February Grocery Wrap-up

I started the month with a lofty goal – to not spend any money on groceries for the month of February. Since I rarely buy fresh fruits and veggies, and my freezer is stocked full of meat purchased on sale, I thought I’d have a relatively easy time of it

One thing I didn’t consider was lunch. I knew that I had plenty of canned soup and frozen lunches to do me for the month, but I didn’t factor any variety in.

When Kroger put their deli lunch meat on sale for $1 a pack – I decided that I had to break my “no spend” rule. The objective was to save money, and buying it down the road at a more expensive price doesn’t save anything.

After coupons (and adding green peppers and baby carrots to my cart) my first trip to the store totaled $11.20. I put a couple of packs of lunch meat in the fridge and threw the rest in the freezer for future use.

My next trip into the store included buying a pack of diapers for my sister (with coupon of course) and a few other almost free items totaling $13.27. The next trip was $11.73.

Then came the temptation – a $5 off when you purchase $45 or more. These coupons come around every few months and I like to use them to stockpile food. I rarely spend $45 a week on groceries, so I use this as the opportunity to stock my cabinets full with staples.

I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to save $5 on items I would use any way, so I caved under the pressure. Luckily for me, Kroger was having another $10/10 sale. I ended up spending a total of $33.09 (after coupons and beer*).

*Beer doesn’t count toward your $45 total. Its also something not regularly purchased at the house. Instead it’s a “stop dipping aid” that never seems to work. That $8.20 will be added to my “dip money” shopping spree!

My February monthly total came to $69.29. Not quite low enough to make me happy, but I know I got some great deals out of it.

Maybe I should reinstitute the challenge for the month of March. Then again, I have a $6 off a $60 purchase for next week. So maybe not!

For more money saving tips, head on over to Frugal Friday.