Monthly(-ish) Grocery Shopping at Aldi, Costco & Kroger

It has been a long, long time since I have shared anything shopping related.  In all honesty, while I really enjoy sharing my grocery hauls (which have changed quite a lot since my couponing days!!), there are seasons of life where it just doesn't fit into my time. This week it does. :)

A few weeks ago we randomly stopped into a newer Aldi store for the second time ever.  I had made a quick walk-thru soon after it first opened a few years ago, and for some reason it didn't meet my expectations by a long shot.  Recently I had heard several friends saying how amazing Aldi's prices and products are.  One evening after a swimming lesson, in a moment of "it is late, mom is pooped, and we haven't had supper yet" we went in and bought some frozen pizzas.   While there I was ecstatic to see several things we normally buy for really good prices!  We snagged a few items and I knew I wanted to go back.  I had the opportunity to go back alone, armed with my very long grocery lists for Kroger and Costco, my two usual stores. 

Lo and behold, I found a LOT of things that were on my list for much lower prices than I typically pay!  I was so excited when I checked out with a cart FULL, for pennies under $100!  So much so that I sent Daniel a picture.  Haha!!  Then when I got home I went live on Facebook and shared it with the world! 

My first real Aldi haul:

6 Boxes of Millville brand cereal, ranging from $1.15-$1.99 ea.
Fresh Pineapple, $.89; cucumbers $.49 ea.
3 2lb. boxes of macaroni, $.69/lb.
Organic baby food pouches w/ yogurt, $.79/ea.
The cheapest I've been able to get this at Kroger was $1/pouch.
3 bags dried fruit, $1.89, $2.39 & $2.49
I compared price-per-package at Kroger, and these are significantly cheaper.
10 pkgs. sliced cheeses, 7-8 oz. ea., ranging from $1.17 - $1.45 ea.
I got a variety of cheddar, Colby Jack, Swiss, Pepper Jack, Gouda and Havarti. At most it is $2.90/lb, which is a really good price for good cheese.
4 (8oz) pkgs. shredded Swiss + Gruyare, $2.99 ea.
Clancy's brand pretzels, $.89
Since this shopping trip, many friends have shared with me that the Aldi brand of foods tends to be very good quality! 
Large Canister of Quick Oats, $2.29
2 bags Clancy's Kettle Cooked Chips, $1.05 ea.
2 large Cottage Cheese, $1.75 ea.
2 large Organic, Plain Yogurt, $2.69 ea.
3 pint Sour Cream, $.89 ea.
2 bags frozen Potato Puffs (hash browns), $1.55 ea.
3 bottles Buttermilk Ranch Dressing, $.89 ea.
1 pk./3 heads Romaine Hearts lettuce, $1.59
Carton Orange Juice, $1.49
Pure Almond Extract, $1.99
Lg. clamshell of Kiwi, $3.59
Cuties/Mandarin Oranges, $2.79
11.5 lbs bananas, $.39/lb.
4 lbs. seedless grapes, $1.19/lb.
small bag choc. Eggs, $.99
Total: $99.04

I didn't take a picture of it, but that same day I went to Kroger to finish getting my Kroger items that I hadn't gotten at Aldi.  I had a couple of Kroger coupons, too, that I wanted to use.

6 Tombstone Pizzas (coupon + buy 6, save $2 sale), $3.49/ea.
5 (5lb) bags of King Arthur All Purpose & Bread flours, 2/$3.99 ea., 3/$4.99 ea.
I am waiting on a Wagon Train from the West to bring me my usual 50 lb. bag of baking flour from Sharp Shopper.  The Wagon Train, aka, family, just hasn't been here in a while! So buying it from Kroger is how we roll at the moment.
Raisins (canister), with a coupon, $3.99
2 Kraft Mayo, $3.49 ea.
Chili Powder, $3.99
Quaker Instant Grits, $2.69
Oat Bran, $2.59
1 lb. dried Black Beans, $1.49
3 (or 4?) lb. dried Great Northern Beans, $3.49
2 lb. brown sugar, $1.29
3 bottles Kingsford BBQ Sauce, $3.49 ea.
This is the closest I have found to my homemade BBQ sauce, contains all the ingredients I personally use to make BBQ sauce, and I like to keep some on hand for when I need BBQ sauce but don't want to dip into my ketchup supply.
2 boxes Keebler Club Mini crackers, $2.99 ea.
1 qt. Whipping Cream, $3.69
1 large tub Ricotta Cheese, $3.79
1 roll marked down, fresh Goat Cheese, $4.97
3.86 lbs. Zucchini, $1.29/lb
3.40 lbs. Yellow Squash, $1.29/lb.
2 bags Mini Sweet Peppers, $1.99 ea. This was cheaper than their cheap bell peppers!! I've never seen this price before.
2 marked down Eggplants, $.99
large bag Chow Mein noodles, $1.79
3 store coupons totaling $5.70
Total $108.74

I did raid the Easter candy and Spring décor mark-down tables and bought several items. Some Easter Candy that we are using as school treats or special chore treats, a few games, some stickers, play-dough, and whatnot. I also restocked several personal care items like toothpaste and shampoo. Those items I do not include in our grocery spending.  Some of the grocery items, like the Club Cracker Mini's, are specialty items I don't normally buy. Those are great snacks for Silas right now, and I just got them for some variety.  The pizzas I like to get when they are on sale for easy, quick dinners.

So then... on my kid-free Friday, when my Mother-in-Law keeps all 4 littles for the day while I run errands and do office work uninterrupted, I made a Costco trip (for her and me, actually). I also realized I had forgotten a handful of things from Kroger, so I went back to Kroger to fill in those gaps. That is all pictured below.

