It was a fun week with the whole family home, traveling is fun but sometimes it is just as nice to have everyone home for a week too.  Our family has been going through more milk lately so you’ll notice an increase in my milk purchases this week.  Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.

• $13.21 at Ingles for 1 bag Laura Lynn Bread, 1 jar Skippy Peanut Butter, 1 package Flour Tortillas, 1 container Vanilla Yogurt, 1 container Fresh Shrimp, 1 bag Oranges, 1 bag Bananas, 1 bag Potatoes, 1 head Cauliflower, and 1 container Lettuce.  (Everything I bought this week at Ingles was on sale, marked down, or on clearance including the produce, seafood and diary!)

CVS Groceries:

• $18.17 at CVS for 2 A&W Rootbeer (12 packs), 1 Sunkist (12 pack), 1 bag Candy Corn, 1 Mountain Dew (2 liter) and 4 cans Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup (I received $10.00 in ECB’s back on this purchase so if you count that into the savings it is like I paid $8.17 for everything purchased.  The ECB’s I received were $1.00 on the Candy Corn making it free, $3.00 on the 12 packs making them $2.67 each, $1.00 on the Progresso Soup making them $1.00 each, and $5.00 for Beauty Club Reward.  I have not bought soda for several months because we are trying to cut back on how much we drink it in our house, however, we do host family, friends, Community Group and other activities in our home so when we see a good sale we buy a few to stock up on them.

• $7.88 at Save A Lot | RiteAid for 2 gallons of milk and 1 half gallon of milk on clearance.  (We go through a lot more milk now that the girls are a little older, Save A Lot had the best price I could find for milk this week!)

This week I spent $39.26 on groceries.  Even though I was barely under on my budgeted amount for the week I was able to stock up on several items.  I hope that next week is an even better week and we can come under budget.   Thankful for an opportunity to stock up on several items even though I was cutting it really close this week again!

It is my goal 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.