Wednesday Weekly Shopping: Meat and veggies

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As I predicted last week, I went way over my budget of $80 per week this week.  It's looking less like a budget and more like a goal.  I probably need to be more strict about it.  I do bring only cash to the grocery store, but when I go over, I use money that I set aside for my own personal, non-food spending.  So I am sort of cheating myself by overspending.

One reason we went over was that I purchased meat this week.  I buy kosher meat, and even though I am very price conscious, and only bought whole chickens, chicken breasts, ground beef, and sliced turkey for sandwiches, I still spent $60.62 there.  What I really need to do is set aside $5 or $10 per week and use that to buy meat every so often.

Another was the birthday party.  I put out platters of fresh vegetables and fruits for the parents, which wasn't cheap.  (And coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables don't exist... or do they?) But I did check the ads for the best prices and ended up running to five stores to get the food.  (On my way home from dropping my daughter off at preschool, I pass four grocery stores, two supercenters, and two drug stores on a seven mile route.  So it's not like I was traveling miles out of my way.)  On the good side, there were plenty of leftovers, which we are eating from this week.

So here were my trips:
Kosher Marketplace: $60.62
Western Beef: two trips totaling $20.60
Winn-Dixie: $6.73
Target: $9.54
Wal-Mart: $15.32
Publix: two trips totalling $13.07
Penn Dutch: $3.22

I spent a total of $129.10 this week for $168.42 worth of food, or a 23% savings.  No spreadsheet this week, sorry!

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!