Costco:
1 sleeve each Large and Med. Dixie Plates, $15.99 ea.
1 sleeve small Dixie Plates, $12.89
1 sleeve Dixie bowls, $9.99
12 oz. Dixie cups, $11.59
5 oz. Dixie cups, $10.99
Charmin TP, $21.99
2 bags frozen corn, $6.59 ea.
1 bag frozen peas, $6.99
6-can case Crushed Tomatoes, $6.99
#10 can Diced Tomatoes, $2.89
3 liter Extra Light Olive Oil, $17.99
2 pk. Grape Juice, $6.39
double bag shredded Mozzarella Cheese, $10.49
Tilapia filets, $15.99
Salmon Burgers, $15.99
2 pk. Kirkland thick-sliced bacon, $10.99
2 pk. uncured, sliced ham, $10.99
2 pkgs. Roasted Turkey Breast, sliced, $12.26 & $11.92
5 lb. bag sweet onions, $6.99
1 (3 pk.) Aidell's Sausage, $13.99
Spinach/Artichoke dip, $8.49
Feta Cheese, $7.39
3 pk. Chunky Guacamole, $8.99
2 (2 lb.) Strawberries, $5.99 ea.
Croutons, $6.99
Coffee, $16.29
Better than Bouillon Chicken Base, $5.99
3 box pk. Club Crackers, $7.59
Yeast, $4.49
Tostitos Scoops, $4.49
Stacy's Pita Chips, $6.99
Applesauce pouches, $9.99
4 jugs Apple Juice, $15.98
2 pk. Cooking Spray, $4.99
Total: $394.38

Kroger:
2 rolls Jimmy Dean Sausage (to make a sausage dish for our MOPS meeting), $3.79 ea.
3 family trays Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, $1.79/lb
1 family tray Chicken Thighs, $1.49/lb.
2 dented Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, $.69 ea.
Baking Soda, $.79
1 Kraft Mayonnaise, FREE with coupon
3 pkgs. Kroger Muffin wrappers, $.99 ea.
Waffle Bowls (reward for the girls), $3.39
2 cans Bakers Joy cooking spray, $2.69 ea.
dented box Captains Crunch cereal, $1.49
3 boxes Valentines (for next year!), $1.00 total
Total: $61.33

Grand Total: $564.45

Many of these items will last a long time, such as the paper dishes, the baking soda, coffee, etc.  One thing that I was a little disappointed about was that Costco did not have their large canister of Baking Powder or the large bags of Baking Soda.  I have bought Baking Powder there and was counting on buying both Baking Powder and Soda there again to restock my stash!  I much prefer to buy it in large quantities instead of multiple piddly containers.  I have never had it go "bad" even though it takes us a while to use it.

This past Saturday Sylvia and Charity worked on the bananas I had bought at Aldi, and we mashed and froze 6 cups worth, I believe.  In the past I have picked up marked-down bananas on the rare occasion I found them at Kroger, and used those to freeze.  I haven't found any for a long time and had used up my freezer stash.  Lo and behold, Aldi's banana price was the same as Kroger's mark-down price!  That is why I bought so many bananas.  We are eating about half of them fresh, and we froze the other half after they had ripened sufficiently.

In my next post, I'll share our menu plan and little about how I work our big shopping trips to last for several weeks at a time. :)

Report on our Aldi groceries so far: 

The cereal definitely passes our quality test!  I do not like cheap, "cardboard" cereal so I don't waste our money on off-brand cereals (why buy it when we don't enjoy eating it?).  Because the boxes looked nearly identical to the brands we typically buy, I took the chance.  It turns out I have found a huge savings on cereal!!  When I was in Costco, I double checked the prices of the cereals we typically buy (which are bulk price!), and it ranged easily from $3.50 - $4+ a box!!  We typically have cold cereal once a week on Saturdays, so it isn't a HUGE expense, but I am tickled to have found quality-tasting cereal for a much, much lower price.

The buttermilk ranch dressing is still up for debate.  It definitely isn't the same as the high-end Yogurt Buttermilk Ranch we enjoy from Kroger.  I'm not sure if I will buy it from Aldi again, or perhaps I'll try a different brand I saw, before deciding if we will get our Ranch Dressing from Aldi or not. 

We REALLY love fresh fruits and vegetables so I am very, very excited to have this resource that will allow us these good, healthy foods much more affordably.  I have discovered that they don't always have the same items, but with the haul I made this past week I am confident we can continue to shop there for the majority of our fresh produce and vegetables.  Also their dairy quality seems good, and will be a big savings on our grocery budget.  Typically dairy and fresh fruits and vegetables takes up a much, much larger portion of our grocery bill.

I hope to be sharing our grocery trips a little more regularly, at least for now.  I'm sure once Baby 5 comes my time will again be used doing things besides blogging about grocery prices. ;)

Nourishing Foods - Grocery Shopping

This is my last post for this series, showing what our current "Nourishing Foods" grocery shopping looks like. If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them as best I can!


(Just for kicks, I'll throw the prices in today as a bonus.)
Organic Romaine Lettuce - $2.99
Stonyfield Organic Yogurt - $3.99
Kroger Orange Juice - $3.49
(2) 1/2 gal. Local Milk - $2.99 ea.
Bananas - $1.50
3lb. Cara Cara Oranges - $3.99
King Arthur All Natural White Wheat Flour - $4.69
Kroger All Natural Peanut Butter - $1.89
(2) T-bone Steaks - $10.48
Private Selections Beef Roast - $10.39
Reg. Roast - $10.08
Chicken Breasts - $8.28
Pears - $1.96
Avocados - $2.00
Naturally Preferred Brown Eggs - $2.59
Pepsi & Dr. Pepper - $4.00 ea.

Total: $83.92

I didn't think my total was too bad considering all the meat I bought and for getting more "delicious toxins" for Daniel (aka his sodas). I saw the steaks marked down and thought they would make a birthday dinner extra special next month.

