Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Bare Essentials Challenge: This Week's Shopping Trips

Yup, I'm posting this on Wednesday.  Thank goodness I started this challenge out by giving my self 50.00 a week one week AHEAD of schedule (like I gave myself 50.00 Friday before last for last week and so on), so that I would have a bit of leeway when I could get my shopping done.

Why am I done (with the exception of milk) shopping by Wednesday?  Well, this week has turned out to be somewhat of an organizational nightmare.

Yesterday I went into town armed with 20.00 in cash out of my "cash kiddie" (I keep like 60.00 around for a cash float), figuring I'd get Coke while it was still on sale at Carrs and get my daughter's prescription renewed while I was at it.  Well I had to wait two hours for the medication and I didn't really have two hours, so I figured I'd have to go back today (which I did), but got Coke and party bags of Cheetos while I was there (they were literally .01 cheaper there than at Fred Meyer, so they won *laugh*).  I'll be repaying the 20.00 to my cash come Friday's payday, but this helps to create a bit of a "checking account cushion" for paying bills with till Friday (since like 98% of our bills are due this week).

All totaled I spent 17.95 at Carrs.


While I was in town I ran to Fred Meyer to get a few things.  Mainly water softening salt, as our water is now turning pink in our toilets (we have HIGH iron content in our water) and that means that the salt reservoir is empty or darned near.  And I went for Valentine's for my daughter's party at school.  I got the note in the mail with how many kids were in her class and their names (26 other than her) and looking at the calendar realized that their party is next Friday, leading to a logistical nightmare.  We have to turn in the Valentine's Tuesday, so I really didn't want to get stuck doing grocery shopping on Tuesday (again) next week and Valentine's start to sell out of the decent, but cheap, ones a week before the holiday, so I figured it was now or never.

So, I went to Fred Meyer, got the water softening salt first and then went and perused the Valentine's.  I managed to find ONE package that came with 28 in it (thank goodness) so I didn't have to pick up two packages of Valentine's (at 2.50 or so a pop, I hate doing that).  I know some people are going to be like, "Why didn't you make them?"  Well, I have a February birthday to worry about (my daughter) and I'm making her some things, so having time to make paper Valentine's just isn't in the cards really.  That and I have a lack of paper and no printer ink, so that helps.

I also found Valentine's themed Ande's mints for 1.79 each.  It seems, after buying them for Christmas that my entire family (even my son, surprisingly) like the Ande's mints, so I figured this would be a great thing to get everyone for Valentine's Day.  This will also save me having to dig into my chocolate reserves to make chocolates for Valentine's Day, which is a good thing.  I'd prefer to save the chocolate chips for cookies and things.

I went and checked the price of baking soda (the 4 lb box) at Carrs beforehand and then checked it at Fred Meyer and found Fred Meyer to be significantly cheaper and I had a .50/1 coupon.  So, I got one bag of water softening salt (not shown in the picture above because I value my back and my kitchen table) and baking soda off of my list of shopping goals for the month.  Score!

All totaled I spent 20.97 at Fred Meyer

So, I ended up going back into town this morning to get my daughter's prescription and to get a few things.

Here's the situation with that.  My kids get a birthday dinner on their birthday.  It's one of the few traditions we have that we really try to stick to.  Usually with my daughter's birthday we go to Red Robin to get my daughter her favorite chicken strips and use a part of our tax return to pay for it.  Well, this year, obviously, that's out because we need all of our tax return for dental bills, so I had budgeted out 30.00 the last little bit and figured we'd go to McDonald's instead.

But, I was perusing the Fred Meyer ad for this week last night and came across a store coupon in the ad to make Tyson chicken strips 5.49 per bag with the coupon.  My mom sends me packets of coupons to help us out as much as she can and I dug through my envelope of "keepers" and found the Tyson coupon I knew I had for 2.50/2 Tyson Chicken Strips.  So, I talked to my daughter last night and asked her if she'd prefer we have the chicken strips and french fries (which I still have a ton of those in the freezer) for her birthday instead of going out to eat.  And surprisingly she got all excited and said yes!

