Week 1- Healthy on a Budget

I think I like year-long challenges.

I am starting a new one. I am going to continue shopping like I have been. I am still going to try to keep it to 60 or less a week. So, that part isn't the challenge.

My challenge to myself is to continue shopping like I have been, AND lose weight. I NEED to lose weight. My knees and hips are starting to get sore from all this luggage.

I want to prove to myself, and demonstrate to others, that you can still eat healthily while on a budget. The key is serving sizes. Isn't that what we keep being told in weight loss/management classes? You can eat some crappy food like Hamburger Helper- as long as you eat ONE serving of it.

I eat better when I plan my food out for the week on Sundays. I have gotten away from that the last couple of months, and my weight loss has stopped. So, I need to start doing it again. I try to plan out 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 6 dinners (we usually end up eating out one night, or having leftovers), but not in what order we'll eat them.

I have planned my breakfasts and lunches out for this week. It's a step in the right direction, and helps me the most, since my snackiness is worst during the day. If I have it planned out, I am not as likely to eat when I don't need to.

Breakfasts:

oatmeal + yogurt
oatmeal + orange + 1 cup milk
oatmeal + orange + 1 cup milk
raisin bran + 1/2 cup milk + banana
raisin bran + 1/2 cup milk + orange
2 eggs and toast
2 eggs and toast

Have you ever actually looked at how many servings are in a box or container? I got little canisters of oatmeal for about $1.00 a couple of months ago. There are 13 servings in each canister. That's only 8 cents per serving. Milk was on sale for 2.19 last week, and at 16 servings per jug that's only 14 cents per serving. I got bread on sale last week for 1.09 for a loaf that has 24 servings (24 slices of bread). Etc.
So, my whole week's breakfasts are only going to cost me about 3.00.
3 oatmeal x .08 = .24
1 yogurt = .21
3 oranges x .33 = .99
2 bananas x .20 = .40
2 cups raisin bran = .28
4 eggs x .09 = .36
4 pieces toast x .05 = .20
3 cups milk x .14 = .42

Lunches
Ah, lunches. Lunches are where I usually try to cram a ton of vegetables into my diet. And this week is especially cheap because the greens were on sale really cheap at Meijer last week.

Salads and vegetable soups, mostly. And some frozen vegetables sometimes, too. This week:
3 salads, with 2 cups spinach, 2 cups romaine salad, 1 serving of baby carrots, 4 ounces baked chicken breast, and 2 TB vinaigrette dressing.
2 progresso soups + 1/4 cup cheese melted in
2 packages frozen veggies + 1/4 cup cheese on top + toast
So, my lunches for the week are going to cost me about 8 dollars.
6 cups spinach x .20 = 1.20
6 cups romaine x .20 = 1.20
12 ounces chicken x .20 an ounce = 1.20
bunches of baby carrots, about a bag over the week = 1.00
Dressing = was free! no cost!
2 progresso soups x .60 = 1.20
1 cup shredded cheese x .25 = 1.00
2 frozen veggies x .50 = 1.00

I won't go into this much detail each week, but I wanted to be able to visualize it, at least at the start.

Week 52

Week 52. My last week of my year-long experiment of spending only $60 a week in groceries, toiletries and paper products.

It's been a lot of fun, and has completely changed the way I look at shopping. I'll never go back to how I used to shop.

Here is this week's stuff.. scroll down to see the year-end totals.

CVS

That's a lot of nuts! I ran into CVS to get a card for someone at work, and they had a TON of Planter's nuts on clearance for 90% off! That made these cans 59 and 69 cents(depending on variety) each. AND, I had 2 coupons for 1.00 off any 2 Planter's nuts. This is why I refuse to shop without my coupon box!
Out of pocket: 3.89
Savings: 63.20


Meijer had their awesome buy 10 for $10 get 11th free promotion this week. I had a lot of coupons for Chex Mix, Hamburger Helper, Betty Crocker potatoes, Green Giant veggies, etc. I ALSO had a ton of Meijer store coupons that were good towards this purchase (a 4.50 off 45 order, 1.50 and 5.00 off on frozen foods, 1.00 off bread aisle purchase, etc).
Meijer has been making me very happy recently, as they are often running excellent sales on fruits and vegetables. Those strawberries were only $1! The romaine and spinach were included in the 10/10get11thfree sale. You CAN eat healthy on a budget (that's a hint as to the direction my blog will take next....), if you just look.

Out of pocket: 33.13
Savings: 62.64

Quick trip to Walmart for diapers: spent 10.50ish, saved 5.00 in coupons.

Weekly spending total: 47.55
Weekly savings total: 130.84
YTD spending total: 2594.48
YTD savings total: 3957.47

When I added up my spendings/savings this week, I was excited! I am only 42.53 short of saving 4,000 in a year! I looked and looked in the ads thinking that I could go save more, to make it to 4,000. I might be able to, but it's not worth the effort. I am happy to say, "I saved nearly 4,000 dollars this year!" I am sure that there are a few trips over the year that I forgot about, but I am pretty confident that these are 98% accurate numbers for my spending and saving.