The Private Selections roast was also marked down from just under $18. Ever since watching Food, Inc. a second time I have been getting more and more leery of feeding Susannah generic meat. I have heard that Private Selections is a high quality brand (they have a high quality price tag, I know that much!), so I am hoping that they really are. Anyway, this roast will be specifically for Susannah, and Daniel and I will eat the other one (most of it will probably go towards his sandwich meat).

I was excited to see the bananas marked down, too :) Daniel likes Banana Pudding or Banana Cream Pie and I haven't made either of those for him in forever. I'll make one of those for him and the rest of the bananas I'll freeze to add to smoothies. They are nice bananas for being mark-downs!

To keep this post from getting too long, I'll do a "grocery shopping wrap up" post later, with what I've learned from these first few weeks of our journey.

Nourishing Foods - Grocery Shopping

Ah, the 3rd week of sharing my grocery shopping with you. Sally was right in her comment last week when she said shopping with a goal is a lot more expensive than shopping with a budget. Somehow I want to get "goal" and "budget" married to each other. I know that eating nourishing foods is going to require a bigger grocery budget, and that I don't have a printing press in my basement. (Ha, I wonder how many hits that line will get me!) So I think my best bet is moderation. Surprisingly, alot of the prices are very comparable for the better quality, if you compare with a leading name-brand. Anyway, enough rambling. Here's what I got this week:

Bottle of Red Wine (for cooking!)
Gal. Kroger brand orange juice
Gal. local milk
Oatmeal
8lbs. oranges
Qt. honey (I'm checking into a possible local source)
Popcorn (Maybe I'll try growing some this year!)
Cornstarch (Yeah, I know, a modified corn product!)
Frozen Peas and Veg. Blend
Spinach
Organic Lettuce
Sour Cream
Organic Carrots
Organic Mushrooms - markdown
(10) 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese
Dried Apricots
2 doz. Cage Free Brown Eggs
Organic Pumpkin Seeds
Kiwi
Onions
Mango
Organic Tomatoes
Avocados

$94.97

The wine and cream cheese ($10 in itself) aren't usual buys, and I had to up our milk because Susannah is drinking milk now :)

Nourishing Foods - Grocery Shopping

Last week I started a mini-series on what my weekly grocery shopping looks like as we're trying to eat foods that are better for you and more nourishing. Here is this week's grocery purchases:

Horizon Organic Milk (they were out of Homestead Creamery's Whole Milk)
Orange Juice
Canola Oil
Chips - Daniel's been eying "my" bag...
Cottage Cheese
Organic Yogurt
Spinach
Organic All Purpose Flour
All Natural White Whole Wheat Flour
Wheat Gluten
Brown Sugar
4 Kiwi
2 doz. Brown Eggs
2 Mangoes
(10) "1/3 Less Fat" Cream Cheese

Total: $60.56

A few notes about what I bought today:

I need to do some digging to see if there's a better option for when recipes call for oil. I did purposely stay away from "Vegetable Oil" as it is just soybean oil (very bad for you). In the meantime, I'm about out of oil and decided to get some more for now.

The Cream Cheese was part of a Mega Sale and while I'd love to make my own one day, I was out and this was a good time to stock up a little. The Cream Cheese added $10 to my bill, so I'm happy :)

I am curious, though... if you have a whole/real foods-type diet, what does a grocery shopping trip bring home and for how much?

Nourishing Foods - Grocery Shopping

I know some of you have wondered what the "nourishing foods" journey is doing to our grocery budget. And I promised I would post about that. As our eating habits have changed somewhat, so has the grocery budget. We're still not where I'd like us to end up with our food, so this is a continual work in progress. To help me figure out a ball-park weekly grocery budget, I thought I'd share a mini-series of my weekly grocery trips.


This is not a typical week for groceries. Pepsi & Dr. Pepper are not a weekly purchase, and neither are the chips or Bratwursts! But for keepin' it real, this is what I bought today.

1/2 Gal. Homestead Creamery Cream Top Whole Milk (local dairy, hormone free)
1 Gal. Orange Juice
5lbs. King Arthur All Natural White Whole Wheat Flour
Chips
Frozen Green Beans, Breaded Okra and a Stir-Fry Blend
Organic Stonyfield Plain Yogurt
Pineapple Juice
5lbs. Cara Cara Oranges
2 Mangoes
2 Onions
7 Organic Gala Apples
2 Doz. Cage Free Brown Eggs
2lbs. Brown Rice
Beef Roast
Whole Chicken
Marked-down Bratwursts
Dr. Pepper & Pepsi ($9 of the bill!)
*oops! Not pictured:
(3) 8oz. bricks Kraft Cheese
1 lb. bacon

Total: $86.60
($2 of that is a deposit for the glass milk bottle which I'll get back when I take the empty bottle back to the store.)

This week we also replenished our ground beef supply (13lbs. for about $38) and yeast (2lbs. for about $3.50 if I remember right). The ground beef will last quite a while, and the yeast lasts a LONG time.

Now, what will I do with the food I brought home? Stay tuned!! I think another mini-series, "Nourishing Foods - What We Eat" will be coming soon :)

Taking a Break

In case you haven't already noticed, I've been really sporadic about getting my grocery trips blogged about since Susannah was born. I've given it some thought, and today just up and made up my mind.

I'm not gonna do it anymore. At least for now. There's a whole ton of other stuff I want to blog about that is way more important than groceries (notice I didn't say food!!!) and how much I paid for them. And what fun is a grocery post if it doesn't have a picture, and lately I've been doing good to get one week's grocery all put away before it's time to go shopping again! Ok, not quite, but it seems like it.

