Over My Budget Shopping Trip

December 21, 2009 at 3:49 am by | Uncategorized

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Whew!  That’s all I can say. Between the snow, finalizing Christmas shopping and battling the crowds, I was able to get my grocery shopping in.  Honestly, as I am typing this, I don’t even know what my grand total is, so I will be as surprised as you at the end.  I normally keep a running total but it was such a nutty weekend, I’m lucky I got it all done.  Trust me, it was still controlled as I did use my calculator at each store and I did know how much cash was in my wallet to use.  So it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.  What made me lose track is that I added in the money that I had leftover from the last few weeks. Since I was buying a lot of goodies for baking this week, I knew I would need more then my normal $75.This year we will be giving out, to our coworker, our homemade cookies that we make every year.  Today I also went to the dollar store and picked up some cute plates and wraps for them and purchased hopefully all the ingredients for our baking the next few days.  I promise to share the recipe with you as soon as I have a picture to go along with it.  For now, I will just go over my weekend shopping and lets see what my grand total is….

Before the crazy snowstorm on Saturday morning, I went to ShopRite along with the rest of Livingston.  Yikes was it crowded.  I was hoping to take advantage of the Kellogg’s (buy 10) but they did not have token boxes so that was a bust.  I bought 3 and got a free milk anyway.  Then I headed off to Walgreens to take advantage of the John Freida deal and the Complete.  I also got 2 cases of water but we apparently forget to put it in the picture.  Between the 2 stores I spent $17.47 out of pocket but have $3.00 in catalinas from ShopRite and $8.00 register reward from Walgreens for $82.97 worth of groceries.

Then to Pathmark for a few items and of course hitting the meat aisle for those manager specials.  Not super great but I did get a couple of meats.  Here I spent $26.19 for $67.06 worth of groceries. I’m sorry, but who in their right mind would pay $67 for that.  Yikes!!  I thought the $26 was a lot but I did get 3 packages of meat in there so I feel better.

And then tonight I headed back to ShopRite for a few of reasons.  One, the Nature’s Pride coupon was reset and I wanted to get more bread since it was only $.09 a loaf, also because I needed some deli meat and cheese as will have three kids hanging around the house eating food throughout the day and lastly, because I needed to get the rest of the ingredients for my baking.  Oh yeah, and more free cereal.  Here I spent $45.17 for $80.79 worth of groceries. And, I got $2.00 back in catalinas from the Post cereal.  Not the greatest savings but I bought some things I don’t usually buy and honestly didn’t use a whole lot of coupons.  But, it’s Christmas and as long as I didn’t spend more then I had in my pocket, I’m happy.  Speaking of that, let’s see what my total was…

The grand total is …$88.83.  Not too bad.  Keeping the extra money from the grocery budget from week to week when I am under budget really helps for weeks like this one. I actually thought I spent more then that.  And also remember, I have $8.00 register reward from Walgreens and $5 in catalinas from ShopRite.  All of which I will use next week. Now, I’ve just gotta get baking.