Short shopping week!

Well we finally had to pick up a few things yesterday...or rather, hubby and the Boy Wonder took an excursion while mommy was at work...BW's favorite thing right now is "ride car...ride CAR....RIDE CAR!!!" Which is funny because his car seat may as well be the Iron Maiden, the way he flails and screams when we strap him in.

Anyway, after last week's shopping I am pretty well set up between the freezer and pantry, so here's what we need for the week:

Milk: $2.79
Eggs: $1.49
Yogurt: $1.99 (But then my crockpotting hero figured out how to make her own! Bye Bye Yoplait!)
Bread: $0.75
Bananas: $2.86 (big bunch)
Waffles: $1.50 (Looking for a good homemade recipe that freezes well...)
Carrots: $2.29
Butter spread: $1.79

Grand total: $15.46!

I have plenty of frozen veggies, potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots to last a while, so I'm going to be planning our menus with as little to buy as possible. I need to get off my bum and do some more baking, too - I have mashed sweet potato and cans of pumpkin to make muffins with, but I've been totally beat at the end of the day....that may be a sign of something, but I'll save that for later ;)

I also decided to give the whole digital scrapbooking thing a try, in hopes of making our own photo christmas cards this year...Photoshop scares me (we have V7.0 not elements, so it's not as user friendly at first) and I had a hard time getting comfortable. But I found a REALLY basic tutorial over at The Shabby Shoppe that took me step-by-step through a simple layout...it was enough to finally make the program comprehensible for me, so I toodled around last night and came up with this:



Those aren't the pictures I'll be using for the final cards, just a few that were near the top of the folders to play around with. Not bad for a first try!

The Goodie Bag

Some freebies, discounts, and fun stuff to kick start your weekend! Printable coupon roundup can be found toward the end of this post.




Get the 2009 Entertainment Book and receive $5 off PLUS free shipping! (we give these as christmas gifts!)

Free Pillsbury recipe booklet and a Free $10 coupon book from Pillsbury as well

While you're at it, get the Betty Crocker recipe booklet and $10 Coupon booklet too!

Free REDBOX rentals! Deal Seeking Mom has posted FIVE redbox freebie codes that can be used every Sunday between now and the end of the year - Check out her post HERE and be sure to sign up for her feed so you get her reminder posts every week!



Printables!

Get $1.00 off Rayovac batteries (courtesy of The Freebie Blogger)

Progresso soup - Get $1 off 2 and $2 off 4 HERE

At Bath & Body Works - FREE ITEM (up to a $13 value) with any purchase of $10 or more...good in stores only.

Another BBW freebie: Free Lip Product up to $12 in value with ANY purchase! (thanks to Coupon Cravings!)

Another Shaw's Haul

I posted last week about the Shaw's meat sale and P&G Promo...I thought I would share what I actually brought home from the trip! I probably went a little overboard, but we are so well stocked right now I won't have more than $15 shopping trips for the next few weeks.

My main goal was to maximize the P&G sale (buy $20 in products - PRE COUPON COST - get a $5 catalina off your next transaction PLUS 5 free Redbox rentals) and stock up on meat. Anything with a * in front of it was bought with a coupon (to save space - I had a pretty full cart!) and anything with a ** in front of it was bought with a coupon that doubled!

I now have enough meat in the freezer for over two months of dinners, basic toiletries for at least 9 months, and plenty in the dry storage to get us by for a good long while. I look forward to some super cheap shopping trips between now and spring! :)

Transaction #1
Purchased:
*2 Folgers 28oz coffee, *2 Dunkin Donuts 2 lb coffee
Total spent: $20.96
Total saved: $16.56 ($13.56 store discount, $3.00 P&G Coupons)
Got $5 catalina plus 5 redbox rental coupon

Transaction #2
Purchased:
*2 Folgers 28oz coffee, *2 Dunkin donuts 2lb coffee
Total spent: $15.21
Total saved: $21.56 ($13.56 store discount, $3.00 P&G coupons, $5 catalina)
Got $5 catalina plus 5 redbox rental coupon

Transaction #3
Purchased:
*2 Secret Deodorant, *4 Oral B Indicator toothbrushes, *6 bottles Herbal Essence shampoo & conditioner
Total spent: $9.87
Total saved: $31.85 ($17.85 store discount, $9.00 P&G coupons, $5 catalina)
Got $5 catalina plus 5 redbox rental coupon

