Grocery Roundup

Checked out the Kroger's on the route home today. Here's the roundup:
Basics: $32.17
Home items: $10.18
Indulgence: $6.00
Side Dishes: $7.51
Quick Meals: $0.00
Cleaning Products: $0.00
Coupons: $0.00

One of the reasons why I stopped by the store is because I read The Simple Dollar talked about how he bulk makes rice and bean burritos. That got the taste in my mouth. I spent $7.53 on ingredients for beef and bean burritos, and was able to make 9 of them for a per item cost of $0.84. This is easily one of the cheapest tastiest meals I have had in awhile.  Thanks, Trent!

Grocery Savings

So I have returned from Sams Club victorious!  The grand total was $144.29.  While this does shoot what I normally spend on a trip to the regular store in the foot (normally about $80-$90) I actually saved quite a bit off of regular prices.  Most people will read this and say "Duh", but the amount I actually saved was quite suprising.  Here's the break down:

• Basics: $74.49
• Home items: $36.28
• Indulgence: $5.84
• Side Dishes: $7.60
• Quick Meals: $9.71
• Cleaning Products: $0.00
  
• Coupons: $0.00

There were 2 cool things about this trip.  Sams had 8 cfl bulbs for $10.86.  This is only marginally more expensive than traditional bulbs at the regular stores I go to.  CFL bulbs cost $3-$4 a bulb when I normally look.  That was pretty cool.  The second cool thing was how much I saved.  I plugged the normal prices into the spreadsheet for the items I bought and the total was astounding: $249.44  That price blew me away.  I would never consider paying that much at teh grocery store.  I would most likely make 2 trips.  I guess that is the biggest problem I had with Sams before this.  

Whenever I would leave Sams, I would feel like I barely bought anything, but always have a bill over $100.  I always knew I bought more than I thought I did, but it was usually demoralizing.  Now after seeing that I saved over $100 buy shopping there, you better believe that I'll be heading there every 2 weeks now.

Savings on groceries

So in reading a lot of the personal finance blogs, I've become very interested in starting to save on groceries.  Currently, we spend about $400 a month on groceries for 2 people, 3 dogs and 2 cats ( I roll the animal food into the grocery tracking since I usually buy it all at the same store)  We very rarely use coupons, and the ones we do use are usually attached to the items we buy that day. the digerati life has a post about how to save a ton on your groceries.

So I am going to try to start posting on how we save on groceries and even what we buy. The catagories I will be usiing:

Catagories

• Basics
• milk
• bread
• beverages (koolaid, countrytime, soda, etc.)
• meat
• Home items
• cups
• storage containers, ziploc, foil
• paper toewls, toilet paper
• Indulgence
• sweets
• beer
• nicer food items
• snacks
• Side Dishes
• boxed items
• rice
• vegetables
• Quick Meals
• Hamburger helper type
• quick pizza
• microwavables
• Cleaning Products
• Dish soap
• shampoo
• regular soap
• laundry detergent

I'll catalogue any coupons we use also, and how much we saved using them.    To kick it off here is the latest grocery bill breakdown:

• Basics: $42.28
• Home items: $16.06
• Indulgence: $19.87
• Side Dishes: $0.00
• Quick Meals: $8.00
• Cleaning Products: $0.00
  
• Coupons: $0.00