Grocery Spending for the week of April 11 - Broke the Budget

I broke my food budget last week. You knew it was going to happen didn’t you? Someone who buys things on sale is sooner or later going to have to take advantage of sales even when she is trying to use up what she has on hand to save money.

My budget was $25 and I spent $65.90. What happened? A great sale happened and it was well worth it.

Wal-mart stores around the country are going through some extensive remodeling. I went to Wal-mart on Saturday to buy some ink cartridges for our printer and to also pick up a loaf of day old Italian bread. (I have not had time to bake much bread lately because of my painting projects.)

As I got closer to the food section of the store I noticed large shelves in the middle of a big aisle. These shelves were filled with reduced priced foods, none of which were anywhere close to their expiration dates. Here is what I purchased:

25 lb. bag of all purpose flour – reduced to $6.00 (I bought two.)

1.5 lbs. Soy Flour – reduced to 50 cents (I bought two.)

5 lb. bag of whole wheat flour – reduced to $2.00 (I bought the last bag.)

5 lb. bag of yellow cornmeal – reduced to $1.00 (I bought the last bag.)

Argo Aluminum free baking powder – reduced to 75 cents (I bought two.)

20 lbs. of rice – reduced to $11.48 (I bought one.)

There was a sale on a 4 lb. box of strawberries last week for only $3.99 at one grocery store and I also purchased two 3 lb. bags of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $3.99 per bag. The strawberries and the chicken were at a very low price and I didn’t have either on hand.

I froze the chicken and I washed the 4 lbs. of strawberries. I sliced some of the berries for strawberry shortcake for Sunday’s dessert. The rest of the berries I hulled and placed on a cookie sheet. I stuck the whole lot of them in the freezer.  After they were frozen, I poured them into 3 bags ready to be used whenever I need them.

Other than that I had the usual on my list which was milk, fresh vegetables and fruit. I am still saving money by purchasing these items ahead and in bulk. I am going to donate some of the flour I already have on hand (in 5 lb. packages) to the local food pantry.

The flour that I purchased over the weekend will be put in the freezer for 24 hours (My DIL’s freezer as I don’t have room.) and then I will store it in plastic ice cream pails with a bay leaf in each. I will do the same with the rice. All of this to keep the bugs away and it always works.

I have looked at the grocery ads for this week and I will spending about $5 more this week of my $25 budget to accommodate Easter.