The latest and greatest in my grocery shopping world is that I love having a $40 grocery budget. It feels like $40 is about the perfect amount. I don't have to stand there and pick and choose "what is the most important stuff on this list?" It doesn't give me tons of room to splurge, but there is room to get the little "accessories" like parmesan cheese, soy sauce, and those kind of things. I also love (maybe even more) our discovery of once a month, taking a week's budget and buying beef with it. Oh. my. goodness! I had no idea how much I was missing have beef at my beck and call! We've been eating HAMBURGERS more than once every blue moon and I LOVE IT! I could never, ever be vegetarian. I don't feel like I have to always make the hamburger into a casserole to make it stretch. So far I'm still getting chicken with the regular groceries.

Anyway, that was a rabbit trail! So yeah, I enjoy seeing other people's grocery trip posts. Hopefully one day I'll feel like I have time to get back into it again, but for now I'd rather spend my blogging time blogging about other stuff :)

If there's a really exciting week I'll probably blog about it. I'm hoping there will be some in the next couple months... things like cheap cream soups, CHOCOLATE CHIPS, nuts, CHOCOLATE CHIPS, free evaporated milk, CHOCOLATE CHIPS.... haha. Oh, and cereal! I bought a box of MultiGrain Cheerios today and dug into them as soon as I got home. Oh, they are SO good! I'm hoping there's opportunities in the future to stock up on them for -$1 a box. They're my favorite.

Ok, I gotsta run. The house is less than clean and I should spend some time getting it headed in the direction of clean.

Weekly Shopping Trip 9/10/10

This week was another "no great sales so stock up on general stuff" shopping trip. I had Tapestry Bible Study this morning, so after that I fed Susannah her lunch at church then we stopped at Kroger on our way home.

Sorry, no picture :)

(2) Bread & (2) All Purpose Flour, 5lb. ea - $1.34 ea.
(2) Canola Oil - $2.35 ea.
Baking Soda - $.69
Gerber Rice and Oatmeal Cereals - $3.23 ea.
Peanut Butter - $1.00
(3) 3pc. B/S Chicken Breasts - $1.99/lb.
lb. Lunchmeat - $3.79
lb. butter - $2.19 (can't wait for sales on this stuff!)
1/2 gal. milk - $1.79
18 ct. Eggs - $2.79

Total OOP - $40.56

Nothing super exciting this trip. I did get a $1 Catalina from buying the 2 baby cereals, so that was nice :) I can't wait for the Thanksgiving/Christmas baking ingredients sales to start up. I'm not rushing those holidays, but it will be nice to lay in a supply again this year, and now that I'm more familiar with couponing and know better how much will last a year of some stuff (butter in the freezer, chocolate chips, etc.), I'll hopefully be able to stock up enough this year :) Last week I used the last Cream of Mushroom soup from my stockpile, so I'm ready for cream soups to go on sale, too.

Grocery Shopping 9/2/10

First I need to stand on a soapbox. I was not happy today when I witnessed 2 things in the grocery store parking lot. This has nothing to do with the store.

The first would be about the nice parking spaces that Kroger has designated for "Customers with Children." I love being able to pull into a convenient spot where I can load Susannah right into a shopping cart, and if for some reason I bring my own groceries back to the car after shopping, I don't have to walk a mile to return the cart and carry her back to the car. Soon after we pulled into our space, the owner of the vehicle across from us (in a "Customers with Children" parking space), waltzed back to her car. Childless. Chatting on her cell phone (ok, nothing against cell phones...). And hopped in her car and sat there for a couple minutes fiddling around. And it irked me. I mean, couldn't she READ? And if she can't, couldn't she SEE the stick-figure drawing on the sign indicating that those spaces are for people with kids? I wondered what mother ended up lugging her child(ren) from further away in the parking lot because this woman had hogged the space instead.

Getting off that soapbox... climbing on the next one.

So I get my stuff together and get out of the car, then open Susannah's door so she doesn't cook in the 2 seconds it takes me to go grab a buggy from the cart return (that we were parked IMMEDIATELY beside - don't worry, I didn't wander off from my baby!). While I'm getting her out of the car and into the cart, Mr. Ima Cool Dude creeps past in his ugly-fied car at about .01 mph, windows down and some type of thumpy music blaring from his sub-woofed stereo system. That wasn't so much what irked me. What ruffled my feathers was the profanity being blared in this "music!!" I wanted to stick my fingers in Susannah's ears and pour bleach in mine! There are "bad words" and then "REALLY bad words" in my book... and these were the REALLY bad words. That's the kinda thing I'd expect in the ghetto, downtown, government housing projects where I don't want to be especially after dark kinda place, NOT in a grocery store parking lot where women and CHILDREN are present! *sigh* The responsibility I have as a mama to protect my kids from this ugliness... I always knew I had that niggling to be a hermit for SOME reason!

Ok, I'm done with the soapboxing. Here's what I got, and thankfully it was a very pleasant shopping experience, with superb customer service!

(5) 12 can pks Pepsi/Dr. Pepper - $2.40/ea.
Gal. Milk - $2.67
Coconut Milk - $1.99
(2) Hotdogs - $1.13/ea.
Oatmeal - $2.69
2lb. Carrots - $1.74 (babyfood)
(2) Lettuce - $1.19/ea. (I have never!! seen lettuce this cheap!!!)
(2) VanCamp's Baked Beans - FREE
lb. Butter - $2.19
pint Sour Cream - $1.00
3.3lbs. Bananas - $.49/lb.
2lb. Brown Sugar - $1.69
2lb. Rice - $1.49
18ct. Eggs - $1.89
Yam - $.85 (babyfood)
(2) Mangos - $.99/ea.
Avocado - $1.29 (babyfood)

Total OOP - about $39
~I forgot to give the cashier my coupons and was able to take them to CS and get my money there.

