Grocery Shopping day today.

Started with a budget of $80. I had cash so I had to be careful not to go over. This is a good tip for anyone trying to stick to a budget. Take cash and leave your checkbook, debit and credit cards at home. You will stick to your budget one way or the other (being careful or taking things off your order at cash register). I went to three stores.

The first stop was McQuades because I only needed a few things from there. 2 Heluva Good Cheese bars 2/$3, 2 Gallons of Best Yet Milk $2.39 and 1 lb Land O' Lakes Cheese from the Deli. Total $11.83- $1 coupon for Heluva Good cheese and $1 coupon for LOL Cheese = $9.83

Second stop was Shaws. I won't type out everything I bought on here b/c I've already done that in an Excel spreadsheet and quit frankly I am to tired to do it again. ;) I'll give you the bottom line though. Total before sales and coupons was $177.28. Total after sales $120.30. Total coupons used $67.00. Total OOP (Out of Pocket) $53.30 I had a little trouble with one transaction here where a $10 coupon didn't print but the service desk fixed it by giving me $10 cash. So my total OOP was really $43.30

My third and final stop was at Stop and Shop. I really wanted to pick up a couple packs of boneless skinless chicken breast that they have on sale for $1.99 but they were sold out when I got there. Not a big deal b/c we will pick some up later in the week but I had to think fast and see what other meat was on sale that I could cook this week. I ended up buying a package of chicken leg quarters (don't know how I'm going to cook them yet) and a pack of cube steak. I also bought red seedless grapes, bag of lettuce, Oscar Mayer smoked turkey, Oscar Mayer Honey Ham, vegetable oil, bag of S&S chips, S&S butter (4 stick pack), Big Daisy Bread, Suave shampoo and a Suave conditioner. Total before savings $41.13. I saved $12.24 in sales, $0.15 for reusable bags and $3 in coupons. Total after Savings $26.02 (includes tax).

Total Spent $79.15
I'll come up with my new meal plan for the week tomorrow and post it.

By the way, I forgot to mention that I did this with my two year old in tow. Oh my! It is much easier by myself but she added some interest to my day for sure.