Now my husband and I are home and back to the daily grind... We suffered through last week with zero food in the house... I didn't want to go shopping and then be gone for 5 days and I just didn't have the time once we got home! For those of you who don't know, I work super long days between 2 jobs but have 3-day weekends. It's fantastic and I love my schedule, but Monday-Thursday are pretty much dedicated to work and everything else gets shoved into the weekend. I was super excited with my Safeway shopping trip today and wanted to share with all of you! Some of you out there know I'm a coupon fan and really work to find deals when I'm grocery shopping. I haven't posted anything about couponing yet, but will get to that soon.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a "super couponer." I'm what I like to call a "average Joan couponer" meaning I do not spend hours of my time researching and building deals and I DO NOT go through the grocery check out with 8+ transactions; my limit is 2.
So here is my Safeway trip today....
$129.83 worth of groceries for....$64.29!!!
Ahem, for those of you without a calculator handy, that's a 49.518% savings......
So I'm sure most of you are thinking..."well it's all packaged, unhealthy food," right??? WRONG. Take a look for yourself....
Yes, some of this is stuff I normally don't eat but the husband does... Soda for example..I don't touch the stuff. If you can clean a car battery with it, I'm not interested in ingesting it thankyouverymuch. Also, white flour tortillas -- those are for the husband. I prefer whole grain or whole wheat, but he's not on that tortilla bandwagon yet.... See all of those reddish-greenish things? Those are MANGOS... Mangos alone usually run between a buck (on sale) or two each!
Oh, see all that meat on the right? Yep, that's included in my total of only spending $64.29. The regular price on the meat alone would've been $74.06 if it weren't for my mad discount shopping skills!! (And Safeway's BOGO meat sale......) I always stock up when the BOGO meat sale is on. AND, this week, through Tuesday, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are included! For those of you who regularly shop the Safeway BOGO meat sale, you know chicken breasts are RARELY included.... What does all of this meat look like when I've broken it into freezer packs for individual meals?? Something like this....
I would like to note, EACH of these containers is a 2 meal portion..I'm all about cooking enough once so we can eat twice, so each of these will serve 2 meals for us. That's 20 meals worth of meat, baby!!
Alright, lets break this down so you can see where the savings are....
Family sized 90% lean ground sirloin - $23.20
Family sized Country style ribs pack - 18.32
BOGO, paid $23.20 for BOTH
This equals $11.60 for each pack... that means my 90% lean ground sirloin was only $2.47 per pound, and my country style ribs were slightly over $2.00 per pound. Both of these are tremendous savings... at or above 50% off!
2 boneless, skinniness chicken breast packs:
One was $16.87, the other was $15.67.
BOGO, paid $16.87 for BOTH... that's $8.34 per pack which equals less than $.99 per pound!!!
(When I'm doing BOGO, I try and find 2 packages that are closely matched in price..then you're paying one price and getting it for free instead of paying $23 for one pack of meat and getting a $13 pack for free.)
NOTE: Safeway will give you the cheaper meat packs as the free ones (obviously). So in this case, I had to do 2 transactions: 1 with all my groceries and my chicken, then another with just the hamburger and ribs. Who cares.
Soda - select varieties on sale for 1.79 per 2-liter, but only $0.77 cents each with store coupon. I bought 4, that's a great price! (side note: does anyone else remember when these were regularly priced at $0.50?? sheesh!)
Kraft salad dressings - on sale $0.99 each. This is a HUGE savings... no coupon required!
Safeway Select 24oz salsa (which I LOVE) on sale for $1.79 each with store coupon
Tortilla chips - on sale for $1.99. Not a great deal, but I love chips and salsa so I had to buy them to go with all the salsa I bought!
Safeway Eating Right whole wheat pasta - on sale for $0.99 - We don't usually eat pasta but like to have some on hand "just in case" or if the husband gets a craving. I'm not much of a fan..
Kleenex Facial Tissue - 200 count, on sale for $2.00, $0.99 each with store coupon.. WOW.
MANGOS!!!!!!! Mangos on sale for $0.50 each! Friends, in my years of loving mangos, (um...10+?) I have never, NEVER, seen them this cheap. I bought 12 and will be cubing and freezing them for smoothies (*cough*daiquiris-and-margaritas*cough*) this summer. I might go back for more. I'm undecided on the issue right now.
So here are the biggest thing to remember when you're out there shopping:
1. Don't shop for what you want or think you need, shop for what's on a good deal or at the very least what's on sale. My shopping list revolves around the deals I find, not about what I think I want to cook with... You can google recipes using the foods you have on hand and I've come across things I never would've chosen or tried if I hadn't shopped sales!
2. Stock up. If black beans are on for $0.30, BUY A FLAT OF THEM. They're super healthy and nutritious and can be used in thousands of recipes. Family sized meat packages on sale? Split it up and freeze them into portions (picture above) or go in on the deal with a friend. See my point?? I don't want to make hoarders out of you, but when you find a good deal on toothpaste, pick up a couple, you're going to use it eventually!
I stumbled across a study a long time ago that has stuck with me for years. I have no idea where it came from or who did it so don't' bust my (pork) chops... It stated:
A woman will buy a $2 item not because they need it, but simply because it's on sale for $1 and may need it someday.
A man will buy a $1 item for $2 because they need it right now.
I don't know about you, but this is SO TRUE on our house. My husband will wait until he's completely out of shaving cream to tell me he needs some or put it on the shopping list. Um..guess you'll have some razor burn, honey! However, when I find a killer deal on shaving gel, I buy him 5 at a time because I know he'll use it sooner or later. When you do this, you only ever pay the sale price for things rather being in a bind and having to pay full price!!!! A little planning ahead can save you some serious cash in the long run. People are often shocked when I tell them our household grocery budget is $250 per month and we eat good, healthy food... I have a single friend out there who spends over that just for herself!
Cheers to all of my lovlies out there, I hope you have a fantabulous weekend. And get over to Safeway for some mangos and meat!!
Enjoy!
KDH.
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