Last week a commenter asked what do I do with all the butter and flour that I buy. Last week was actually the first time I bought butter since December :) But what do I do with it... I use it in baking (mostly cookies, I'd guess), sometimes in cooking (I like butter on my peas and corn), and just random things here and there in cooking, baking or eating (pancakes, waffles, toast, etc.). When I come across butter substitutes for free or almost free (mostly Country Crock), I do get that and use it for "eating" (the breakfast stuff, toast, etc.). That way the real butter - which is more expensive and precious and works better in cooking/baking - lasts longer. The flour I use for making our breads and baked goods from scratch. And we really do use that much :)

Grocery Shopping 8/25/10

I haven't fully discussed with with Daniel yet, but it is so much easier to shop with a $40 budget, and I'm thinking that with Daniel's raise and all the overtime he's getting lately, we might leave it there for now. We can always lower it if we need to.

I do want to add that last week I didn't go shopping at all. I didn't want to go, there weren't any amazing deals I couldn't do without, and we didn't absolutely need anything. However, I had been waiting for such an opportunity so we could restock our beef supply. Daniel has a (free to us) membership at BJ's through his work, and they have the best price on ground beef... so... one evening when Daniel was finished working, and was close to BJ's, I asked him to stop and get some meat. So last week's groceries were:

13.5lbs of lean ground beef
3 lbs of lean ground turkey

Total OOP: $40.47


This week's groceries:

(2) 1lb. pasta - $1.00 ea.

(2) 5lb. flour - $1.34 ea.

1/2 gal. milk - $1.79

10 lb. potatoes - $3.99

3lb. onions - $2.98

Soy Sauce - $1.09

Margarine - $.99

Butter - $2.08

(2) Shamrock Chocolate Milk - FREE!

(2) Chicken Breasts - $1.79/lb.

(2) Sausage - $1.49 ea (Manager's Special)

2 lbs Carrots - $2.19

Celery - $1.00

1 lb. Lunchmeat - $3.99

18 ct. Eggs - $1.67

12 ct. Eggs - FREE!

4.95 lbs. Bananas - $.44/lb.

Avocado - $1.00

General Tso's Chicken Seasoning packet - $.99

Total OOP: $40.47

I did use a coupon for $1.50 off $7 meat purchase coupon, and a FREE doz. eggs coupon that I got in the mail from Kroger (yippee, I finally got coupons from them!).

I'm so excited to have beef on hand (from last week). I feel like a king, walking down to the freezer and having several lbs. of hamburger, and not feeling like I need to ration it out and make it last. I think if I can get it to work out, about once a month we'll skip the regular groceries and stockpile meat.

This post has been brought to you by 2 sleepy heads who just ate ice cream... and then everything was funny because Daniel kept saying stuff that was just... funny. At least to 2 sleepy people who'd just had ice cream. I'm rambling.... Goodnight!

Big Grocery Shopping Trip 7-22-10

Well, this was a very big grocery shopping week. A couple things were so very low-low priced that it only made sense to stock up. I haven't totalled everything up yet, so we'll see how I did!

(and because it's kinda hard to see, I'll just subtly point out that the bottom layer of Gatorade is 3 wide, and the Mayo is stacked 2 deep :P )

Food:
(25) 32oz. Gatorade - $.49 ea.
(14) 22oz. Mayonnaise - $.94 ea.
(6) 22oz. Miracle Whip - $.94 ea. (1 not pictured)
(3) Ghiradelli Brownie Mixes - $1.49 ea.
(5) Cream Cheese - $.49 ea.
(5) Shredded Mozzarella Cheese - $.49 ea.
Large Rolled Oats - $2.50
(4) lg. Baby Cereal - $2.95 ea.
(4) 2pk. Baby Food - $.78 ea.
4lb. Sugar - $1.99
1lb. Raisins - $1.99
Tombstone Pizza - $2.49
Orange Juice - $2.99
Applesauce - $2.69 (Baby Food :) )
(2) lb. Turkey Sausage - $1.79 ea. - Manager's Special
B/S Chicken Breasts - $3.52 ($1.99/lb.)
Beef Shoulder Roast - $9.90 ($2.99/lb.)


Non-Food:
(2) Large Roasting Pans - $.50 ea. (NYD 2011 :) )
(2) 2pk "Lasagna" Pans - $.50 ea.
12pk. double roll TP - $3.99
(6) Shaving Gel - $.94 ea.
Softsoap Hand Soap - FREE
(4) Crest Toothpaste - FREE

Totals:
(Since everything pictured plus a couple other items are all on one receipt, these are roughly what the totals are.)

Food: $88.20
Non-Food - $14.48
Total OOP(ish) - $102.68

Total Savings for Food & Non-Food: $146.70 / 59%
Plus I got $7 back in coupons for my next purchase!

A couple things didn't go quite as planned with this trip. The Kraft cheeses that I bought are supposed to be part of a Kraft promotion where I should've gotten (2) $5 catalinas (coupons for $ off your next order) and I only got one. I may or may not research that one. The other $2 in Cats were nice surprises from Gerber. Speaking of Gerber and baby food... yes, I plan to make most of Susannah's baby food (unless I can get it free!), but I had coupons and these will be good for the trips we make. The pizza would've been $.49 but the local Kroger stores no longer take IPQ's over $1.00 b/c of high fraud activity :( Since it was part of the 40 items I was getting for the Mega Event sale, I left it in as opposed to trekking back through the store to get another Mega Event item.

How'd'ya like the Mayo stockpile?? After stock-piling last summer and running out, I didn't want to pay full price again! I acquired coupons from e-bay (that coupon wasn't in our paper) and stocked up! We'll see if we run out till next summer ;) Daniel figures this Gatorade supply should last for most of the remaining hot season.