So, I went and got the chicken strips and was feeling great that I was now 21.52 more in the black after that little bit of thinking (and I'm sure we'll have left over chicken strips as well).

Well *ahem* I then went to go down the coffee isle to get coffee filters, realizing this morning I had one left, and was horrified to see my beloved coffee filters on discount.  This is usually because the store is going to stop carrying that certain item and the ominous red shelf tags didn't bode well at all.  I love Fred Meyer for getting my coffee filters because the pack of 100 coffee filters cost the same as getting 50 and was still cheaper than buying the expensive non-bleached ones at Carrs and I would get double the amount of filters for less money.  It looks like the expensive ones are all that Fred Meyer is going to be carrying from now on too as everything but those was on discount in the #2 filters.  I wanted to cry.  The filters were 1.59 per box of 100.  Knowing that this would probably be my last chance to buy them there I got every box they had (sorry to everyone else.  I normally don't clear shelves, but this time I sure did).  So 15.90 out of my 21.52 in profit was shot.  But this should be enough filters to last me a year or so before I have to worry about paying nearly twice the old price I used to pay for filters.  I not only use these for coffee, but for loose leaf tea as well, so I will be glad to have them.

Luckily part of that 30.00 was to be a gift from my son for my daughter and I'd already gotten her a gift from him (more on that later) so at least everything on the birthday end worked out well.

I also bought Doritos (shown below in the Carrs picture for some odd reason) because it was the cheapest place to buy Doritos.  Those came off of my normal grocery budget so maybe that's why I did that the way I did when I took pictures, I'm not sure.  I confuse myself sometimes *laugh*.

So, all totaled at Fred Meyer I spent 3.50 on my normal grocery budget with 25.39 on the 30.00 I had set aside for my daughter's birthday (which part of the 4.00 and change will be being used to buy a disposable cake pan so I can send in cake for her class for her birthday at her request).  Total spent overall 28.79.
I then went to Carrs, got my daughter's script and ran and got an additional gallon of milk (2.99 with in-ad coupon this week).

Total spent at Carrs:  3.08.

Total spent this week (on the grocery budget end):  45.50

I am kind blown away that I spent 15.90 on coffee filters and somehow managed to come in on target for groceries (yay budgeting for birthdays!).  And I'll have nearly enough (I'll be at about 51.00 for next week) after I buy two additional gallons of milk.  But, overall, not too bad!

17 comments:

  1. It looks great! Having lots of coffee filters will save a bundle later. It sounds like your daughter's birthday will be great, too, with the chicken strips. How old will she be? I'm amazed that they let you take home-made items to school for her. Around here, they all have to be purchased.

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  2. Way to go, Erika! Nice grab on the coffee filters, too. At least that is one less expense you will have to buy with regular groceries for a while.

    Chicken fingers are a must around our house...one of those evil "convenience foods" that everyone seems to hate admitting to buying. I use them to make breaded chicken wraps as well to change it up a bit and it doesn't require as many strips for the meal. About 1 strip per person, cut up into chunks, makes the perfect amount of meat with lettuce, grated cheese and ranch dressing as fillers. Feel free to change the filler to what would suit our tastes though...rice, corn, peppers, salsa, cucumber, buffalo sauce, feta cheese...be creative!

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    1. You gals are going to have me buying chicken fingers regularly the way you are going. I'm drooling over the thought of chicken wraps and chicken salad *laugh*.

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    2. I like to buy them when they are on sale and stock up on a few boxes when they are. I know that some may consider them too pricey. However, I prefer to spend my grocery money on things my family actually enjoys eating than to have a freezer full of things they grip and groan about. My husband is far too quick to jump on the eating out bandwagon if our meals at home don't meet his liking. It's a compromise I'm willing to live with.

