One More Deal and All You Challenge Wrap-Up

I just have to share one more couponing deal from the weekend. Late Saturday night, after driving home from helping my sister move, we stopped at Walmart so I could use my $2.50/1 Electrasol Finish dishwasher detergent coupons, which expired on Sunday. I couldn't let such high-value coupons for such a necessary product expire! I also remembered to use the $3.00/2 Pull-Ups wipes coupons, since I knew that Walmart carried a small size for just $1.64, making them $.14 each after the coupon.

On these 7 items, I saved $13.50 in coupons! Sometimes the "coupon savings" on a transaction is not that meaningful if I wouldn't buy the products at regular price anyway, but these are all products that I need and use, coupons or no coupons. The cashier at Walmart was really impressed with my savings. She said that I was inspiring her to get back to couponing. Yay!

Also, yesterday was the last day of the All You Grocery Challenge. Here's what I spent last week:
Giant - $23.02 & $.48 & $3.06 & $4.59 (loving Giant this week!)
Harris Teeter - $3.45 & $16.01
Safeway - $4.06
Bloom - $2.04
Total: $56.71

Here's my spending for the 4 weeks of the contest:
Week 1 - $18.85
Week 2 - $62.92
Week 3 - $57.23
Week 4 - $56.71

(I have to double-check my receipts; there might be one or two missing from these totals. But this is pretty close to my actual spending.)

Overall, I feel good about the challenge. I stayed under budget each week, and it was definitely a good exercise in discipline to strictly keep to the $75/week.

It's true that a lot of it did not involve changing my habits very much, since I have learned so many savings strategies in the last year. There were a few instances, however, where we would have splurged on something but did not because of the challenge. For instance, we had a really busy day on Saturday and ordinarily probably would have gotten fast-food takeout for lunch. But because of the challenge I packed some convenience foods that I had gotten on coupon deals and we waited until we arrived at my sister's to eat a late lunch. It was a good reminder that if we really need to we can spend even less than we do now, and how rare it is that we really "need" to splurge.

Thanks to All You for hosting the contest, and it will be exciting to see who wins!

All You Challenge Update

The third week of the All You Grocery Challenge is over halfway over, and I'm happy to report that we've been sticking to the $75/week budget. It's actually been more challenging than I expected!

The first week was pretty easy, since the girls and I were out of town for a lot of it. Since we were staying with my parents, we only bought a couple of snacks. I had left Michael plenty of food, so he only spent money on one calzone from our favorite local pizza place.

Last week and this week have been more challenging, however. Last week I had to replenish the fridge and pantry with a number of essentials, like milk, flour, and fruit. This week we're cooking a birthday dinner for my sister on Saturday, so I bought a number of items I wouldn't ordinarily buy. I also bought a couple of more expensive spices to make homemade pickles with our cucumbers!

In order to stick to the budget even with these challenges, I've concentrated on using what I had in the pantry and freezer. Luckily, I had a decent amount of meat in the freezer, bought in the club packs when they were on sale. We've also been using the produce in our garden, which has saved me on buying vegetables to go with dinners.

I also find it a little inconvenient to have to stick to a strict number for the week, rather than for the whole month. It makes me less likely to be able to take advantage of some deals, since I have to allow enough money for all the staples I need for the week. On the other hand, it's a good exercise in figuring out what is really essential to get through the week, not to mention a reminder not to go overboard on deals and break the budget!

Here's what I've spent so far this week:

Harris Teeter - $2.60

Target - $2.31

Wegmans - $52.33

Total: $57.23

After Sunday, just one more week of the challenge!

All You Grocery Challenge

This week I started participating in the All You Magazine Grocery Challenge. Basically, the challenge is to keep to a budget of $25/week per person (not counting babies) for a month. The magazine will pick an overall winner based on how well she stayed on budget, healthy eating choices, and creativity/ingenuity.

Overall, I don't think I'll have too much of a problem staying within the $75/week budget. It's just a little lower than our usual $350/month budget, and it doesn't have to count non-food items, which my budget normally does. I think my biggest challenges will be keeping my spending equal each week, since I usually calculate the budget by the month, and also working around any special events or eating out that we do. Even though we don't eat out very often, when we do we usually count it in a separate budget from our normal grocery budget. However, this challenge requires you to include any restaurant or takeout meals that you buy.

Here are some of the strategies that I plan to use in the grocery challenge:

- Using meals frozen ahead of time. Of course, the girls and I are out of town for the first few days of the challenge, but Michael still needs groceries this week. Since I was going out of town, I froze a number of meals for Michael to eat while I was gone. That way, he has bought very little takeout and only made one trip or two small stops for grocery essentials. When we get back on Saturday and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, we can eat whatever meals he didn't use up, to make settling in less hectic.

- Planning meals around sales and coupon deals. I always do this, but I'll have to be more careful during the challenge. If there are a ton of coupon deals in one week, I might not be able to get them all, since I can't go over the weekly budget. I'll definitely be paying a lot of attention to the weekly sales.

- Using what I have. This is probably my single most important strategy. Although I've been on vacation and haven't stocked up in a while, I'm sure I still have a good amount of food in my cupboards. Since without a car I can't run out to the store all the time, I am used to making do with what I find in the pantry. It's always surprising what meals I can come up with!

- Using our garden produce!!! I am so excited to finally have some results of our work in the garden! Last week, Michael picked 6 huge cucumbers, and we also have tons of basil, mint, cilantro, and parsley. Homemade pesto, here I come!

There are lots more frugal tips at Frugal Fridays!