I did talk to Daniel before spending so much on groceries. Because we are now stocked up on Gatorade I should be able to lower our weekly grocery budget back down to $30-$35, and I know there will be weeks that I won't go at all, or will only get a couple items. In the end, I think it'll all even out. I'm realy happy with how it all turned out :)

Grocery Shopping Trip 6/8/10

This week I upped our grocery budget by $5, from $35 to $40. Most weeks Daniel will continue to get $5 to spend on drinks or snacks, but since he didn't get that this week it was all spent at the grocery store :)


(3) Pepsi (1 not pictured) - $3.00/ea.
10 lbs. Bread Flour - $1.34/5lb.
10 lbs. All Purpose Flour - $1.34/5lb.
(5) pks. Chicken Breasts - $1.79/lb.
(2) 18ct. Eggs - $1.50/ea.
(2) Green Chilies - $1.09/ea.
Cottage Cheese - $1.00
Sour Cream - $1.00
(2) 8ct. Flour Tortillas - $1.00/ea.
Brown Sugar - $1.89

Totall OOP - $40.79

I'm not sure what my savings are as Daniel bought the sodas and I already threw out that receipt.

My little blogging assistant is ready to go to bed, so I must go give her clean pants and tuck her in :)

Weekly Grocery Trip 7/1/10

I didn't realize anyone was missing my grocery posts, but Mary asked me this morning if I was going to post :) I think about doing blog posts a lot more than I actually get them done, but we'll get there eventually.

From Martin's and Kroger:

(6) Gatorade - $.69/ea.
(2) doz. Eggs - $.50/ea.
1/2 gal. Milk - $1.79
5lbs. Kroger bread flour - $1.34 (I made bread Tues with this flour and it turned out great!)
(2) Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie (w/ Walnuts) mixes - $.94/ea.
Mayonnaise - $1.00
Kroger Peanut Butter - $2.19
Gerber Rice Cereal - $1.81
Kroger Salt - $.39
(2) Dole Pineapple Crushed - $.50/ea.
Mustard - $.49
(4) Ball Park Hotdogs - $.69/ea (limit 4, boo! :P )
1.91 lbs. 80/20 Ground Beef - $3.80
Split Chic. Breasts - $3.24 ($.99/lb)
(4) Corn - $.17/ea.
(2) Vidalia Onions - $1.44 ($.99/lb)

(2) 30ct. Solo Cups - $.99/ea.
Huggies Sz. 2 Jumbo pk - $6.19 (a little more than I normally pay, but still cheap!)

Total OOP - $34.05
~ Food - $25.55
~ Non-Food - $8.50

Or something like that :P Because of a promotional sale I had to buy the non-food and food stuff in the same transaction to get the discount, and I'm too lazy to figure out all the coupons and discounts and taxes on everything down to the nitty gritty. I know my total OOP is right :P
ETA: I did use $4 in "On Your Next Order" coupons that I got one of the last times I was at Kroger, so that helped bring my OOP down :)

Last week I did buy about $10 worth of Gatorade... we were about out and a blazin' hot week was coming up. I took that $ out of this weeks grocery budget. I think we're going to up our summer grocery budget to allow for the Gatorade that Daniel needs. (Yes, I know it's cheaper to buy the powder and DIY, but drinking it mixed from powder makes him sneeze a lot for some reason.)

I'm still not a big fan of Martin's (they recently bought out a local grocery chain). My biggest beef with them is that they will only double 1 "like" coupon per transaction, so I can't load up on cheap mustard in one transaction, or whatever. My second biggest beef is that they took down Ukrops "with small children" parking signs, so now you're just lucky if you get to park close to the door... and they have no cart returns in the parking lot (at least @Ashland), so I had to carry Susannah to the store, then back from the store after I took my cart back. I recently discovered Kroger's "with small children" parking spaces, and I like to use them :) And Kroger will double however many coupons I want to use :) :)

Grocery Shopping Trip 6/17

Sorry, folks. I don't have any grand tales about travelling to the edge of the earth and falling off, even though I'm sure it seems like that's what's happened with me here in bloggy land!! Life does exist without posting on my blog - imagine that! Nothing grand or super exciting has happened to specifically keep me from posting, just the regular everyday life with my little delight, Susannah :)

I have been grocery shopping every week, but yesterday I actually took the time and got everything photographed for a blot post :)

Food: (2) Flour (Bread & AP), Smoothie, Oil, OJ & Milk
Pears, Tomatoes, Nectarines, Lettuce, Baking Powder & Rice
*Highlights*
~I decided to give Kroger brand bread flour a try. It was considerably cheaper than the leading brands (which weren't on sale), and I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.
~Roma tomatoes were $.49/lb. and lettuce $1.05/head - salads anyone?
~Yoplait Smoothie was FREE with a coupon I'd gotten in the mail a while ago.

Shelf Price - $25.69
OOP - $20.82
Saved - $4.87 / 19%

Non-Food:
(4) Gillette Body Wash - BOGO sale + BOGO coupon = FREE :)
(4) Olay Body Wash - $1.99/ea
(4) Ivory Body Wash - FREE WYB Olay
(2) Dial - $.30/ea
Tide (64 load) - $9.29

Shelf Price - $67.45
OOP - $19.72
Saved - $47.74 / 71%

~I wouldn't normally spend $1.99 on a bottle of body wash, but with all the other free BW, it comes out to $.66/ea. AND for each (2) Olay Total Effects, you get a coupon for $2 off your next purchase :) I did 2 transactions since I was getting 4, so now I have $4 in coupons to use on my next shopping trip! Counting that in, I really got all the body wash free!!

Weekly Grocery Trip 5/5/10

Last night as I was putting the groceries away I told Daniel that we're gonna be eatin' "high on the hog" for a bit :) (And he followed that with "and the turkey and cow" to include the "meat" hotdogs.) There were some nice sales going on that allowed us to get a LOT of meat... and meat that usually is WAY out of our price-range. One of those is Chorizo... we've wanted to try Chorizo for a very long time but it's super expensive and this is the first time I've seen it on sale. Now I need to look up the recipes we want to use it in!

