Grocery Shopping: The "I'm finally getting it together!" edition

I am super proud to report that this was a good week!  I had a fun and frugal day with the kids yesterday.  I spent the morning working while Nick took the kids for a bike ride.  We then had lunch and headed out for the afternoon - I was a bit scared because I'm trying to get the kids to give up naps in an attempt to get them to sleep better at night.  We went to the next town, had some fun at the playground, then walked along the gorgeous river pathway to the library.  I've never been to this library before and it was awesome!  The kids section is so well laid out with bins of books organized with pictures so the kids could easily select their own, and sections devoted to transportation, dinosaurs, and just about any category you could think of..  They loved it!
We then walked back to the car and headed out to do our shopping.  The kids were a bit rowdy at the grocery store, but we got everything on our list and I managed to get them to stop asking for things ever 2 seconds... it was a good day!

Here's the loot!

No Frill's

GROCERY AISLES:
No Name soda crackers $2.29
President's Choice coffee $13.99
Real Fruit gummies $1.00 (treat for the boys back to school snacks)
No Name canned fruit cocktail x2 $2.00
No Name pear halves $1.00
No Name penne $1.00
President's Choice butter chicken sauce $3.79
Courtis tahini $6.49 (this should last a good 6 months for making homemade hummus)
Corn flakes x2 $2.00
Gold fish x2 $4.00

FROZEN:
Firecracker popsicles $3.49

DAIRY:
2% milk $4.53 (+$0.31 deposit)
Table cream $3.34 (+$0.11 deposit)
Whipping cream $2.99 (+$0.11 deposit) (for making homemade scones)
No name old cheddar cheese $7.99
Astro balkan style yogurt $2.49 (to make homemade naan, also going to use as a starter to make our own yogurt)
Cheese strings $2.00
Silani havarti cheese slices $2.00
Babybel cheese $4.37 (less $1.00 coupon)

MEAT:
Frozen raw shrimp x2 $6.00
Ham Shank $7.19
Whole chicken $6.02
Pork back ribs $9.72

BAKERY:
No name sourdough english muffins x2 $2.00

PRODUCE:
Dole coleslaw $1.50 (works out better than buying the ingredients individually since we won't use a whole cabbage)
Celery $1.97
Asparagus $2.72
Green onions $0.49
Strawberries $2.00
D'anjou pears $3.85
Green peppers (4 ct) $1.99
Yellow onions $1.99
Garlic $0.88
Nectarines $2.79

Subtotal: $121.59
GST: $0.22
Less Superbucks $9.62 (Canadians - stay tuned, I'm going to post about why you should get be using PC)
Grand Total: $111.97


Costco

PRODUCE:
Bananas $1.69
Jazz apples $6.49
Romaine lettuce $3.99
Cucumbers $3.49
Watermelon $5.99
Tomatoes $4.99


GROCERY AISLES:
Baby dill pickles $6.89
Canola oil $6.49

NON-GROCERY:
Kitty litter $7.99
Flowers $9.99
Roses $17.99

Subtotal: $75.99
GST: $1.80
Grand Total: $77.79

Costco was actually FREE though because we are executive members and received our rewards cheque this week which was $102.64.  I still have $24.85 to use the next time we are at Costco.

So total grocery outlay for the week, just $111.97.

Grocery Shopping: The "lack of self control" edition

I need to get my act together!  Major over spending this week, coupled with the fact that a payment I thought was coming from the government is, in fact, not.  Not a good week.  The good news is that we're pretty well stocked up so I think I can make a really good go of doing minimal shopping for the next 2 weeks.

Here's the damage...

