Weekly Grocery Shopping Trip = $53.32

So, after a co-worker of mine joined a challenge this past week called SNAP hunger challenge, I was challenged to look at our grocery budget even more. The challenge was to live off of $30/week per adult in the household. This is the average amount given to individuals on the SNAP program.

That is $10 more than what we spend on groceries a week! So I've come to realization that it was not realistic to be living off of $50/week on groceries. I've talked it over with my husband, and I think that we are going to increase our grocery budget to $60/week. And planning meals is a must!

My husband and I also recently have started buying all our meat from a local farm called Triple S Farms.

Last week we spend $33 on ground beef, chicken, and bacon.

Here's what Z-man and I got this week for groceries:

Aldi's = $33.60

Big Lots = $9.60

Lots of snacks! Z-man picked out the Oreo's and the other cookies are for snack that Pudge is going to bring to preschool.

County Market = $10.12

They had some awesome deals that made items $0.88! So we got some more pasta and red sauce. The Fisher's almonds were in the clearance cart for $1.50. The soda pop is for a party that we're going to this weekend.

Total spent on groceries this week was $53.32.

Groceries this week = $60.74

Big Lots = $4.14

Mmm...Nutella!

Tried out a new Farmers Market this week. It is located by the Police Station in Champaign, and is open from 3-7pm. It's a rather small market, with only a few tents, and one huge pork roast! It smelled awesome! There was even a small sprinkler set out for the kids on behalf of American Water. My boys loved it!

We stopped by towards the end of the evening, around 6:30pm, so I think the lady selling the onions was wanting to get rid of them, because she gave me 8 for $6!

We used out WIC Farmers Market Coupons, so total these all cost about $12.

Aldi's is becoming one of my favorite stops for grocery shopping, because our printer is not printing out any coupons for me...no matter what I do. So Aldi's it is. We're going to try their frozen salmon this week. I hope it's tasty! Total = $46.88.

We also stopped at County Market, because we had a couple of store coupons, and had to pick up some items that Aldi's didn't have. Total = $9.72.

So, that's our weekly grocery shopping. We try to spend under $50/week. This week's total was $60.74. Last week we were under budget, so we used that leftover money towards this week.

Grocery Shopping This Past Week = $23.21

I made lots of random quick trip to County Market this week, so nothing big to be pictured here this week.

County market trip #1: 12.48

I was excited to see yogurt marked down to $0.25/container! We had lots of tomatoes from grandma's garden, so I picked up some bacon for some BLT sandwiches.

County Market Trip #2: $7.73

"Millions of peaches, peaches for me..." - We are slowly teaching our boys that song, because they are eating peaches like they're going out of style!

And then not pictured:

Walgreens: $3.00 spent on Twizzlers Pull-n-Peels!

Total spent on groceries this week: $23.21. This is out of $50/week budgeted for groceries in our household. Last week I over spent, so week we were making up for it.

Grocery Shopping this week: $68.79

This week we did pretty good with lots and lot of cereal! The price I will pay for cereal is $1.25 or less, and this week, we found lots for only $0.99/box!

Below is Schnucks (in Savoy) = $15.17
We hit up the clearance isle and always seem to come away with cereal. Broccoli was on sale for $1/lb, and the cilantro was for some homemade salsa.

We forgot to take a photo of this prized snack for only $1!



Pictured below is from County Market = $40.26
We had several trips to C.M. this week to hook up lots of cereal for only $0.99/box! Yum! I think we'll be stocked up for quite awhile!

Target = $9.36
I got a chance to go shopping by myself for a couple of hours, so naturally, I went to Target. I was mostly looking for snacks at work, and here's what I came away with:


Dollar Tree = $4
I also stopped at Dollar Tree for some staple pretzels, which are also a great snack at work!

So, total, we did go over our budgeted $50/week on groceries, with a total of $68.79. I will have to take that into consideration for next week's groceries, and I will only be able to spend $31.21.

Thanks for reading, it keeps me accountable to my shopping habits!

Grocery Shopping for this past week = $49.01

This week was pretty good! I was very excited about County Market's Penny Pincher coupons! There were so many in that booklet that we could use! If you have any extras, please send them my way. Here's what we came home with...

Schnucks = $6.67

County Market: $26.85

I used lots of Penny Pincher coupons!

Our Garden and Grandma's Garden: Free!!