Wheaties - $1.44 (should've been $.69 but an e-coupon didn't come off)

(7) Gatorade - $.79/ea.

Orange Juice - $2.99

Milk - $1.69

(2) Reese's Dark - FREE

(4) Pineapple - $.73/ea.

(2) Lawry's Marinade - $.49/ea.

(4) Ball Park Meat Franks - $1.62/ea.

(2) Johnsonville Brats (19.6 oz.) - $2.99/ea.

(2) 16 oz. Oscar Mayer Bacon - $2.25/ea.

Breakfast Cheese - $1.25

(2) 18ct. Eggs - $1.67/ea.

Total Shelf Price - $77.53

Total OOP - $37.14

Saved - $40.39 / 52%

It was a great trip. We went after church last night and Daniel pushed Susannah (in her carseat) in one shopping cart and I pushed the "food" shopping cart. The lady that checked me out was very impressed with my free chocolate :P After checking me out she said "Wait, the chocolate is on sale 2/$1, and you had $.55 coupons. That means you got it for free!! Wow!!!" I told her I never turn down free chocolate ;)

Weekly Grocery Trip 4/22/2010

No picture, but it's a pretty minimal amount of loot that we got this week.

With the meals that were given to us we didn't have to cook as much (notice the "we?" :) ). But what we did use we needed to start restocking - meat and mayonnaise :P

All from Kroger:

(2) 18 ct. eggs
1 qt. Mayonnaise
1 qt. Miracle Whip (again, his 'n' hers)
1 gal. Orange Juice - $2.99
1 pint Sour Cream - $1.00
2 pkgs (3pc. ea.) B/S Chicken Breasts ($1.99/lb)
4.2lb. pkg. 80/20 Ground Angus Beef (Markdown) - $8.90

Total OOP - About $35

Daniel picked up the stuff without a price over the weekend and I know it was $13-ish, and what I got last night was $22-ish.

It's nice to have meat in the house again! Last evening I used the last 2 chic. breasts on supper, and we didn't have any beef. We do have odd and end meats in the freezer - like a whole turkey, some breakfast sausage, and 2 porkchops... but not the staple beef and chicken. I hope to do something with the turkey sometime soon and make some food to freeze.

Weekly Grocery Trip 3/27/2010

Go ahead and call me crazy. I agree, it was a crazy thing to do. I was pretty tired, but the deals were too good to pass up, and several of them were on things that I've been waiting to go on sale so I could replenish my supplies. The sale that Kroger was running was already on it's second week and I didn't want to risk missing out if it didn't go for a third week.

Daniel (and Susannah - we have to teach her young!!) went with me, and we each pushed a grocery cart - Daniel with Susannah in her carseat, and I had the cart with the groceries. It was the first time I'd gone coupon-grocery shopping on a Saturday, and late in the evening at that. I was surprised that we were able to get everything we went for - everything was pretty well stocked. I was a little worried that some of the stuff would've been cleared off the shelves, but it wasn't too bad!

We did combine all the non-grocery and grocery stuff together in the transaction to get the 8-item sale prices, so it's all in the picture together. We had about 2 weeks worth of grocery money to spend on grocery-stuff, and while I haven't checked the receipt with a fine-tooth comb, I'm confident that we remained under budget for groceries.

Non-Food:

(2) Lysol Pourable All-Purpose - $.99 ea.

(2) Lysol Toilet Cleaner - $.99 ea.

(1) Dial Foaming Hand-soap - $.30

(1) Satin Care Shave Gel - $1.45

(2) 32-load Tide - $4.88 ea.

(6) Gillette Fusion Shave Gel - $1.50 ea.

(6) Gillette Body Wash - FREE (WYB Shave Gel)

(1) Trash Bags - $2.19

Food:

(4) Betty Crocker Brownie Mix - $1.44 ea.

(1) Betty Crocker Warm Delights - FREE

(1) Bread Flour - $1.77

(2) Oscar Mayer Lunchables - FREE

(2) Kraft American Cheese - $.99 ea.

(1) Cara-Cara Orange - $1.00 (never tried this kind before??)

(1) Pear - $.58

(2) Kroger Orange Juice - $2.50 ea.

(10) Sargento Shredded Cheese - $.59 ea.

(1) All Purpose Flour - $1.59

(2) Apples - $1.65

(1) Chocolate Chex Mix - FREE

(1) Powerade - $.49

(1) Romaine Hearts - $1.49 (Markdown)

(1) Wesson Oil - $1.99

(7) Buddig Lunchmeat - $1.50 ea.

(16) Del Monte Stewed Tomatoes - $.24 ea.

(7) Tuna - FREE

(1) 18ct. Eggs - $2.37

For everything (82 items) :

Shelf Price - $249.16

Total OOP - $76.32

Saved - $172.84 / 69%

I used 49 coupons :) The cashier was a young dude who liked to talk and he joked that scanning so many coupons was making his elbow and wrist hurt :P He was pretty impressed with how much I saved, though. I was, too!! I knew it was going to be some huge savings, but I always get anxious when I see the really high total before the discounts and coupons come off. I think I was grinning all the way home :P

Daniel was great and offered to unload, stage and photograph the loot for me since I needed to feed Susannah when we got home. He even put away the groceries after he was finished with that! He's such a great guy :) Grocery shopping isn't really his cup-o-tea, but even he gets impressed - and I think has fun - when we make off like bandits :P

Weeky Grocery Trip 3-9-10

I managed to get another shopping trip in before the baby's arrival :) And I was happy to make it through the store without my water breaking :P Here's what I got:

2 gal. Orange Juice - $2.99/ea.

(3) Buddig Lunch Meats - $1.50/ea.

