Where Is That Grocery Money Going?

I was thinking about this while I talked to MamaBear, who says that for their family of 3, she spends over $400 a month on groceries.

That led me to ponder where exactly my grocery money is going. What do we spend it on?

A couple days ago I wrote about the last month's grocery purchases. We spent a total of $758.51 for a whole month, including replenishing all the cleaning supplies, all our toiletries, all our pet care needs (that runs close to $100 a month alone sometimes), and groceries. That was an exception though, because we had two birthdays to buy for, my husband was home for a week, and my mom came to visit for a few days as well, so that obviously added money onto my bill.

The other day I spent $229 at Wal Mart for two weeks worth of meals for me and the kids, including some pet supplies, toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo/cond. for everyone, and jet dry. I then went to Safeway to purchase a few more items that were on sale for super cheap. I got 5 two liters of various Pepsi products for only $.75 each, 5 bags of mixed salad for $.75 each, a box of Popsicles (24count) for desert for only $3, two gallons of milk for $3.98 total (I don't buy milk at Wal Mart), and 10 boxes of cereal for $1.50 each. I spent about $30. Granted, I don't normally buy 10 boxes of cereal, but these were cheap and they were small boxes too, so I have some room to store them. I did buy some candy for the kids' Easter baskets, and had to replenish my reusable bags, because I forgot them at home.

I guess I am wondering how I can do it for relatively cheap (seriously, I am not counting last month, it was really odd) for a family of 5-6 (depending on when my husband is home), but others can't. I don't even use coupons!! Couponing here is not really an option because the coupons are all for products I don't use, considering I buy mostly store brands. And Wal Mart is pretty cheap already for groceries. Is it because you don't want to? Can you not find good deals? How big are your families? Do you cook gourmet and fancy foods? Do you not use left overs? Please don't take offense, I am just really curious as to how other families do this. Enlighten me! I bet that there are families that can do it for even cheaper, I'd love to learn how!

I like to cook hearty food, yet simple. I really think that helps keep our grocery costs down, as does using left overs. A family favorite of ours is Roast beef. Roast in itself is expensive, but if you can find a large roast on sale, you can make it last for 3 meals if you try hard enough. I bought a 5lb roast a few weeks back, and the kids and I had roast beef one night, stew the next, and then I froze the last hunk of beef and made stew last week. 3 meals for $11, divided by 5 people..basically 11 divided by 15 = $.73 per person per meal. Plus I had enough left over for me to have stew one day for lunch.

If anyone wants to comment, I'd love to hear what you have to say. How do you make your grocery money stretch, and what do you spend it on?


**** Just wanted to add, while I was at Target this afternoon (we had two birthday parties to shop for), I found a GREAT deal on cereal. I know I just bought a bunch for the kids, but this is for me. Selected Quaker products were on sale for $2.50 each, and if you bought 5 products, you got a $5 gift card. So I bought $12.50 worth of cereal (Quaker Oatmeal Squares Cinnamon flavor), and then was able to use my $5 gift card as well. I got the cereal for only $1.50 a box!!!! ****

Start Sampling

Scroll to the bottom of my blog and see my new widget! I'm a frequent visitor over at Start Sampling and thought I would share the goodness!!

What Doesn't Work For Me Wednesday

Shannon, over at Rocks In My Dryer has a blog carnival called "What Works For Me Wednesday". Today she decided it would be "What Doesn't Work For Me Wednesday". So...here goes, what doesn't work for me:

1. Clipping Coupons. Sometimes I can find some good ones, but more often than not, I really can not be bothered to even try.

2. Getting my daughters to clean their room! It looks like a bomb went off in there.

3. Canning food. Doesn't interest me, I don't have the storage space, and I don't want to bother taking the time to do it. Though we do live right next to a HUGE strawberry farm, so I will make some jam this summer. That is one thing I do want to do.

4. Dieting. I can't seem to give up sweets, but as long as I can have them in some form, I am ok.

So what doesn't work for you? Bargain wise, family wise etc. Anything you can think of!

Freebies on Friday

Since my hubby is home, and I am lazy with my posting this week, I shall direct you to MamaBear's site where she has posted her weekly Freebies

There are some pretty good ones this week!!
Thanks MamaBear!!

Also, does anyone have a link to a printable Lowes coupon? we're headed there this afternoon b/c we have a $100 g/c for purchasing our new washer and dryer in march, and thought we could get a little extra bang for our buck.

I went to Target again!

I'm a coupon fool now! lol See my post from a few days ago. I was able to get the same deals again! I just print a new one out every time I go, I won't need to buy toilet cleaner for a really long time. ;o) I didn't go to Target just for free stuff, because that is a waste of gas. I actually needed laundry detergent, printer ink, and a few other random items. And it was almost 70 degrees outside, so the kids and I went to Mc Donalds for an ice cream cone. The baby sure enjoyed it, as did the rest of us.

Also picked up the Scotch Brite Tub and Tile scrubber that is listed on this site. Normally this product is $14.99 at Target, and it was on clearance for $7.48. I used both coupons and was able to get it for .50 cents!! I didn't see the re-fill kits, so I might print of the $2 coupon for the next time I go and see if it is on sale. But for now I have the starter kit, and I will test it out tomorrow.
I'll review it as soon as I can.

Time for a change, and Coupon info.

You'll notice that my blog has a different look today. I thought a change was in order. Out with the old, and in with the new!

So I took a trip to Target last week in order to find some more bargains. See my post Freebie Update. I was able to find Colgate toothpaste for .50 cents this time, as I had two coupons. The scotch brite I was able to get for free!!! I found this site which has a ton of printable coupons on it, thanks to Ginger. I also got a refill of the toilet scrubbers for 1.49. I am pretty happy with my deals! The coupons are good until the middle of may, so I will take some with me the next time and get more too. lol

Also, if you are looking to print multiples of coupons, or get some new coupons, a great site to visit is A Full Cup.

So now we have two sets of the Scotch Brite toilet scrubbers, a re-fill kit, two tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste, and all I spent on that was $3.28. Hooray!!