Packed Freezer and Free Milk

I've done two freezer rearranges in the past 24 hours, and there will be another one in a few hours. Yesterday we went to Albertson's to take advantage of their 3/$5 cereal and free milk deal*. Our favorite cereals were included so I was ready to stock up. The free gallon of milk made the offer even more attractive. Last night they were out of Gameboy's cereal so we just grabbed three of mine. They were not giving rain checks but promised to be restocked this morning.

On the same trip Gameboy got a bit carried away with the meat they had on sale for $1/lb. He cooked a bit last night but I'd guess there are approx 25 pounds of meat in the freezer.

I returned to Albertson's to find that the truck had not shown up. They let me substitute another brand and gave me a few rain checks. I also took advantage of King Sooper's 3/$5 deal on shredded cheese.** Since I've had good results freezing cheese I bought 9 bags.

Needless to say the freezer, with all of the regular stuff that lives in there, is full. I still have to figure out how to get 2 gallons worth of milk into the freezer. Gameboy drinks a lactose free milk with cereal and I use soy. Regular milk goes into baking and casseroles. I don't see myself having time for a cooking marathon this week so it's all headed to the freezer.

*When buying 3 participating cereals you get a free gallon of milk. The sale ends today, 6/3.

**This one also expires today. The Kroger brand cheese is 3/$5, some blocks of cheese too.

A different kind of drive through

Friday morning I got up, got ready for work, and headed out the door. I had a site visit in the morning and a meeting in the office directly after. As I pulled up to the site I realized what I didn't have was my lunch.

When the visit was over I started thinking about which drive-thru to visit on my way to the office. I was too far from home to make it to my meeting on time. Somewhere along the way I realized I would pass a Target so I decided to go in and buy what I would have brought for lunch. It took me 11 minutes between pulling off and back onto the road. I picked up a yogurt, banana, and chocolate bar (don't ask) for $1.27. Even with the chocolate bar this was healthier than anything I would have gotten at a drive-thru and less expensive too.

Next time I go into the office I plan on taking in a stack of frozen meals to avoid this happening in the future. That and trying to remember my lunch.

$0.05

That was how much I spent at Walgreens tonight. I walked out with 2 boxes of Kleenex, 4 rolls of Scotch tape, and some dishwashing liquid. How you ask?

• I had a $4 register reward from a soap purchase a few weeks ago


• I scanned their circular for the week when I walked in


• I tore out 3 coupons for the above items.

The clerk rang me up and also seemed amazed that my total was 5 cents. Then came the slighly embarasing knock yourself upside the head moment. I joked about having 5 cents, because even I, the queen of the swipe, realized that was too little to swipe. I put my hands in my pockets and realized a) my wallet wasn't with me and b) all I had on me was a penny. The clerk was cool about it but I ran out to my car, pulled a nickel from the change tray, and ran back in.

I couldn't have done this without some help from Money Saving Mom. She blogs about all sorts of deals, including the items that get you register rewards at Walgreens. I've been shopping at this particular Walgreens of and on for over a year and had no idea that register rewards existed. My only note of caution is to only get things that you actually need/use. On a few occasions I've thought "wow that's a great deal" but when I think about it I'd never use the product.

Happy saving.

Groceries

So we're two days into the month and I've already spent more than I did in the first three weeks of February. The damage:

Safeway (Sat): 19.98
Albertsons: 45.32
Safeway (Sun): 18.88

Total: 88.18

Crazy as that may seem I'm pretty happy with things. Gameboy has enough cereal to last the next three months and I got two weeks worth of frozen lunches (both at Albertson's). I also got items to help with the coming weeks of crazy travel in our household.

Something else I love doing is looking at the savings at the bottom of the receipts. On Saturday I send Gameboy on a Safeway run to get things for a picnic* where he saved 7.54. On the other two trips I saved 47 and 17.16. I wouldn't pay full price for a lot of what I bought, but those numbers still excite me.

What keeps me from having a heart attack is that other than produce I probably won't go to the grocery store until the end of the month. I have just over 60 dollars left in this months grocery budget so I shouldn't run into any problems.


*Can you explain how Sat can be mid 70's followed by a snowy 32 on Sunday?

Groceries

This week was a great grocery store week, though I had help in a few different areas. I spent a total of $28. The breakdown:

Target $9: flour, yogurt, milk, Cliff bar

Everything but the Cliff bar are usuals. Though work travel can save a lot of money I've learned to keep a bit of food in my bag when traveling to really small towns with a tight schedule. I didn't use it on this trip so I'll save it for the next one.

Safeway $19: 4 packages of lunch meat, Sara Lee bread, 2 mango's, potato salad, a dessert kit, tofu, and 2 packages of cheese

The lunch meat and bread was $11.16, but netted a $10 coupon. The rest was a combination of planned purchases (mango's, tofu, cheese) and impulse buys (potato salad, dessert kit). I picked up the dessert kit, which was marked at $.99 and rang up $.59. Gameboy picked up the potato salad because it was on sale, though looking at my receipt tonight I realize that it rang up full price ($5.99). I'm going to bring the receipt with me next time I go and we'll see what they'll do.

Lessons learned:
-Game plan before we go into the grocery store.
-Check the receipt before leaving the store.

When we got home we had a discussion about the impulse buys and what it does to the budget. We decided on one per person per trip, but keeping it under $3. We also decided to discuss what we are going in to buy. This way we're on the same page and can keep each other in check.

The things that helped:
-I was traveling for work so I didn't eat at home for two days.

-Remember that babysitting job a few weeks ago? On the last night their freezer started dying, so the mom sent me home with a big bag of hamburgers, chicken, and other little bits. All of these things filled our freezer, so we won't need to buy that stuff for a little bit.

The goal for the month is to spend less that $200 a month on groceries. So far, despite the impulse buys we're on track.