Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
RiteAid and Walgreens It was my third week of doing my new cash budget system – Groceries $40 for 4. Although it has been a learning process the last two weeks this one has gone pretty well so far. I have to admit, honestly, this week we stocked up on some good deals on special treats and items for road trips for the family. It is always a learning and growing progress for our family. We are continuing to utilize the food we already have in our pantry and freezer. Here is my grocery spending for the week:- $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.
Mommy was a softy since the girls were home from school on Monday and helping me run errands. I bought the girls a giant M&M Sugar Cookie that was on sale for 50 cents. Brina and Karlie were more than happy to share the monster cookie! =) 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!
SaveALot | RiteAid and BiLo 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.
RiteAid, Dollar Tree, and Winslett 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.
Creative Initiatives – ZoobaLoobaDoo
It is our role as spouses, parents, friends, and business associates to stimulate the creative side of others. In our home we enjoy coming up with new ways to solve a problem, complete a project, or just have fun. ZoobaLoobaDoo is one of those creative family words we developed in our home to get the family excited about certain activities.What is ZoobaLoobaDoo?
ZoobaLoobaDoo is a fun and creative excursion with a purpose.
When errands need to be done and kids are in tow we go on a ZoobaLoobaDoo adventure together which always includes something fun along with the tasks to be completed. The fun activity could be as simple as getting an ice cream cone, playing a game, going to the library or another kid approved activity. When they girls were first learning the word they would tell me to “say that crazy word Mom so we can go with you on your errands.” Now when we tell our girls we are going on a ZoobaLoobaDoo adventure they get excited because they know that a piece of the activity is just for them. Having that element of surprise and creativeness makes it fun for everyone involved. I have the joy of coming up with a fun activity while they are excited to participate and discover what the adventure will be that day.
Stimulate creative conversation in the lives you touch. Encourage your family, friends, and business acquaintances to use their imagination and you may be surprised at the outcome. Creativity allows us to come up with better solutions to problems, helps us tackle projects and injects an element of excitement into our lives.
Life is too short to be boring, bring out the fun and creativeness first in yourself so it can spread to those around you. How do you allow creativeness to shine through in the people in your life – your spouse, kids, friends, family, co-workers, clients….? When you allow creativeness to shine through in your life what happens? Share with us your ZoobaLoobaDoo. If you don’t have a ZoobaLoobaDoo to share, start the excitement this week and you will be amazed by the results.
