Weekly Grocery Shopping: Best. Week. Ever.

This week was a very light week for grocery shopping, as I am participating in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge. I attempted to only buy dairy, produce, sandwich bread, and necessary baking products.


Besides my earlier trips to CVS and Publix, I hit those stores again as well as Penn-Dutch, Walgreens, and Wal-Mart.

At my second trip to CVS, I bought three Pantene products (two shampoos, one conditioner) for $5.99 each. I had one $3/2 coupon and one $1/1 coupon, and received a $5 ECB. (Total cost: $8.97 for three.) I also purchased a GE fluorescent light bulb for $2.99, used a $1/1 coupon, and received $2 in ECB (total cost: free!) I used $7.50 in ECBs and had a $4/$20 from a previous visit, so my total out-of-pocket was $5.45.


At Penn-Dutch ( a two-store chain in my area that specializes in meats and locally grown vegetables), I purchased lots of on-sale veggies and fruits. I bought apples, bananas, eggplant (check out my delicious babaganoush recipe!), green peppers, and onions. Total out-of-pocket there was $6.51.


At Wal-Mart, I bought school supplies for my daughter and food and hay for our pet rabbit. (I counted those toward our grocery budget.) I also bought sandwich bread (with a $.75 coupon), tortillas, and yeast (4 $.40 coupons). Total cost there was $19.26.


I also went to Walgreens, hoping to do the Bayer monitor $13 moneymaker. But despite stopping at a few different stores, I couldn't find one store that had both monitors in stock. Oh, well. I did get laundry detergent which was BOGO (buy one, get one free) for $4.99. At Publix I picked up milk and Fiber One yogurt 4-packs (BOGO at $2.50) and I had $1/1 coupons, so they were $.25 each, or 6 cents per yogurt container!

Total cost for the week was $68.54 (saving 56%), which was $8.54 over my goal for the pantry challenge. But it was still $31 less than my typical current budget of $100 per week, and much, much better than my previous "budget" of $150-$200 per week before I started watching sales and using coupons. How I got from that high a spending level to the current one, that's a post for another time!

Check out the following to see how others shopped this week!

• Super Savings Saturday
  
• Shopping Superstars
  
• I Heart Publix
  
• Super Savers
  
• The Cha-Ching Challenge
  
• Coupon Super Savers
  
• Friday Finals
  
• Saving Our Cents