Chex Mix - FREE

Betty Crock Warm Delights Minis - FREE

Fiber One Yogurt 4pk - FREE

18 Eggs - $1.99

2.62lb. Roast - $6.52 ($2.49/lb.)

Apples - $.90

Bananas - $.71 (I got 3 and ate one before I took the picture :P )

Shelf Price - $47.53

Total OOP - $21.08

Saved - $26.45 / 56%

I was so tickled that the Orange Juice was still on sale. Not the lowest price, but at this price it's cheaper to buy 1 gallon than to buy 2 cans of concentrate that don't make a whole gallon combined. And we both really like Kroger's Homestyle Orange Juice, so it's always nice when it's cheap :)

I wouldn't have been able to save so much (or get so much) if it hadn't been for the FREE stuff. Those items bumped up my savings and the Chex Mix and cake bowls will be fun treats. The yogurt I'll enjoy plain (it's strawberry) or use it in smoothies - Yummy!

Weekly Grocery Trip 3/2/2010

I totally forgot to even look at The Grocery Game list for Kroger before I went to town today! I see some FREE stuff on there that I may stop in for later this week if I end up being in that part of town, we'll see.

Today's trip, though:

(2) Pepsi & (2) Dr. Pepper (12pks) - $11.00 ($2.75/ea.)
1/2 Gal. Milk - $1.89
1 head lettuce - $1.55
Kroger "American" Cheese - $1.25
5lb. All Purpose Flour - $1.59
5lb. Gold Medal Flour - $1.74

Shelf Price - $31.36
Total OOP - $19.41
Saved - $11.95 / 38%

I'm really glad that somewhere, somebody finally has a good sale on Pepsi & Dr. Pepper! Last week we considered buying some but it is just astronomically priced when it's not on sale!! I told Daniel that he has an expensive habit :P He agreed that full price (normally $5.29/12pk at Kroger) is expensive! These 4 cases should last us at least until sometime in April.

This week my budget was $20 in keeping with our decision to spend a little more in February and then cut back a little this month when I won't be shopping as much. I'm glad I was able to get everything we needed (not everything we want) for $20. I cleaned up the flour supply yesterday baking bread so it's good to have some in the house again.

Stockpiling Meat and Cheese

Jenn had a great question in her comment on this post about a recent shopping trip. I decided that since more than Jenn may wonder the same thing, I would go ahead and answer in a post.

Jenn asked: "I was just wondering... your stockpile of lunchmeat and cheese... do you freeze them? And if you do, once they are thawed out, is their fridge life shortened by it??"

Photo by hsingy

I do freeze the extra lunch meat in my stockpile. I just toss the bags in the freezer the way they are. I have not noticed that the shelf-life is shortened any after thawing, but with Daniel getting a cold-cuts sandwich every day for lunch, lunch meat doesn't stick around very long :) The only change I have ever noticed in the lunch meat is that sometimes it is a little more watery in the bag than if it's not frozen, but it doesn't seem to effect the quality of the meat at all.

Photo by L.Marie

For the cheese, it depends. Cheese has a pretty long shelf life if it's kept sealed in the refrigerator. Freezing hard cheese does change the consistency of it. If I buy shredded cheese, I just throw the bags into the freezer and it thaws and works just as great as if it had never been frozen. Block cheese, however, if frozen becomes crumbly after thawed. Since I slice it off as I need it for Daniel's sandwiches, I keep the stockpile in the refrigerator. If you do want to freeze it but not have the crumbliness, you can pre-slice it and then freeze it. That works well, too. I'm just too lazy to slice up a whole stockpile of cheese :P

I do freeze the individual-wrapped American Cheese stuff when I buy extra. I'm sure it has a long shelf-life as well and I probably wouldn't need to freeze it, but it helps keep the fridge uncluttered. I've not been able to tell any difference with that once it's thawed.

I hope this answers your question, Jenn! Thanks for asking :)

$40 Cash Weekly Grocery Trip 2/24/10

This week was "re-stock the cupboards week" as we were scraping the bottom on several things. There are some good sales going on, but the one I was most interested in is going to be running through March and my coupons are good through March, so I decided to save that stock-up for another week.

I didn't get a picture this time. It was 11:30 till we got home last night (we went shopping after choir practice and we were later than usual in leaving church), and I was/am so tired I don't feel like digging the groceries back out for a picture :) You're not missing anything too exciting. Except the fact that when you don't combine sales with coupons, money doesn't seem to buy nearly as much!!

Kroger

1 gal. Orange Juice - $2.50 (I love when it's on sale cheaper than cheap concentrate!)
48oz. Vegetable Oil - $2.93
Shortening - $3.56
Garlic Powder - $1.00
Ketchup - $1.35
Pint Whipping Cream - $2.79
5lb. Bread Flour - $2.49
Miracle Whip - $3.49
Head Lettuce - $1.55
Mayonnaise - $2.49
Soy Sauce - $1.19
lb. Bacon - $3.00
2 apples - $1.44 ($1/lb)
Bananas - $.99
1.49lb. Ground Beef - $4.75
2 doz. Eggland's Best Cagefree Brown Eggs - $1.49/ea. (Markdown)

Shelf Price - $45.27
Total OOP - $39.26
Saved - $6.01 / 13%

Last week when I was cleaning out my coupon file I kept telling myself that I need to clip some of the Eggland's Eggs coupons to keep in my grocery envelope. It's not very often I run across those eggs marked down, but when they are, if you have the coupons they can be very inexpensive. I was kicking myself last night for not doing that. There were 8 doz. marked down, and I could've had them for about $.70/doz. if I'd had coupons with me!!

Next week will be interesting. Since this month we've been spending over our normal budget, next month we'll be spending under budget, mostly to get the bare bones necessities to round out what we have stockpiled. We have a great stockpile of lunchmeat and cheese, so I think we'll come out ok.