grocery deals and freebies!

We had another snow day today.  That means we're into June now before we are out of school for the summer.  Annoying, but it was a good day.  Justin didn't work today, so I got to make breakfast and we spent a relaxing day together around the house.  Once he left for school this afternoon, I was off to the grocery store....coupons have been burning a hole in my coupon album! I was so excited to have a free afternoon to spend as much time as I needed with my grocery list and coupons.  As I mentioned here, we are on a $50 grocery budget...and that has been slashed in half from our first year of marriage.  (Could I get good enough at this that we could slash it in half again for our third year of marriage?!)  Since I had extra time for grocery shopping this week due to the snow day and Kroger was running some really good deals that end Saturday, I went ahead and planned my meals, created my list, organized my coupons and shopped for two weeks worth of groceries.  This includes stocking up on some personal hygiene items we use regularly because of good sales and great coupons.

Here's the stash:

(minus my new Venus Spa razor kit and Olay body wash--for some reason it didn't make it into the pic)

This is $158.77 worth of groceries and other items.

After my Kroger plus savings and coupons I paid......$89.84

I saved.....$26.62 in coupons and $42.31 in Kroger plus savings.  Even including the personal hygiene items that we rarely buy, we came in $10.16 under our two-week grocery budget, or $5.08 per week.  Most of these items will last us even more than two weeks...yay! (Can't wait to see what happens the third week of our grocery budget for March....this is like a game for me!)

Free Items:

-$2.09 Gallon Kroger 2% Milk....Free
-$2.09 Gallon of Kroger Skim Milk...Free
(Kroger is running a promo where you get 2 gallons of milk free when you purchase four Kellogg's or Keebler's items for $2.50 each....however, use $1.75 in coupons like I did for the purchased items, and you get an even better deal!)
-$2.00 6-pack of Diet Cokes....Free
(after purchasing 2-12 pack of diet cokes...plus I used a Kroger coupon for $1.50 off)
-$4.99 Salmon fillets....Free
(Buy one/get one promo...I purchased Gorton's frozen shrimp for $3.99 with a $1.00 coupon and got the salmon free)
-$5.47 23 oz. Olay Body Wash....Free
(after purchasing the Venus Razor kit for $4.94 with a $2 off coupon)
TOTAL FREEBIES:  $16.64

Great Deals:
-$1.99 Suave Body Wash for Men...$0.99 after using a $0.50 coupon that was doubled
-$1.00 Blistex lip balm (with 50% more)....$0.30 after using a $0.35 coupon that was doubled
-$1.00 Trident Layers gum....$0.25 after using at $0.75 coupon
-$2.35 Minute Brown Rice....$1.35 after using a $0.50 coupon that doubled
-$3.69 All Detergent-concentrated on sale....$1.69 after using $1 cut-out coupon and $1 coupon loaded to my Kroger card from their website
-2 @ $1.55 each Right Guard deodorants....$0.55 each after using a $2 off 2 coupon
-Diet Coke...after Kroger coupon for $1.50 off of $10 in soft drinks and a free 6-pack of diet cokes, $0.26 per can

Can you tell I was excited about my great week at the grocery? And I bought a lot of extra stockpile items...not items we don't use...but items we use on a regular basis that were on sale.  Of course, because this is a welcomed challenge for me, I have things I can improve on.  Just taking one step at a time toward spending less money.  Hope this will inspire you!

So what makes my grocery budget work?  I cut out coupons from the Sunday papers, load coupons from Kroger's website onto my Kroger Plus Card, and I print coupons for items I need from websites such as Cellfire.  I also study, study, study those ads, plan our meals for the week before going to the grocery store, and only buy items that we really need.  Check your grocery's website for store-specific deals and coupons loadable to your shopper's reward card.

Happy budgeting!


I'm linking up....