• $2.29 at Walgreens for 3 boxes of Sugar Free Jello Pudding and 1 M&M Cookie (see picture below)
• $9.99 at RiteAid for a 3 Mountain Dew ThrowBack (12 packs) and 1 free Diet Pepsi (12 pack). Jake really likes the Mountain Dew Throwback and recently I have been having a hard time finding it even on the shelves so we stocked up this week.

It was great having my two little helpers along for a ZoobaLoobaDoo errand!   The errands were not quite as “efficient” but they did help and were super good during the trip!

Groceries from SaveALot | RiteAid and BiLo:

• $8.14 at SaveALot | RiteAid for 2 gallons of Milk, Popcorn, and Sugar Free Candy
• $5.54 at BiLo for 2 packs Eggs (Dozen each), Gatorade Orange, Gatorade Fruit Punch, and Fresh Cabbage.

Groceries from RiteAid, Dollar Tree, and Winslett:

• $7.99 at RiteAid for 3 (12 packs) Mountain Dew Throwback and 1 free (12 Pack) of Diet Pepsi (We are not Diet Pepsi drinkers, but since it was a free item we have reallocated it to someone who does!  I wouldn’t have done this deal again but  I had 2 – $1 off coupons for Pepsi products so the packs were less than $2 each).  Jake should be set for quite awhile after this week’s stocking up on the Mountain Dew throwback!!!
• $3.03 at Dollar Tree for 3 bags of Sugar Free candy
• $2.00 at Winslett’s Produce (a family store with fresh produce)  for 2 bags of Gluten Free White Cake Mix (we have several friends with Gluten allergies so this comes in handy for hosting and sharing)!  The bags were marked down to $0.99 from $4 each!!!

It was our third week of the challenge – Groceries $40 for 4 and we spent $38.98 so we were close to going over again, but thankfully we did better this week .  I was able to stock up on some items for my man this week; Mountain Dew Throwback, Gatorade packs, and Sunflower seeds are perfect for traveling!  Do you think I missed him a little bit while he was gone on a work trip, ha!?    I am still trying to work out all the details of how to make the budget most effective for our family and I think some weeks will be easier than others.  I used some coupons, bought clearance items, and utilized weekly ad discounts to help save us a little extra on our grocery budget.  I hope to do better next week now that we have replenished Jake’s drinks!  We’ll see how I do!

I hope to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.