Trader Joes
10 bananas - $1.90
frozen mixed bell peppers - $1.69
organic strawberry spread - $2.69
2 lb clementines - $3.29
frozen mango chunks - $2.49
2 lb organic apples - $2.49
2 12 pk cheese sticks - $3.99 each
4 pk organic applesauce - $1.99
dozen eggs - $1.29
Total - $26.33
A few things were impulse buys. I did not plan on the eggs, applesauce (diaper bag snacks), or strawberry spread, so my total was higher than I had planned on, but all the things were needed.
half gallon non-homogenized milk
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
whole chicken
Total - approximately $18
I actually paid for these things with my card since I needed to buy some non-grocery budget items there, but the $18 will be subtracted from my $200 total. This is also where my first fail comes in. Earth Fare's weekly coupon was for a free pound of boneless skinless breasts when you spend $5 at the fresh case. I figured that I would get the whole chicken I needed for the next set of meals and get some free chicken breasts, which were also needed. Well, my coupon scanned but it did not take off the money. Why? Because the guy at the meat counter didn't give me quite a pound of chicken breasts. Oh well. It wasn't as if I had spent any more money than I would have, I just spent more than I could have. Make sense?
gallon non-homogenized milk $3.49 each but $2 refundable deposit each
8 oz cheddar cheese $3.49
8 oz mozzarella cheese $3.49
6 oz plain yogurt $0.80
1.10 lb ground beef $4.39
Total - $34.02
Kroger
You can imagine a picture here because my batteries died right when I was trying to take one.
whole wheat pita bread - $1.69
6 organic braeburn apples - $2.73
3 lb organic red delicious apples - $3.99
2 avocados - $1.00 each
2 5lb boxes clemtines - $4.99 each
Total - $20.59
Here is where I ran into another problem. I left the house this morning with only $40 cash because my plan was to transfer a prescription to Kroger and get a $25 giftcard. Score! Well, the prescription transfered fine but the "free $25 in groceries" they advertised in the salespaper wasn't in the form of a giftcard like I thought. Instead the credit is loaded onto your Kroger card. I actually thought that was a pretty cool idea and would save so much waste! Only problem is that it takes 30 minutes for the credit to fully load onto your card for you to be able to use it, so when I go to check out immediately after paying for my prescription, my credit isn't working. Dang it! So I had to use my own money, leaving me with only $20 to get what I needed at Earth Fare (above). That was not happening, so I opted to use my card instead of waiting until I could get back to Earth Fare and will just subtract that amount from my $200 total.
Kroger is also not a usual store for me, but they had avacodos and clememtines on sale and I know that you can sometimes score big on markdowns in the produce and meat department. Well, the produce department had no mark down rack only two markdowns in the entire section and the meat department had no organic meat that I could find. So that was a bust. But I think it was more about the location of that particular Kroger. Since I have $25 to use, I will be trying another in the future.
Using my card twice this month (and actually using $5 at Trader Joes that was from non-grocery money) means I need to figure out exactly what I have left. I have a few things I would like to get from a local mom and pop health food store this month to restock my pantry, so hopefully I will have enough left to get everything I want. I am learning that straight cash is so much easier!
On a more positive note I would just like to brag on myself a little bit. Grocery shopping with the Kid was an adventure to say the least today and despite being frustrated and plain worn out, I did not give in to any impulse purchases of comfort/junk food! Even when there were delicious cookies 1/2 off in the check out line at Earth Fare...
This post is linked to the Grocery Cart Challenge Shopping Round Up.
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