February Grocery Shopping to date

Well I'm just going to give myself a big fat F for Failing the grocery budget this month.

At the beginning of the month I just decided to do a big shop and be done with it. I knew that I could just refill the produce and dairy throughout the month. We all know what happens to those Best Laid Plans.

On the 1st I went to Sams, Dollar Tree, Produce market & Walmart

Sams $144.20

Walmart : $27.06

Produce Market : $54.74

Dollar Tree : $3.00 (bought 3 newspapers)

Total OOP : $229.00

That left me with $71 for the rest of the month. No problem...... Then the Kroger Mega event happened. I really don't feel too bad about Kroger, because I earned most of my money back. Then I went to RA yesterday to use my $34 rewards that was about to expire. What a disaster that was. I ended up spending $19.67 OOP. I'm not happy. I'll write a RA post later.

The Yogurt drinks were on sale at Sams, so I stocked up on that. Yogurt is a staple in our house, so I needed to get enough to last the month.

I also bought 2 packs of chicken tenders at Sams (around 7 lbs) to make BWW tenders (I want to try it with BBQ sauce next time). When I told DH how much I cooked, he called me crazy...lol. Silly man. I don't have to cook much for the rest of the month, because there's lots of cooked meals in the freezer. I'm loving just pulling meat or meals from the freezer. I don't have to slave over a stove every day & we don't have to get carry out when I don't feel like cooking or don't feel well. Money saved and less junk eaten. I call that a win!

Last weekend I discovered that Target had 35% Tostitos Chips & Salsa Circle offer. I'm not too familiar with Circle (I rarely shop at Target), but it said the limit was 4. When I added things to my online cart, it looked like the limit was more than 4, because I had 4 salsa and 2 bags of chips. I'm now thinking it was problem 4 per type, because I got 4 salsa and 1 queso (in store) and the discount worked on everything. I could've bought more queso, cause I love that stuff.  I paid with a discounted Target gc that I purchased in December, so $0 OOP.

I also stocked up on Kraft cheese at Meijer last week. The 16oz bags were on sale for $3.49. That's the cheapest I've seen cheese in a long time around here. So I bought 4 bags. Sneaky Meijer. I saw the sale price in the ad when it came out, but there were no sale tags on the shelves so most people were buying the 8 oz Sargento that had a $2.50 sale price sticker. I took the Kraft cheese to a price scanner to check the price. Yep, definitely on sale. 

We stopped at Aldi yesterday and stocked up on some produce items and bread. I prefer their wheat bread and it's the cheapest good bread (I'm very picky about the kind of bread I eat) around here (unless I find Brownberry whole wheat at Dollar Tree). But darn, I always find something new to try at Aldi, so I bought some protein veggie burgers for $3.99. That's why we ended up spending so much.we still have quite a bit of produce from the Market left, so I didn't need to get much produce at Aldi.

I also bought a big $2 box of lemons & limes when I was at the Produce Market and made lemon/limeade. So refreshing. 

I also made a trip to Ollie's with that lovely 15% off coupon they sent me. I mainly went looking for household items, but I always check their grocery section too.

Boy was I happy to see that Ollie's had raisins again. I haven't seen raisins there since way before the pandemic started. These bags were $3.99 each, so $3.39 after discount. At first I added 4 bags to my cart. Then I went back and got 2 more, because the shelf was full.

Now, before anything thinks that I've gone stark raving mad, let me explain. I use a lot of raisins for baking. I replace sugar in my baking whenever I can. My mother was a diabetic, so we eat low sugars. I've done this for years. I just crush the raisins so that it spreads evenly in my batter. We also use raisins in our cereal and eat as snacks with other dried fruit. I was so mad at myself, because I bought a box of raisins at Sams at the beginning of the month, because we were out. I paid $8.98 for 2 x 30 oz bags (2 bags per box), compared to $6.78 for 2 x 32 oz bags at Ollies. 

Also, Ollie's buys shelf pulls, liquidation, overstock etc, so their products vary all the time. I might not be able to find raisins the next time I go there. That's happened to me before. This is why I stocked up like this. 

The Tostitos were $4.99, so $4.24 after discount. These bags are huge and the chips were so fresh. I usually buy the big On the border bags at Sams, but it's not the round chips. The rounds are perfect for nachos. I wish I had bought more than 2 bags. I also picked up some Snickers for DS, stick cinnamon and Dill.

New February totals to date : 

Sams $144.20

Walmart $27.06

Produce Market $54.74

Dollar Tree $3.00

Kroger Mega event/Ibotta (includes all stores) $48.61

Kroger cheesecake crumble $3.99 (free after Ibotta rebate)

Meijer $13.96

Target $0.00

Aldi $23.96

Rite Aid $19.67

Ollies $33.06

Total OOP $372.25

Ibotta earnings : $59.81 ($42.32 Mega event, $3.99 Cheesecake, $13.50 RA)

Kroger cash back : 7.99

Total cash back earned : $67.80

My earnings will all be applied to next month's budget. 

I haven't been to CVS this month yet. I was planning on doing the Loreal Revitalift deal last week, but then noticed that I didn't get a $5 Skincare CRT :( I haven't been to WAGS since mid December. I just can't get myself to go. It probably also has to do with the fact that we don't need anything. We have more than enough HBA. 

We might only need a select few produce items and milk next week. I'm too afraid to set a budget for next week, because if a stock up sale or good drugstore sale comes along, I'm in...lol.