Transaction #4
Purchased:
@ 20 lbs chicken leg quarters, @ 10 lbs ground beef, @ 3 lbs sweet Italian sausages, *3 Kellogg cereals, **6 Near East couscous, **3 Red Baron frozen Panini, **1 Bar S hot dogs, **1 Ajax dish soap, 4 flavored creamers
Total spent: $47.83
Total saved: $83.20 ($66.80 store savings, $11.40 coupons, $5 catalina)

Grand Total Spent: 93.86
Grand Total Saved: 168.17 (includes $15 in free movie rentals!)
PERCENT SAVED: 64% overall
*this is actually the second best percentage I've gotten out of this supermarket! I still haven't beaten my 71% trip but I'm working on it!

Top Droppers - November

Just a quick shout out to my top Entrecard droppers for November - this was all in the midst of my old blog being disabled and starting fresh with the new site, so I really appreciate that you all came back to visit so often!

Brick #1 - Start with what you know

Welcome to the first installment of Bricklaying! I've had a lot of people asking me how I'm managing to keep my budget so low. Especially in Massachusetts, the grocery costs are awful and most people I know are lucky if they spend less than $200 in a week. I hardly consider myself an expert, but I have definitely laid the foundation for good habits, and I do follow pretty basic guidelines when I'm shopping. I thought it would be helpful to share those bricks and help you build your own budgeting safehouse!

So let's start with an easy exercise:

1. Sit down and make a list of your family's must-haves.

Every family has different tastes. Some like spicy. Some like savory. Some are vegetarians, and some are meat-atarians :) Many people are dealing with dietary restrictions, either self-imposed or because of a medical issue. Take a little time and make a list of absolute necessities for your pantry - be realistic (while beef may be on the "needs" list, sirloin is not) and be aware of what you use on a very regular basis.

Here are a few starter questions for you:

* What are the top 10 items you use EVERY week? Stay pretty general - brand loyalty is great for the big companies but flexibility with brands can be a huge expense-cutter
* What proteins are absolute staples in your diet?
* What convenience foods are you buying on a regular basis?
* What do you buy outside the home regularly that could be replaced by something from home? - think about trips to the coffee shop, regular lunches or dinners out, snacks from the convenience store...all those little expenditures add up fast!
* What are you buying pre-made that you could make at home? - Check the list at the end of this posting for some great links that may help you in this area!

The list you end up with should be about 20-25 items (don't include spices and seasonings, just basic foodstuffs). These are the items that should be targets for stocking up when they go on sale. (When I started really pushing the grocery budget, I was totally overwhelmed by trying to hit EVERY sale and EVERY coupon, and it was easy to buy lots of stuff that I had to force myself to use.) Putting to paper the things that are your family's "essentials" will give you a starting point toward smart stockpiling.

Next week, be ready for a little homework. Start looking for all of those grocery receipts!


Some helpful links:

Make your own Lunchables

Options for healthy snacks

Make your own baby food

10 Expenses that add up fast

10 Painless Ways to Save $100

It's BAAACK!

Starting tomorrow, I will be reposting my "Bricklaying" series every Wednesday - I was able to recover all but the last one from the old blog, along with a few earlier posts that would definitely fall into the same category.

For those who are new to my blog, "Bricklaying" is a short series on what I have incorporated as foundational ideas toward improving and managing my grocery budget. I've had a lot of people both online and in person ask me how I do what I do every week that makes my budget goal possible, especially in the area where I live - it forced me to really organize my thought process, and I hope that it might help others achieve what I'm aiming for! It's easy to talk about coupon clipping and sale-hunting, but there is a whole mentality shift that has to happen for everything to come together. Call it the method to my madness, I call it building a solid wall to hide my goodies behind :)

As always, if there are topics you would like to see included, just drop me a line or leave a comment!

Baby smoochies

What's sweet like my boy's baby kisses? Bloggy love from a little cutie like Xander....ok, well it was really from his mom Keely (also of The Un-Mom fame). But it still rocks! And he is a cutie :)



No funky requirements, just passing on the bling! And since there aren't any limits to who I can share the love with...I'm passing this on to everyone who is following me or subscribed to my feed....hey, if you're willing to read my meanderings on a regular basis, you deserve an award or four! :)