strawberry shortcake!
How did you get the diapers for so little?? Aren’t they about $10 and I only know of 1.50 coupons for Huggies. Appreciate the tips.
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Money Saving Mom here: I used the $5/1 coupon from Coupons.com which was available a few weeks ago stacked with the Cellfire.com $1/1 coupon (Cellfire has confirmed you are allowed to stack their ecoupons with menu. coupons.) So they were around $4.97 per package.
I’ve been slowly stocking up on diapers for the baby when I can get them for under $5/package and can fit it into our weekly grocery budget. I currently have enough diapers to last for at least a few months. Now I need to start stocking up on size 2’s!
The Kroger Comforts are on sale for $6.97 and I used the $3/1 coupon here:
https://moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/02/kroger-31-diaper-coupon.html
to get them for $3.97 per package. This coupon resets every month so I use it to buy one package of size 5 diapers for my 4-year-old and it lasts her the whole month (she still wears a diaper every night). So it costs us $1/week for her diapers.
Hope that helps!
Looks like some great deals at Aldi’s. I love Aldi’s, it’s my favorite.
Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
We eat a lot of cheese at our house as well. We have found that the 5 lb. bags of shredded cheese at BJs are less expensive than the bags of shredded at the grocery store. We paid $9.70 for a 5 lb. bag. I am not sure on the price of the block cheese, but it might be worth checking out if you have a BJs close by! I think the membership fee is well worth it with the monthly store coupons (that you can stack with manufacturer’s coupons).
I always love seeing your grocery pictures! They’re such an inspiration. I think I’ve only tried shopping every two weeks once, and it SEEMED like a good idea, but we ran out of a lot of things by the end of the second week–we’re apparently not very good at restraining ourselves.
I have also found that we save money if I shop every two weeks. Even if I don’t keep track of how much I’m spending, it’s always less when it’s every two weeks. Funny how that happens.
I shop every 2 weeks and have for years. Our milk, bread, etc. last that long and with a menu the meals do too. I hated spending part of every weekend at the grocery store so that’s what convinced me to try it. And with a new baby it’s especially nice to not have to go to the store that often since there’s so much else I can be doing at home with her. It works well for us. We get more time together (outside of the grocery store) as a family, and if we run out of something…tough luck until the next shopping trip. It definitely saves us money by not stepping back in the store again in a week or so.
You are so right about having convenience foods on hand saving you from take-out. I think it’s very wise to be realistic in frugality — it’s just like being on a diet. If you don’t cut yourself any slack, especially at a time like this, if you’re like most people you won’t be able to stick to your plan at all.
Nice haul – especially with diapers!
And I wanted to thank you SOOOO much for posting (more than once) about Zenni Optical! I saved about $80 due to your posts! I have yet to receive my glasses, but I’m sure they’ll be great, since so many of your other readers were so pleased!
I certainly appreciate all the work you put into this site – thank you for saving me so much money on a continuous basis! 🙂