Wal-Mart 

GROCERY:
Ketchup $4.97


TOILETRIES:
Neutrogena eye make up remover $8.37
Hair elastics $4.00
Crest fluoride rinse $6.96
Electric toothbrush $7.46
Cotton cosmetic pads x2 $3.68

Subtotal: $35.44
Tax: $1.52
Grand total: $36.96


Costco

There's a little stow away trying to steal some strawberries

PRODUCE:
Bananas (3 lbs) $1.69
Strawberries (2 lbs) $2.99
Happy Planet extreme purple smoothie (2 bottles) $6.89 (+$0.26 deposit)
Clementines (5 lbs) $6.99
Raspberries (2 pints) $2.99
Blueberries (3 lbs) $7.99
Gala apples (6 lbs) $7.49
Watermelon $5.99

BAKERY:
McGavin's bread (3 loaves) $5.99
Stonehedge bread (3 loaves) $5.79
Chocolate chunk cookies $7.99

DAIRY:
4L 2% Milk $4.69 (+$0.31 deposit)
Mini babybel cheese (22 pieces) $11.39
Eggs (3 dozen) $9.99

MEAT:
Breakfast sausages (2kg) $9.99
Frozen chicken breasts (4kg) $29.99
Lean ground beef  (4 kg) $13.46
Chicken drumsticks (24 pieces) $12.81
Cheese tortellini (3 pkgs) $11.99

AISLES:
Annie's mac & cheese (12 boxes) $11.99
Dole fruit salad (20 count) $7.04
Sun-rype juice boxes (40 count) $9.99 (+ $5.20 deposit)

FROZEN:
Pepperoni pizza (3) $9.99

CLOTHING:

Carter's fleece sleepers x4 $35.96 (I will be returning 2 of these)
CK jeggings $24.99
Long sleeve t-shirt $9.99
Dalia sweater coat $25.99
CK knit skinny pant $26.99

Subtotal: $335.80
Tax: $6.20
Grand total: $342.00


So out of that total there was $130.12 spent on clothing which was completely unplanned, which means I am going to have to cut clothing out of the budget entirely for the next couple of pay cheques to catch up.  Some of this was unplanned stocking up since they had some good sales/store coupons at Costco on things we normally buy, so I'm hoping to be able to stick to a $300 budget for groceries next pay day.  Going forward though I am going to do a realistic $450 budget for 2 weeks of food.  That will give us some wiggle room for stocking up, and if we spend less than that we can just throw the excess onto debt, but at least I won't feel like we're too short.

I'm feeling like a bit of budgeting failure right now, but I'm trying to remind myself that part of this whole journey is knowing where we spend our money, what we spend it on, and looking for ways to improve.  We've just got to start from where we're at!

Grocery Shopping: The 3 Store Edition

What a long day today (yesterday?) was!  This post is late because 1) I went to 3 different grocery stores and STILL couldn't get everything on my list, 2) I spent 3 hours in the dentist's office, and 3)I'm PMS'ing and just in a downright back mood.  And now it's almost 1:00am and I'm finally writing it.

No pictures of groceries, although I can share with you my overstuffed fridge and admit to you that I feel a little bit like a food hoarder.  Nothing brings me more calm than a fridge full of food, I get anxious when we try to stretch too far with the food budget.

I have decided that $300 for two weeks is just not realistic for our family.  My kids eat too much, we eat entirely at home, and food is important to me.  So I'm bumping it up to $400 every two weeks, and once we're out of overdraft might even increase it again.... I'll revisit that when the time comes.  I still want to accomplish our goals by the new year.

I can't bring myself to individualize everything, so here's the breakdown of stores:

Sobey's (mostly produce): $54.10
Costco (more produce, and meat): $114.33
No Frill's (dairy and pantry items): $55.95
Total: $224.38

And since I am really not on the ball this week, here's the meal plan (my very crock pot happy meal plan):

Saturday 
Steak (MIL is coming for dinner and bringing with her)
Herb roasted potatoes
Grilled asparagus
Spring mix salad w/ mustard vinaigrette
Sauteed shrimp cocktail

Sunday
Chicken parmesan
Pasta
Ratatouille

Monday
Russian salad

Tuesday
Lemon chicken
Fried rice
Asian cucumber mint salad

Wednesday
Sweet & sour chicken w/ mango lettuce wraps

Thursday
Bobby's goulash
Salad
No-Knead bread

I'm trying something new and also planning for adult lunches/snacks.  I haven't been eating during the day and I really should be!  So here's my plan for those (in addition to leftovers)
Whole wheat nann w/ hummus and tzatziki
Asian chowder
Sesame noodles

And I've got lots of baking and treats in store this week as well.  Should be a quiet week spent mainly at home.

