Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Weekly Grocery Shopping (11/4 - 11/10)

Once again Vons is having a deal where if you spend $25 you can get a turkey (16 lbs or less) for 5.00 (7.00 for a turkey over 16 lbs). Last year, I found so many good turkey deals around Thanksgiving, I ended up buying 6. Yes, SIX turkeys :) I still have two of those in my chest freezer, so I am not buying anymore than 2 this year, I don't care how cheap they are. But the number of meals you can make out of a $5 turkey makes this one of the most frugal food investments I can think of!

This week Vons also had store coupons for free eggs, bacon, OJ, and english muffins if you spent $50 or more - the catch is that it was $50 AFTER coupons. Now this would obviously put me over my weekly $45 budget goal, but I decided to go ahead and do a big shopping trip this week and make it up over the rest of the month. I've found that the weekend of Thanksgiving (and Christmas too) is not a big shopping week. There are usually no coupons out that weekend, and often my stores won't even put out a new ad and just run the same sales for 2 weeks in order to give their staff a holiday break. So chances are good I will just take a week off of shopping this month anyway.

I used to spend $70 - $80 in the grocery store without even batting an eye, but now... it was actually a challenge to spend over $50! I had to add everything up to make sure I could get that high of a total. Interesting how things have changed :)

In addition to Vons, I made a small trip to Ralph's for some more Mega Item deals, and Henry's for some produce.

Ralph's
I was sooo happy when I saw Coke added to the list of Mega Items! We can never have to much soda on hand to feed Ninja Hubz' addiction. I needed the tortillas for dinner that night (fajitas), and actually paid FULL PRICE *shudder*.



1 can Ro-Tel @ 1.00 - .50 MFC (doubled to 1.00) = FREE
Tortillas = 2.19
7x Coke 2-liter @1.27 - $1/4 MFC = 7.89 **
2x Smart Balance @2.49 - $1/2 MFC = 3.98 **
Betty Crocker potatoes @1.99 - .40 MFC (doubled to .80) - .40 cellfire = .79 **
- 5.00 for buying 10 Mega Items (denoted with ** above)
- 6.00 Ralph's Rewards certificate

Total: 4.55

Vons
My cupboards, fridge, and freezer are extremely well stocked after this trip!






2 lbs Brown Sugar 1.69 - .45 MFC (doubled to .90) = .79
5 lbs flour 1.50 - .50 MFC (doubled to 1.00) = .50
2x Peanut Butter .99 (store coupon) = 1.98
2x Canola Oil 2.29 (store coupon) = 4.58
2x Nestle White Chocolate Chips 5.00 - $1/2 MFC = 4.00
2x Progresso High Fiber Soup 1.25 ea - 2x $1/1 MFC = .50
Corn Tortillas = 1.59
3x Cream of Chicken Soup .80 ea - .25/3 (doubled to .50) = 1.90
2x Cheddar Cheese Soup 1.35 ea - .25/2 = (doubld to .50) = 2.20
2x Ground Pepper 1.57 ea - $1/1 MFC and .50/1 MFC (doubld to 1.00) = 1.14
3x Dreamfield Spaghetti 2.00 ea - 3x $1/1 MFC = 3.00
Friskies cat treats 1.99 - Free Coupon = FREE
Bird's Eye Steamfresh Veggies in Sauce 1.50 - .50 MFC (doubled to 1.00) = .50
2x Gallon Milk (2.29 ea wyb 2) = 4.58
Smart Balance Butter Blend Sticks 2.50 - $1/1 MFC = 1.50
Smart Balance Heart Right Spread 2.50 - $1/1 MFC = 1.50
1 lb butter 1.49 (store coupon) = 1.49
8x Yoplait Yogurt (.50 ea wyb 8) - .50/6 MFC (doubled to 1.00) = 3.00
3x Arm and Hammer toothpaste - $3/2 MFC = 1.49
Hamburger Buns = .89
2x Wheat sandwich bread = 1.98
15.07 lb turkey = 5.00
2x Farmland sliced ham = 5.00
Chicken breast = 5.63
2 lbs bananas = 1.39
10 lbs potatoes = .99
3 lbs onions = 1.99
16oz bacon = FREE with $50 purchase
English Muffins = FREE with $50 purchase
Orange Juice = FREE with $50 purchase
1 dozen eggs = FREE with $50 purchase

Total: 59.22

Walgreens
NEEDED coffee!!


Chocolate Chips 1.79 -.50 MFC = 1.29
Folgers Coffee = 2.50
Baking Powder = .50

Total: 4.29

Weekly Total: 68.06

So I'm $23 over for the week, but I don't think I'll have any problems making that up during the rest of the month.

Check out more great shopping trips at
The Grocery Cart Challenge
Southern Savers
Money Saving Mom

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Just out of curiousity... Where did you find the Coke MFCs?

I also shuddered when I paid full price for toastadas this week. Fortunately I wasn't doing a big stock-up trip. So my total wasn't horrible. :)

Savings Ninja said...

This coke MFC came in a mailer from Ralph's, they seem to like to encourage our soda habit :) I also find them a lot in the fliers from our local IGA (independent grocers alliance) stores, so even though I rarely shop at them I always check out their ads.

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