Big Lots = $15.49

Total spent on groceries this week was $49.01, out of a $50/week budget. Did you score any good deals this week?

Grocery Shopping for the week = $48.32

I wanted to explain that I haven't been using coupons on grocery shopping lately, because our computer that I had been using to print coupons has since died. So therefore, I have not been hitting up the stores for great deals anymore. I've mostly stuck to Aldi's and the sale items.

If you are from the Champaign area, I highly recommend checking out The Frugal Family's Blog. She has a wealth of information on her blog and she's local!

This week wasn't too exciting. Here's what I bought at County Market for $15.56. The M&Ms were a splurge. I had been craving chocolate!

I also stopped at Aldi's because we needed a few staple items in our home. Total spent for below items: $32.66.

Total spent this week on groceries was: $48.32. This is according to our $50/week grocery budget.

Grocery Shopping for 2 Weeks = $104.32

(Pudge excited that I splurged and got some "Cloud Cakes")

My sister and I pulled out our cookbooks and pulled together a list of meals for the past week and this upcoming week. So the photos below will be for those meals. We mainly went to Aldi's and County Market for our shopping adventures.

We usually have $50 set aside for groceries each week, and since we were planning for two weeks, we had $100 to use. Also, last week we had $19.96 extra to spend this week, which allowed us to spend $119.96.

Aldi = $57.22

County Market = $41.10

We went shopping here the day that the Penny Pincher coupons expired, so it was fun to see everyone using up their coupons before they expired. We stocked up on the brownies, since they were only $0.27/box (with manufacturer and penny pincher coupon combined)!

I forgot to get this bag of potatoes into the photo above, so here it is:

I also purchased some falafel and couscous at a local store in town. I forgot to get a photo of that purchase, and that cost $6.

So, that's pretty much all we bought for this past week and this coming week.

Total came up to $104.32.

Buy One Get One: Caribou Coffee

This weekend, if you show this coupon at a Caribou Coffee joint, you should be able to buy one, get one free. I've been loving the coffee drinks lately, so this is a great deal! I know that there are a couple Caribou Coffee places in the County Market's here in Champaign, if you're looking for a place to use this coupon.

Enjoy! Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Grocery Spending this Week = $30.04

This past week wasn't too exciting for grocery shopping. We've been doing well with making meals and using up what we have in the pantry.

Big Lots = $7.40

Stocked up a little bit on bread, since they had a few loaves of bread on sale for $1.10.

We made a couple trips to County Market to pick up some staple items in the home.

County Market = $8.05

I was especially excited about the Dole Salad mix, because they were on clearance for $0.99/bag, and then I found a coupon on one of the bags for $1 off 2 bags! That made one bag free!

County Market = $14.59

We made 5 pizzas for Mothers Day for my in-laws, so these items below were for that occasion. Again there was a clearance on the Dole Salad mix, and I found another $1 off 2 bags...that made one bag free!

So, total spent on groceries this week was only $30.04. We usually set aside $50/week on groceries. How'd you do this week?

Grocery Shopping the Past 2 Weeks = $71.44

County Market this week has some great deals with their Penny Pincher coupons. I've combine a majority of their store coupons with Manufacturer coupons. For example, the photo below I only spent $1.83! I used the Duncan Brownie coupon ($o.77 each) and stacked it with a $0.50 coupon online, so I only spent $0.27/box!

Same sort of deal with the Eckrich hot dogs...I used their penny pincher coupon ($0.99) and stacked that with a $0.55 coupon. That made each package cost $0.44!

County Market = $1.83 (saved $8.12, which is 82%!!)

County Market = $19.49 (Saved $15.23, which is 40%)

Holy Strawberries!!! We got 4 lbs. for $4!!! Hello, smoothies!!!

Big Lots = $23.21

I was so excited to find the Apple Jacks on clearance for $0.25/box!!!

The Wheat Thins were only $2/box!!!

The Wesson Vegetable Oil was only $5, so broken down that was a far better deal than buying 3 bottles of oil.
County Market = $26.91

(No, I did not buy that girl in the photo!! :)

I used a lot of the Penny Pincher coupons to make my total bill way less than normal.

Total spent on 2 weeks of groceries came to a total of $71.44! We have $50/week budgeted for the summer (now that my sister is living with us), so this week we stayed under budget!

