Grocery Shopping

  We had family in town for the weekend which messed up our grocery shopping schedule. This week our menu is fairly unhealthy, whoops!

Tuesday: Chicken enchiladas with chips & salsa
Wednesday: Baked parmesan chicken tenders with Penne Pesto Alfredo
Thursday: Grilled cheese with Bacon (this was not originally on the menu but I took a babysitting gig)
Friday: Going out with co-workers
Saturday: French Toast with Bacon for brunch, Manicotti for dinner.

I always make enough extra for Phillip to take some with him for his lunch, it seems to work out pretty well.

 I'm a creature of habit. I like going to the same store(s) all the time, trying new stores intimidates me! I don't know where anything is and it takes twice as long to get everything! But this week I had a coupon for $5 off a $35 order from Food City. I avoid that store unless I'm taking my clients shopping, it just seems really expensive. Here's the damage:

 Dairy/Frozen
Yoplait Greek Yogurt (honey) x3   ($3.00)
          on sale 10/$10.
Monteray Jack Cheese 8oz $1.64
Sharp Cheddar cheese 8oz $1.64
            (Cheese was BOGO)
1 gallon Skim Milk $3.09
Ricotta Cheese $1.99

Grocery  
Spanish Rice  $1.29
Parmesan Cheese $1.25
Mello Yello 2 liter $1.00
Tortillas $2.50
Pasta Sauce   $2.99
Hamburger Buns: $1.50
Penne Pasta $1.59
Crescent Rolls $2.00 (x2)
Salsa Con Queso $2.69
Alfredo Sauce $1.89
Tortilla Chips $1.39
White Whole Grain Bread $1.69
         with $.50 coupon


Meat
Chicken Breast Tenders    $3.98
         2lb@ $1.99/lb  
Eggs  $1.39

Produce
Bananas   $1.32
        2.24lbs @ $.59/lb
Jazz Apples $2.63
       2.04lbs @ $1.29 lb
South Carolina Peaches  $.61
       .62lbs @ $.99/lb

Total: 43.61 after these savings:
$5 off coupon
$.50 off bread coupon

I also saved $17.47 with my value card.

I think the only thing that was better than the other stores I frequent was the price of chicken. I bought the 2lb "family size" pack of tenders for less than $4. This was enough to use for 3 meals which was a really good deal. The BOGO cheese was a good deal too.

 I typically shop between Kroger, Wal-mart and Aldi. We have a very detailed shopping list and know what we buy where but this week our schedule just kind of went out the window with the holiday!

I think my summer goal is to learn to coupon effectively, we try to keep our food budget to $50/week and do pretty well but it would be nice to be able to get more for our money!
I'm hoping to be disciplined and start posting each shopping trip with coupon savings, maybe that will motivate me to try to do well at it!

Until next time!
Sunny

Update!

                                 So it has been over a year since I've updated, a lot has changed.

                                                            Let's see what happened:

(Here's a hint!) 

• August - Moved into my own apartment! Hooray! More expensive monthly payment but at least I knew the rent would be paid on time, no more notes from the office saying my roommate hadn't paid her half of the rent. We had disagreements about how much heat/air we should use also. So I pulled the 'bad guy' card and moved out as soon as our lease was up. It made me feel like an awful person but I'm (slowly) learning that I have do to what's best for me even though it may not be in the best interest of others.
• September - 25th birthday, we went into Gatlinburg for a nice relaxing weekend. Oh yeah...and we got engaged! We went to the Aquarium, on the way back he dropped me off at the Village and told me to go shopping, he would call me in a few and tell me when to come back. I was instantly suspicious, I had been suspicious before because there were lots of big boxes that were wrapped in gift wrap and he really isn't a huge gift-giver. Turns out he'd made a bunch of lightning bug jars since he was going to propose at the synchronous lightning bug viewing in the mountains but we were turned away because the park was full :( but super sweet that he made them himself! 
• April - Started our new adventure as a married couple! We've been married just over 3 weeks and we're loving it! We have already faced some challenges but it's wonderful! We had a budget-DIY-rustic wedding. My next post I'll break down our wedding budget and prove that you can have a beautiful wedding without spending a lot of money! 

 How does this impact the debt elimination project (DEP)? Well....we have a lot more debt unfortunately. But we have each other and are both working to pay it off as soon as possible. It's excellent to have a partner in this, it makes me feel so much more confident and secure. The good news is from what we figured this morning we'll be able to pay off 3 of our small loans this month!! We've been holding a lot in savings until we kind of settled in to make sure we didn't have any large unexpected expenses and we feel comfortable enough to go ahead and pay off these small loans and get our debt snowball rolling!

 We also have joined totalmoneymakeover.com to have easy access to the budget tools. I know mint.com is free but I don't feel comfortable with a company having all of my information going through them, I'm sure it's safe but I feel a little iffy about it.

 That's all for now! Time to go make some dinner now that the kitchen floor is finished drying!