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    3. I get it. When the kids had a myriad of allergies I had a Heck of a time getting them to eat much of anything. So, now a days, even if it costs a bit extra, it's totally worth getting it and them actually eating it instead of them gagging it down or it going to waste. Personally, I think shopping like that is just smart :).

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  3. I'm with you on the coffee filters. I would have bought them out also. ;)

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  4. Yay! I love having things work out like that. You did great. I once bought 10 bras on clearance for 4.00 a piece because at that time I was an odd size - 35C and they actually made those for a few years then stopped them.

    My local Smith's store (Kroger brands like Fred Meyer) has been having such great clearance through out the store I almost hate to go in there. lol. They always seem to have stuff that's on my list then I have to decide how much to get.
    Have an awesome week. Take care.

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    1. I totally understand. After having kids it's impossible to find a nice fitting bra. I found one brand I liked at Sears years ago and bought about six and am now down to two (the other ones finally gave up the ghost on me over time). At 4.00 I would have bought them out too *laugh*.

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  5. You did great! I wasn't planning to, but after today's electric bill being $95 more than what the budget has for it, and needing the extra to come from somewhere, going to try and see if this month I can stick to $50-55 a week, and stick the extra $10 a week towards the bill. I'm sure that means Feb will be higher too, beset on what they said last year's usage was. However, it's only been snice July I've used more than a mental of estimated budget, so have no idea how we managed last year. By the way...EveryDollar.com is awesome. And Free it totally has changed my life, and I will be devastated if it ever goes away. Took 5 minutes to make, and has been a huge eye opener to my nickeland dime spending habits.

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    1. If you look online they give you ideas on how to read your electric meter. I've been doing that the last few months and calculating my bill to give me a better idea of what the "ow" is going to be the next month. Now that only works if the company doesn't constantly up it's rates (which mine seems to), but I wanted to give that bit of advice in case you want to start stalking your meter to figure out what is costing to run so much *laugh*.

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    2. Lol I just might do that!! Thanks!!! I told my family I'm cracking down on them! (And then my son spends in hour reading in the bathroom with his bedroom light on...argh!!) But I've also got a plan of trying to air dry the laundry inside on a rack overnight and see if it will dry by morning. That would help I'm sure!!

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  6. With the superbowl on Sunday, a lot of snacks and pop is on sale. Buy five coke or diet coke 2L bottle and pay $5.00. I got four bags of chex mix and bugles (2each) for $2.20. Got to hide those from dh. I don't drink coffee but sometimes you need to buy ahead if able to save in the long run. Cheryl

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  7. One more thing, I bought those chicken strips for Christmas and the first bag was fine. The second bag I opened had 2" pieces of "strips" and I called the company and got a coupon for a free bag. I like making a big salad and cutting up the cooked chicken for lunches. I never complained but after spending so much on food, I want what I pay for. Cheryl

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    1. Oh definitely. I always write to companies and complain if something is wrong and write if something is wonderful too. I remember finding a long bone in a can of Bumblebee tuna salad (one of those to go things). Both of my kids loved it and I was feeding that stuff to toddlers, so I was upset and contacted the company about it.

      A couple of weeks later I get a letter with a couple of coupons for free products complete with a little bag to send the offending bone back to them for study. I had long since thrown the bone away (go figure) and I told my husband about it. He gave the most sardonic look and said, "Oh sure. We keep all of our bones in a bone drawer." To this day that makes me laugh ;).

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  8. We are fans of those Tyson crispy chicken strips. I always cook the whole bag as the leftovers are so good cold straigh out of the fridge, I like to cut up a leftover one and put in on a salad.
    The bag says to cook for 20 minutes but we like them crispy and cook them for 30 minutes.

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    1. That's a good point, Rhonda! These might turn into a really good brown bag lunch item as well, for both your husband and daughter (such as a chicken finer wrap I mentioned above). Your son might like them too...chicken fingers are rather popular with kids, so it's worth a try.

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