Busy Baking Day

I was a busy girl today, let me tell ya! I can't remember the last time I baked/cooked pretty much all day long. It was very rewarding in the end, though, having my husband come home and say "This house smells fantastic!"

This morning, Pudge helped me get started by making some homemade granola, yum! We went out last week to pick up all the ingredients, we just needed more honey. I found a bunch of different kinds at the County Market on Duncan Rd. here in Champaign. My husband suggested we use local honey, because of the benefits it could have on allergies.

We made enough granola to fit into 2 (9x13) pans!

Then we found this huge Kellogg's container to fit it all into. I would have to say that that's equal to about 4 boxes of store-bought granola!

I've also been on a kick of making our own sandwich bread. Since we went to Sam's Club and got flour and yeast, why shouldn't I? The recipe I have makes about 2 1/2 loaves. I got the recipe from The Frugal Girl, and you can check it out here. She also wrote a great article on comparing the price of store-bought bread to homemade bread, I highly recommend reading it.

I also made some homemade pumpkin rolls, and those were equally as delicious. Those were made for a family who just had a baby and is a part of the Mothers and More group I'm involved in.

I also made that family a Beef and Barley Soup in the crock-pot. So our house was smelling great by the time the rolls were done!

So with all that being said, I feel like such a home-maker! It's a great feeling knowing where your food comes from. Have you made anything from scratch this week? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Grocery Shopping this week = $60.38

We went over our budget of $50 this past week by $10.38. Here's what we got:

County Market: $19.95

(Not Pictured: Apple Jacks, Pops cereal)

Aldi: $22.00

Can you tell that we like apples here in the Fisher household? Specifically two little boys! If you total up how many bags of apples I bought over the past week, it would total up to 4!!

Meijer: $18.45

Eggs were only $0.99 this week, so I got a couple dozen. $0.99 and under is the only price I try to pay for eggs. The rest of the items were to use to make granola and granola bars.

So, total for the past week was $60.38. This coming week we're going to try better at making a meal list and finding ingredients to keep up with them. Thanks for stopping by!

Grocery Spending for 2 weeks = $98.48

If you haven't read in my earlier post, we are increasing our grocery budget to $50 a week, because we have an extra mouth to feed in this house for the summer. My sister has come to live with us and work for the summer. So, instead of $40/week for groceries, we've increased it by $10/week.

County Market = $31.32

CVS = Free with using my Extra Care Bucks.

County Market = $2.01

I used some "penny pinchers' and combined them with a manufacturer coupon and got each box for $1!

Aldi's = $65.17

I love Aldi's, what more can I say...

Total spent for 2 weeks of groceries = $98.48

Grocery Shopping this week = $20.13

The picture above was from County Market. I spent $20.13 on the above purchases. I was really excited to see that the Smart Taste Pasta was only $1/box, and I had a bunch of ($1 off 2 boxes) coupons. Also, the McCormick spices were free.

My receipt said that I saved a total of $25.82 which is a grand savings of 57%!

We usually set aside $40 as our grocery budget, so as you can tell, we're a little under this week. I can use that money this coming week for better sales. Thanks for looking!

Grocery Shopping this week = $15.26

I tried hard to stay out of grocery stores this week, because I knew that my budget was tight this week. I went over my $40 budget last week, so this week I only had $11 to work with.

Here's what we came home with:

County Market = $15.26

I will take out $4.26 of next weeks budget to cover for the overage. Stay tuned!

Grocery Shopping this Week = $53.38

I headed to County Market two times this week. It's tempting to go there more often, because I pass it on my way to work, and they are open 24 hours.

The picture below was using most of my in-store County Market coupons.

Total for picture below: $18.41

This was my second trip to County Market. I stocked up on more cheese and got some fruit snacks for really cheap!

Total for picture below: $25.07

I also went to Schnucks, because of a General Mills Catalina Coupon that printed $3 when you bought 5 items.

Total for the picture below: $12.05

I got back $6 in Catalina coupons to use on my next purchase.

Total spent this week on Groceries: $55.53

This is based on a $40/week grocery budget.

(Last week I went over my budget by $13.38, and this week I went $15.53, so I will only have $11 for fresh fruits, etc. for next week.)

------- Not Included in Grocery Budget --------

I also wanted to let you know that I got a great deal in the clearance section at Schnucks on Mattis. The Green Works bottles were only $1 each! The air fresheners were $0.75 - $0.50.

Total spent for the photo below: $8.05