My Safeway Run 5/25/11

Before I break down today's Safeway run I wanted to start by sharing a little about my grocery budget. I mentioned at the end of my last post (here) that I had already spent $126.94 and saved $155.11 since 5/20/11. You may be wondering how I have any grocery money left to spend. We actually sit down and do our budget every two weeks when my husband gets paid so we break our spending into two week periods. Right now our grocery budget is $300 for two weeks. That may seem high considering the fact that I coupon. But that covers all of our groceries, toiletries, cat supplies (we have 2) and kid stuff (1 in diapers and weaning off formula, two in night time Pull-Ups). And it also gives us wiggle room to go to Starbucks and eat out once or twice. This is actually the first month I have gave up on one big shopping trip every two weeks with small stops for necessities along the way. I finally made the jump to more frequent, smaller trips to maximize my ability to match-up sales and coupons. I am hoping to take advantage of that strategy for a few weeks/months to build up my stockpile and then live off of that for another few weeks/months while siphoning a majority of the grocery budget into paying off debt.

Hope I didn't lose you in all of that...just thought I would share for those of you who are interested. I know that all this coupon/match-up stuff can be overwhelming and confusing when you are first starting out so I want to share what I know and what I continue to learn along the way to make it easier for you. So here we go - my Safeway run for today:

- There are a few non-deal items that I had to get. Bananas to tide the little one over until we get more with our Bountiful Basket on Saturday. 2 tubs of icing (I did have a $.75/2 coupon), a pkg of large and mini cupcake wrappers, hamburger patties (2 10 count pkgs at $5.99 each) and hamburger buns (3 Safeway brand at $1.19 each) for Isaiah's birthday BBQ this weekend.These are INCLUDED in my total so I wanted to account for them.
- My BIG score was the Viva 6 count paper towels. Remember how I had to get a raincheck for these after going to Safeway twice to find the shelves empty? They finally had them in stock so I got them for the previously advertised price of $4.99 each. I also had 2 $1/1 coupons making them $3.99 each. For buying 2 I got a Catalina good for $4 towards my next trip making the total for 2=$3.99. They are normally $8.99 each so that was a great deal!
- The John Frieda hair dye was FREE with a coupon I had scored (I think a promotion they were having on Facebook). That is normally $13.99:)
- Pepsi 2 Liters are on sale for today only for $.69 a piece, limit of 2 so I got 2=$1.38
- Johnsonville Brats and Italian Sausage are on sale for $3.99 and I had a $1/1 coupon making 1=$2.99.
- Oscar Mayer hot dogs with in ad coupon are $.99 each (limit 5). I only had 1 $1/2 coupon left since I bought some at Walgreens over the weekend so I got 5 pkgs=$3.95
- Safeway hot dog buns with in ad coupon are $.78 so I got 3=$2.34
- Vlasic pickles are B1G1 at $2.99 each. I had 2 $1/2 coupons so I got 4 jars=$3.98
- Bush's baked beans are 3/$5 (wish I had a coupon!). I bought 3=$5
- Heinz ketchup with in ad coupon is $1.69 plus a $.25 coupon got me 1=$1.44
- Wishbone dressing with in ad coupon $1.19 (limit 3) plus a coupon for $1.25/3 got me 3=$2.32


Total=$51.60 and I saved $72.56 which is 60%. Plus I got a $4 coupon towards my next trip!