Grocery/Out to Eat Challenge: Week 2

Well since we got the stomach flu, we did met our budget of $130 on our weekly out to eat and grocery bills, but it was really only because we all were on our death bed sick and all of us have not eaten much at all this week…it has not been pretty.

Because it was such a crazy week, I am not going to post much, because this week all I have made it to is CVS (yesterday)

I went to CVS and purchased I knew ahead of time that if I bought $30 worth of these certain items I would get $15 back

1. 2 Hefty Zip bags 17 ct $5.00
2. 2 Glade Infusio spray $3.00 (believe it or not we really needed this air freshener after the week we had) I was able to mix/match scents
3. 2 Huggies Diapers/ Jumbo pack $8.99 each
4. 1 Hug Wipes at $4.99

*Had 2 .20 cent coupons on the zip lock bags that were located on the box

7 items spent $32.71 and earned $15 back for buying items at CVS so after I purchase all these items I went right back to shopping with my same cart, yes in the same trip (this way I do not waste gas time coming back to use the $15)

Then, in the same trip I bought

1. CVS fabric softener $3.49
2. CVS foam plate $2.49
3. CVS Sand Zip is $2.69
4. 1 Heft CS talk garage bags that we needed $7.99
5. 1 Gallon of Whole Milk $3.99

-$15.00 in extra bucks equaled $5.77 so I spent a total of $38.48 out of pocket ON BOTH PURCHASES, but I earned $15.00 and many items that I bought were on sale. CVS said I saved $9.26 on my first purchase so I guess I saved $24.26 on my 2 purchases at CVS….yeah! So I guess it was really more like $62 worth of items. I think, however, if I had extrabucks saved up I could have used them on my first purchase of $32.

This sale of buying $30.00 of these certain items and earning $15.00 (view them in this week’s CVS ad magazine you can get in the paper or at the beginning of the store) ends Saturday so if you want to do what I did this week better get into CVS soon!

These week is going to be tight because I have already spent $48.24 due to this CVS purchase and due to lack of planning because of us all being sick this week. So, I have around $60 left and I need to go plan out our eating schedule for this week. I really want to just spend $120 on both out to eat and grocery bill this week (I do not think this is unreasonable). I am not anywhere near the $35 a week that money saving mom spends, but I know it is a work in progress. My ultimate goal right now is to get down to $75 worth of spending for both groceries and out to eat. The plan for this week is that if I run out of paper towels this week, I am not going to buy more because it is not a "necessity." This the been the key for me so far, if I run out of something that is not a necessity like paper plates, I do not buy it until Thursday when my budget starts over. I only have "X" amount of money to spend and if it is an item that is not necessary and something I had not budgeted for, I have to be patient and use self control not to buy it.

Pray that I can meet my goal somehow this week! I would love to hear more suggestions on how I can do this (I am planning very plain meals (like soup) for us since our stomachs are still not back to "normal").