Shopping Trip

This week I did my big monthly shopping trip.  It is not the only trip that I do each month.  I do go back to the store for fruit, milk, and other sale items.  I hate to miss a good sale with coupons.  My trip looked like this:

Most of the stuff came from Aldi.  The boxes of cereal, cokes, crackers and meat came from Kroger.  I am trying to piece together the cost of our meals, so we spent time marking the price of each item.  We store all of the can goods in the garage along with the pastas.  I have a closet I put snacks in and the rest is in my pantry.  This will last most of the month with a few add ons.  The cost at Aldi was $101 and the cost at Kroger was $41.00.  I will go back to Publix or Kroger a few more times this month to get deals and will make a mid-month trip to Aldi when we get low on milk.  While I am at Aldi I will also go to Sams and get cheese and sandwich meat.  I can't find cheese any cheaper than Sams unless I find a good sale with coupons.

People ofter ask me why we don't shop at Sams more often if we like to buy in bulk.  The answer is that I can usually get stuff cheaper per serving buy shopping sales and using coupons.  If I can't get a certain item on sale then I check the price of the Aldi store brand against the name brand at Sams.  Aldi is usually cheaper except for cheese and butter.  We like the quality of the sandwich meat at Sams also.  I will buy a two pound package and then put half in the freezer.

I budget about $500 a month for groceries and I usually go under that amount.  We will use the excess for going out after Sunday night church or for getting a quick bite at a restaurant.