Wednesday Weekly Shopping: Birthday dinner fail

I invite you to link up to your best grocery deals below!

I ran a bit over budget again this week *sigh*. We had a birthday child here this week, and before making my planned dinner I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner.  And, of course, she requested something we didn't have.  So I did something I rarely do - I went to the grocery store at 5:00 pm, with my two younger children in tow.

(I totally admire those of you who do that weekly!)

So, because of a lack of planning, I went $15 over my usual budget of $80 per week (that covers food, personal care items, paper goods, and cleaning supplies).  And with a birthday party this coming weekend, and some freezer cooking the weekend after that, I wouldn't be surprised that I run over again for the next two weeks (though of course I will try to stay under budget).  So May is looking like an eat from the pantry month for us.

So here's a summary of the purchases I made:

CVS: $2.05.  Click here for a description of this trip.

Winn-Dixie: $6.25.  I got four boxes of oatmeal, a gallon of milk (free when you buy four Quaker products), and a dozen eggs with a free catalina coupon I had received a couple of weeks before.

Target: $4.76 for four bags of shredded cheese ($2 each, with 2 $2/2 blinkies) (that's a lot of 2's!) and a bunch of bananas.

Publix: 4 trips totaling $82.34.  Too much to list here, but I took advantage of BOGOs on cereal, pasta, and tomato sauce. See all of my shopping details here.

Altogether I spent $95.40 on products worth  $189.95, or almost exactly 50% savings.

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

• Super Savings Saturday @ Money Saving Mom
  
• Shopping Superstars @ The Thrifty Mama
  
• Weekly Totals @ I Heart Publix
  
• Super Savers @ Fiddledeedee Mom
  
• The Cha-Ching Challenge @ Cha Ching on a Shoestring
  
• Coupon Super Savers @ Coupon Savings Game
  
• Friday Finals @ Southern Savers
  
• Saving Our Cents Saturday @ Saving Our Cents
• Week-Ending Finale @ The Frugal Freeloader
• Super Savings Saturday @ Mandy's Frugal Journey
• The Savings Bungalow @ Saving a Bundle
• Bargain Bragging Tuesday @ Couponing to Disney
• Couponing Grad Student
• Track Spending With Me @ Striving To Be...1 Faithful Steward
  

How did your shopping go this week? What bargains did you get? Please leave a link to your blog post about your weekly shopping. Please link up directly to your post, not to the blog itself. I'd appreciate it if you put a link to Wednesday Weekly Shopping in your post as well. If you don't have a blog, please leave a comment!