The Thrifty, Frugal Mom

Monthly Spending Summary (Jan.)

Starting a new year of budgeting is always kind of fun and kind of scary. It's fun because their is a whole new year ahead of me and it's fun to think of all that I will be able to save. And it's scary because I wonder how I'll do and if I'll be able to keep in budget.

I had previously mentioned that I was thinking about dropping my monthly grocery budget to $180 a month, but after discussing it with my husband we decided to just leave it where it is. He had been reading a number of articles recently that were speculating that grocery prices were going to rise quite a bit this year so we thought maybe we should plan for that.

This year, for a variety of reasons, we decided to "wipe the slate clean" so to speak and start our budget out at $0. So the extra money I had in my grocery budget from last year is going to go towards some meat we are purchasing inexpensively from some farmer friends of ours.

Anyway, here's the breakdown of my monthly spending. I didn't do as good as I had hoped but I feel okay with it nonetheless. I usually don't spend anywhere near my budgeted amount in Jan. and am able to set quite a bit aside for canning and freezing costs that we have later in the year. However I am hoping that Feb. and March will be lower spending months and will allow me to get ahead a bit and save up for my canning costs.

Monthly Grocery/Household Budget: $190

Total Spent: $198.82
Total Saved with Coupons/Sales: $551.47

Week 1: $0.99
Week 2: $57.45
Week 3: $74.87
Week 4: $65.51

Ending Monthly Balance: -8.82
I went over budget by this amount. Not a good idea!

Weekly Spending Summary

This was a rather average week, although I didn't even shop at CVS since the deals there weren't that great and I didn't have any Extra Bucks that needed to get used up. It was kind of nice to take a break from there.

Total Spent: $65.51
Total Saved with Coupons: $58.68
Total Saved with Sales: $26.71
Total Saved: $85.39

Rite Aid: $15.02 + gift card
Saved with Coupons: $34.94
Saved with Sales: $21.80

Also purchased Advil and Lubriderm.

I had a gift card that I earned through the Single Check Rebate program that I used to pay for part of this purchase otherwise my out of pocket would have been $1.24 more.

I had a free product coupon for Advil and I bought the Lubriderm at almost full price simply because I desperately needed hand lotion and I'm a Lubriderm snob.

The light bulbs, toilet paper and Nature Made fish oil were all free after UPRewards. I was really excited about the fish oil since I am supposed to be taking that and it is typically rather expensive.

Giant: $5.96
Saved with Coupons: $20.16
Saved with Sales: $4.91

I had two FREE product coupons for the milk from this deal and they both took $4.50 off even though the milk I bought was $0.66/gal. less than that. So I "made" $1.32 on the milk. I also had free product coupons for the Go-gurt and Healthy Choice. The Cottenelle wipes were free with a $2 catalina coupon that printed for me previously. If you get that particular catalina coupon keep your eye out for a sale on the Cottenelle wipes. The refills frequently go on sale for less than $2.

Walmart: $0 (gift card)
Saved with Coupons: $3.58

Okay, so I totally forgot to take a picture of this purchase, so I'll just list the items I bought: Kraft Mayo, Hunt's ketchup, 2 Minute Maid Orange Juice, Pinta 10 pack Tortillas, and Ovaltine.

I paid for this with a gift card that I had gotten when I returned a couple of items without a receipt, otherwise my out of pocket would have been $10.54.

I used the BOGO Minute Maid coupon to get the orange juice. The cashier about didn't let me use it- said they don't take printable BOGO coupons any longer. I questioned her since the coupon policy says you can. She went and asked management and they said that they'd take it this time but not any more after this. So now I have no stores in the area that will take BOGO printable coupons. Kind of stinks!

Aldi: $11.11