So, when it's all said and done, my averages are:
Out of pocket weekly: 49.89
Savings weekly: 76.11

So, in any given week, I spent only about 50 dollars on 126 dollars worth of stuff. I spent roughly 40% of retail for my items combined.

Several people have asked me what my stockpile looks like. Here you go. And since it's time for me to take stock of what I have (to see what I certainly don't need to buy more of, or to see what I can donate), I am going to count everything since I am going through it anyway.
This is my pantry.

6 cereal, 8 cans nuts, 2 boxes crackers, 3 chex mix, 2 gravies, 4 open peanut butters and 5 unopened, 7 salad dressing, 1 mustard, bunch of pretzels and goldfish, 3 packages fruit cups, 4 boxes noodles, 10 canned veggies, 10 cans cream of chicken soup, 2 cans tomato soup, 6 progresso/healthy choice soups, 5 jars salsa, 4 unopened canisters of oatmeal, potatoes, 8 betty crocker potatoes, 10 hamburger helper, 4 rice, 2 mac n cheese, 1 applesauce, 2 cans pineapple.

my freezer upstairs, that I didn't realize was this dirty...
I keep the things that we're currently working on in this freezer, and everything "extra" goes down to the basement freezer.

5 frozen veggies, 2 open frozen veggies, 1 open frozen peaches, 1/2 bag fishsticks, dumplins, tots, egg beaters, hot dogs, 2 bags 1/2 full chicken nuggets.

The stand-alone freezer in the basement.

Oh, ignore the huge bags of BBQ in there... those are for my brother's wedding. My freezer is housing them till they are needed.
a turkey, 2 boxes fishsticks, 2 packages jenny-o turkey, 2 rolls ground turkey, 13 frozen veggies, 1 meatloaf, 1 mexirice dish, 2 packages pre-cooked beef, 1 package fries, 4 bags chicken breast 2 1/2 pounds each, and 3 pounds of butter.
under the turkey..


Ah, my health and beauty closet. I love this closet, because I got most of the items for FREE! And with as full as this closet is right now, I donated 2 huge bags of shampoo/razors/toothpaste/body wash just a couple of weeks ago. It's refilled that quickly.

16 various cleaners, 2 contact solutions, 1 lotion, 4 razors and 4 refills, 3 toothpaste, 4 toothbrushes, 3 mouthwash, 9 body washes, 3 men's shampoo, 10 ladies' shampoo/conditioner, who knows how many feminine products, 3 boxes band-aids, 2 pepto, 5 cold medicine, 7 boxes cough drops, 11 deodorants, 39 rolls toilet paper, 10 rolls paper towels, 3 boxes puffs.


Whew.

And... I saved a little over 1500 in the 6 months before this experiment started. So, in the last 18 months, I have saved about 5,500. That's INSANE.

Week 51

It looks like I shopped a lot this week. It was more than I wanted too, but it's nice to just get out and walk around CVS or Walgreen's by myself.

CVS

Whoo-hoo! Good deal on cereal when we're down to just a couple of boxes left. They are on sale for 2.50 each. If you buy 4 (for 10 dollars) you get 5 ECBs back. That's a good deal on cereal (especially if you pay with ECBs!). I also had a couple of 1.50 off 2 boxes of Kellogg's that I printed from the internet. So, I paid 7 dollars and got 5 ECBs back.
And the toothbrushes were 4.00 get 4 ECB back... and I had 75 cent coupons for those, so they paid me 1.50 to buy them.
Out of pocket: 3.89 (paid with 15.50 in EBCs)
Savings: 47.52, and earned 15 towards my next purchase.
Yeah, I got all of that basically for what ONE box of cereal would have cost. You have to start couponing!!

Found out that even though the ad said that the deal limit on the Cereal was 1, it was actually 2. So, I scoured the internet and found a coupon. Plus, CVS sent me a $4 off a $20 purchase coupon, cause they're awesome like that. This was a good trip=
4 cereal x 2.50 = 10.00
- 2 coupons x 1.50 = -3.00
= 7.00 and get 5 back
1 razor x 8.99 - 1 coupon x 4.00 = 4.99, get 4 back
3 lint rollers x .99 - 3 coupons for 1.00 off lint roller= FREE
- the $4 coupon they sent me
Out of pocket = 3.02
Savings = 28.96

County Market

produce, yogurt (obviously... Phillip lined them up for the picture), etc.
Out of pocket: 16.01
Savings: 16.96

Out of pocket: 11.88
Savings: 12.29

Meijer

Also got milk and some grapes- not pictured.
Out of pocket: 11.34
Savings: 15.09

Walgreen's
7 Vick's cough drops x 1.19 = 8.33
- 5 coupons x 1.50 = -7.5
= 0.83
on-sale Coffee = 5.99
Out of pocket: 6.42
Savings: 9.50

Weekly spending total: 52.56
Weekly savings total: 130.32
YTD spending total: 2547.46
YTD savings total: 3826.63