The Grocery Haul

Whew! It's over! I actually only had to go to Sam's Club and Kroger's. Saturday Morning I was hitting the stores earlier in the morning. It was so nice and quiet at both places. I was able to really take my time and not worry about someone coming up and standing in front of me while I was looking at the shelf and doing my calculations.

Let me start with Sam's Club:

 I always have to get into a logically mode when I shop here. Buying in bulk does not always equal savings. When I shop here I am buying things that will last longer than a month or close to a month. So even though I don't see the savings when I pay I will seen the savings through the rest of the month when I'm grocery shopping.

 We always buy our Dry and Wet Dog food here. Like today I bought 24 cans of Alpo for 13.44. That's .56 a can. Our girls only get half a can each with their dry food food at night. (Don't worry they get Dry food in the morning as well)
Although I did not need to buy dry dog food this time I wanted to give you an FYI. Sam's and Costco sells Dry dog food in 40 to 55 LBS that is a very large bag. Our dog food bag cost about 38.00 for a month of food. (it's actually a month and a half)
We also get our bottled water from Sams. We always get 2 cases. Each case cost 3.98 and comes with 35 bottles. That is .11 cents a bottle.
Another thing I get at Sam's is their 5 LBS bag of shredded cheese for 12.77. This will actually last us 2 months. It's extremely handy to have here in this house.
Flour Tortillas are a great deal as well. I pay 3.58 for 40 tortillas. That is .9 cents a tortillas.

Now let's talk about meat!
I will buy my meat from Kroger's or Sam's I love that I can buy a large quantity at Sam's and just divided them up in zip locks when I get home.
I bought 4.09 LBS of ground beef for 14.23. I will be able to get 4 meals out of this That's $3.56 a meal. They also had 5 LBS of Ground turkey for 12.00 however I decided I wanted ground beef.
Plus I bought 11.09 LBS of Chicken for $20.19. I will be able to get 7 meals out of this at $2.88 a meal.
So I just purchased meat for 11 meals. Plus I still have some meat in my freezer and I did pick up some great meat purchases at Kroger's. For the rest of the month I will not have to worry about buy meat. I love that because it will lower my grocery cost for the rest of the month.
I ended up spending 106.26 at Sam's for everything we need through this month and to October 9, 2015.(this also included our coffee) It always gives me a shock when I come to paying how much I have spent, however, I know the rest of the month I'm going to be grateful I already have they items.

Kroger's

 Let me start with why I like shopping at Kroger's. Good prices (If you watch their sales) 10 cent off gas for every 100.00 you spend ( they call it points) and the store I go to is super friendly. During the summer they had 2x the points for fuel. So if I spent 200.00 I would get 400 points. That's .40 of a gallon of gas. For August I had 600 Points! When I went to fill up my car this week I used those points. WOW!!! 1.85 for a Gallon of Supreme Unleaded. (My car will only take Supreme Unleaded, note to self that is one thing you want to research when I purchase my next car!)
Also at the bottom of your recite if you take the survey you get 50 extra points, each week.So next week if all I need is say milk and I take the time to fill out the survey I get 50 extra points. That equals 200 extra points a month.

This morning I printed up the list of what coupons are on my card so I could price match with other brands, grabbed my list and off to the store. I got a bag of Cheetos free.( it's was on my digital coupons) That was a 4.49 savings.
  I had a coupon for $3.00 off when I spent 15.00 in the meat market. Well I had to buy Shrimp and a Chuck Roast. The Shrimp were bagged and it was buy 1 get 1 free. So for 2 lbs of Shrimp I spent 8.99. The Roast was 9.18 for 3.25 LBS. Then I got 3.00 off  that so I ended up spending 15.17 for those items.

Then I walked over to the mark down meat. There was  Round steak for 1.88 and Chuck steak for 3.25. Bought both of those. They are going to be great for Stir fry dinners.

I also had a buy one get one free for their bakery's french bread. They were .99 each. So I got 2 French breads for a buck!
OH and the Captain Crunch was .99 a box!!!
I actually have bought stuff for not only this weeks menu but next weeks as well. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner! Can I get a WOOHOOO!!!
I also got 6 different shampoos for our stick pile for 1.00 each after my coupons.
I bought 87 items and spent $134.11 and saved 66.22 Between sales and coupons. That was a 33% savings.
I also got 2 free tickets to a Texas Ranger's game and 134 fuel points. (plus the extra 50 for taking the survey)

When grocery shopping take your time. Always look at the upper shelves and the shelves near the floor. You will find great deals there. I always write down prices of items we use a lot as I'm going through the store so I know if I am getting a good deal in the future when it goes on sale. When it does go sale and it is a good deal I'll stock pile that item. Also I use a calculator  the whole time.

Today when the shrimp rang up it did not take the 2 bag price off; because I had watched the ring up and knew my prices I was able to show the cashier that the sales as had a BOGO so she took off 8.99 off my final price. I was very thankful to her! Plus my mom always told it's easier to catch bees with honey than vinegar. So be sure to be polite when pointing these things out to your cashier.
Remember the grocery store is the one place you have control over your budget in a BIG way. I spent $240.37 today. Good Grocery Haul for this family!