Shopping plan, week of 072708
Last week’s total was nice and low. Now, I’m feeling dissatisfied with my prior attempts to keep our weekly spending on groceries and household items around $100. Lower! Lower! The meat for our meals this week is coming straight out of the freezer, so I could get by with picking up nothing but a few vegetables, some fruit, and some dairy products. However, there are good prices on convenience and stockpile items. Here are my estimates. Updates after I shop tomorrow will be in orange.
Rite Aid - After coupons, I’ll spend about $4 out of pocket on deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, and I’ll earn $5.98 in rebates. Net: $2 profit. [Actual: Spent $3.97, will get $5.98 in rebates. $2.01 profit.]
CVS - I never stopped at CVS last week, but this time I’m picking up 2 greeting cards, 2 packs of gum, some makeup and Band-Aids. That’ll cost about $10.50 in cash plus $6 in ECBs after coupons, and I’ll earn $13 in new ECBs. Net: $3.50. [Actual: Couldn’t find 2 cards that I liked, so I skipped that part of the purchase. I love the Revlon limited edition lip gloss that was free after ECBs, though. Paid $4.03 in cash and $4.99 in ECBs for a total of $9.02; earned $12.99 in new ECBs. $3.97 profit. The cashier looked at my receipt in surprise and said, “I just paid you!”]
Walgreens - Dish detergent, scouring powder, shampoo, and six bottles of body wash. I’ll pay about $17.00 (after coupons) using my gift card and I’ll earn $7 in register rewards and $4.30 in rebates. Net $5.70. [Actual: They were out of Ajax but I found everything else. Lots of tax and I must have made a math error. Paid $20.14 ($16.25 on a gift card and $3.89 cash). Earned $7 on my next purchase and will get $3.79 rebate. Net: $9.35.]
Kmart - I’ll spend about $37 for vegetables, fruit, canned tomatoes, a few convenience side dishes and entrees, chicken breasts, pork chops, bacon, eggs, and dairy products. [Actual: I shopped at Kmart first and noticed that a lot of items I planned to buy at Meijer were actually cheaper there, so I bought them. Also, the packages of pork chops were too big; the price was good, but I didn’t have $10 to budget toward meat stockpile this week. Total: $49.38.]
Meijer - Around $33 for fruit, veggies, cheese, bread, tomato sauce, ravioli, cocoa, and sausages. [Actual: Only bought a few items, thanks to sales at Kmart. Also picked up some blueberry mini-bagels from the sale/surplus rack and used a coupon for free cream cheese. Total spent: $14.45.]
That’s about $108 out of pocket ($84.50 in new spending and the rest from ECBs and gift cards). The net cost should be around $77.20. If my estimates are decent, that really isn’t bad. [Actual net: $67.20. Woo! I could have bought those pork chops, after all.]
