Monthly Grocery Budget.

[donrae]

I hear you on the Good will. My sister lives 5 hours away, her store is lovely with great quality clothing, not stained, nice brands, etc. Reasonable prices.
My local store is like the ghetto store. Clothes from Wal-Mart, for only a bit less than Wally's charges. Stained, smelly, just not a great place to shop.
Some of the other thrift stores seem to think they're regular retail. The prices are so expensive, I'd rather shop sales at retail like you're describing. Then again, we just don't buy a lot of clothes, that simplifies things.

I know those newborn size outfits are adorable and folks love to buy them for showers, but they never fit more than a week or so! Most babies grow so stinking fast, mine were always in two sizes up from their age.

do you have a baby resale store locally you can take them for store credit? Around here we call them used baby stores

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Lol we live about thirty minutes form a small shopping area i have yet to see one. Lol i just planned on giving them to someone. Or the woman shelter i also have lucy old clothing that can go some nice and some that will make play shirts and that all they are good for.

 

[donrae]

Well, it's Monday, my usual shopping day. I'm taking inventory and I honestly think we're pretty good. I'm going to try to skip this week, make it a no-spend week for groceries. We've got an abundance of meat (the freezer in the house is looking better!), 2 gallons of milk still (but no cereal, so the milk probably won't go as fast), fresh veggies and salad fixings, a little fresh fruit (may need to pick up some there, it's hard to deny the kiddos fresh fruit, right?) and the pantry is stocked. Some creative menu planning and I think we'll have a good week. More money toward a side of beef!!

 

[donrae]

Well, I made it to the big town relatively unscathed! I did have a request from Honey for some salami, and we were out of mushrooms (we love our shrooms

) so I made a quick stop at cash and carry for just those two things, came to $20.

 

[donrae]

So I was at about 350. I know I said no meat, but I found boneless skinless chicken breast for $0.98/lb. Literally could not pass that up! Bought 15lbs total, need to get that processed and in the freezer today. Did some other shopping, lunch for our fishing trip, I'm now at about $400. Will have to break down and do a shop today or tomorrow-----went to have cereal for breakfast, but no milk. I wound up using cream and water, not the best

. I am going to try to keep the meat purchases to a minimum going toward that beef.

 

[DuckLady]

So I was at about 350. I know I said no meat, but I found boneless skinless chicken breast for $0.98/lb. Literally could not pass that up! Bought 15lbs total, need to get that processed and in the freezer today. Did some other shopping, lunch for our fishing trip, I'm now at about $400. Will have to break down and do a shop today or tomorrow-----went to have cereal for breakfast, but no milk. I wound up using cream and water, not the best

. I am going to try to keep the meat purchases to a minimum going toward that beef.

That's a great price. I would have stocked up too. Saves you in the long run.

 

[MeepBeep]

I know I said no meat, but I found boneless skinless chicken breast for $0.98/lb. Literally could not pass that up!

A few of my local ethnic grocery stores run $0.89/lb boneless chicken breast regularly as well as other really low prices on chicken, always a good time to stock up... They even have signs posted next to their meat bragging about the fact the local Walmart and several other stores will no longer price match their meat prices...

I mentioned the Walmart savings app a while back but have found a new app that works great at any store that will price match for immediate savings...

It's called Flipp, it lets you browse a lot of your local flyers in one place, all indexed with a search and you can virtually clip the ads and it put them in your virtual 'clipped' wallet so you can more easily compare at the register... It's been saving me a bunch I keep the app open when I shop and check every item I add to my cart and if I find it cheaper, I 'clip' that add...

If nothing else it's like having the Sunday papers worth of sales flyers delivered to your phone each week to browse for free...

They have a website as well as the app https://www.flipp.com

 

[MeepBeep]

do you have a baby resale store locally you can take them for store credit? Around here we call them used baby stores 

The one by me is pretty much useless for getting store credit, you drop off your box of cloths and they go through it and decide what ones they want and then offer a nickle for those items only and call you back with what they will pay... I had a friend take in 2 larger diaper boxes of cloths and they got something like $1.50 store credit, and still had two boxes of cloths that off course the store offered to 'dispose' off for free...

We have taken to bagging and boxing them and waiting for a friend or family member or even a friend of a friend that is in need to give them to...

 

[donrae]

With so many other things going on, I've not kept good track of my spending this month. I'll try to sit down and sort it out maybe tomorrow. I want to get back to a weekly menu. I've only bought a chuck roast in addition to the chicken breast, so I've done pretty good on the no meat. It's hard for me to focus on things like this one the weekends, so when everyone's gone tomorrow maybe I'll be able to concentrate. I'll need to make a shopping trip as we're out of milk at least. I'll have to make a menu and do a supply check and see what else we need.

 

[donrae]

I've spent about $150, so I'm at $500 for the month so far. It's probably more than that, but not too much. Eating from the freezer has really helped

menu for the week...

pork ribs and slaw
stroganoff
chicken thighs and salad
pork chops and green bean casserole
frittatas
tacos/taco salad

I'm making a pot of minestrone soup today or tomorrow, that will be for lunches and snacks. My grocery list really isn't too much for today, mostly veggies (come on garden season!). We're all cutting the carbs back, so that helps.