Grocery Shopping: The unprepared and frazzled edition

I'm just on a roll with being unprepared and disorganized today, ugh.  It started out when I went to take the boys to summer camp, only to realize that I had locked my keys in the van over the weekend - brilliant.  Thankfully my very patient and wonderful husband drove home from work to unlock it (at the expense of an hour round trip).

Then I went to drop the boys off at camp only to realize that I hadn't remembered to register Gabe for the week, only Tristan.  I registered Gabe for a week in July and meant to register him for this week if his first week went well.  Turns out it was a good thing he wasn't registered because he pitched an absolute fit and decided that there was absolutely no way he was leaving my side today.

Then off we went to go grocery shopping.  We were down to no milk, cream, yogurt, or cheese in the house and down to only oranges for fruit - not going to fly around here.  So I get to Wal-Mart and realized that I'd forgotten my list, and my reusable bags.  I despise Wal-Mart with a burning passion, but it was a necessary evil today.  Wal-Mart is the only store for 45 minutes that sells the soothers Brighton likes, and apparently the replacement soothers I bought on Saturday were completely unacceptable (a $7.35 mistake).  I realize I could have just bought soothers at Wal-Mart and done the grocery shopping somewhere else, but I hate getting my kids in and out of the car more than I hate Wal-Mart.

So here is the grocery shopping for the week.  I'm hoping that this will last until the end of the week and I haven't forgotten anything that's critical to our meal plan.  We'll make it work.

I'm breaking everything down for you to see where all the money went.  Keep in mind if you do not live in Canada and specially Southern Alberta that groceries in Canada can be drastically more expensive than in the U.S.  I do need to start using coupons - this is something I need to start hunting out.  I'm sure that for the yogurt and the soothers I probably could have saved a few bucks using coupons.

So here is the breakdown:

PRODUCE:
Watermelon $3.97
Gala apples (1.575 kg) $4.41
Bosc Pears (.98 kg) $2.74
2 Mangoes $1.44
Bananas (1.935kg) $3.29
Tomatoes $1.97
Blueberries $2.97

GROCERY AISLES:
2 cans pink salmon $2.94
Ritz cracker sandwiches $2.47 - total impulse buy, I hate shopping with kids :(
Paprika $2.00
Chili powder $2.52
Curry powder $2.28
2 cans tomato soup $1.44

DAIRY:
Silk Chocolate Almond Milk $3.97
Activia vanilla yogurt $5.17
Cracker barrel old cheddar $8.97
Cracker barrel marble $8.97
Crush yogurt $4.77
4L milk $4.37 (+ $0.31 deposits)
Vanilla coffee creamer $2.00
Astro vanilla yogurt $3.07
Astro blueberry yogurt $3.07
Coffee cream $3.47

NON-GROCERY (taxable):
2 packages soothers $10.94
Melatonin $14.97
Mattress cover $5.00
Sunscreen $9.97

Subtotal: $126.95
Tax: $2.21
Grand total: $129.16


Considering I was hoping this trip would be under $100 it was a fail.  I  bought a lot of yogurt though so we should be good for the next couple of weeks - and if I had just bought another 2 tubs rather than buying packages I could have shaved $4 off the total (more if I'd found coupons).  I will definitely plan better next trip!

And in my stressed out state I also bought an iced coffee at Mc D's - hey, at $1.05 it was much cheaper than Starbucks.  Little victories!