Shopping Plan Through 11/20/12

Around here, the new sales circulars for stores come out on Wednesdays. It is very rare for me to have my entire week's shopping in order by Thursday. Heck, it's very rare for me to have opened my Wednesday paper by Sunday!

But this week, I am ready. We are buying some really healthy, necessary groceries (of course with a few "wants" thrown in here and there) but it still feels like we spend soooo much money on groceries. Right now our grocery bill hovers around $215-230 each month and I would love to lower that to $180-190, at least to start with. Is this possible? Probably. Is it going to be time-consuming? Oh yes. I've already told Stephen that to lower our grocery bill back down to where it used to be (well, not EXACTLY where it used to be... remember when I only spent $100 per month? Hint: It was way before our economy collapsed, we had two children, inflation happened, etc. etc.!) I'm going to have to spend more time during the day working on coupons. It still won't come before family, church, or be "extreme" in any way, but I just want to pay more attention to what I'm doing when I'm shopping.

All that to say, if you are in the same boat, maybe we can help each other out. I'm going to post my shopping plan for the week. If you know there's a better deal somewhere, let me know! Hopefully this will help you out a little bit too though.

The Plan:

Saturday, November 17 - By this day we will have zero chicken nuggets in the house and we will need them in order for the kids to be happy at church all night Saturday night. I've got to go to Harris Teeter so I may as well get a few other things while I'm out.

Harris Teeter

Dawn detergent
On sale for $0.99, plan on using a $0.50 coupon from the P&G insert, makes it free.

Franks hot sauce
The smaller sizes are $1.49, plan on using a $0.75 coupon from the 9/30 SS, making it free.

Snyder's tortilla chips
On sale for $2.50 (makes them $0.16/oz, a better price than the $2.00 Santitas I normally buy!)

Tyson nuggets
On sale for $4.99, plan on using a $0.75 coupon from the 10/07 SS, making them $3.49

Cool Whip
On sale for $0.99, plan on using a $0.50 coupon I got from somewhere online (can't remember!), making it free.

Sister Schubert's rolls
On sale for $2.50, plan on using a $0.75 coupon from the 11/18 SS, making them $1.00 each.

Silk fruit juice
On sale for $1.77, plan on using a $0.75 from Swagbucks, making it $0.27

Tuesday, November 20

Lowes Foods
I knew I wouldn't make it out to Lowes Foods this week (too far away) so I called my mom to pick me up the one thing I need from this store - a 10-lb bag of potatoes for $2.97.

Nature's Own

I need allspice for a recipe for Thanksgiving, but just a smidge, so I'm hoping our local natural food store will have it in the bulk bin so I can get it pretty cheap. Not sure how much this will cost.

Food Lion

Clementines
On sale, just $4.97 for a 5 pound box.

Apples
On sale, $2.79 for a 3 lb bag.

FL Tasteeos
$3.50 a bag.

Harris Teeter Trip 2

Eagle brand condensed milk
On sale for $2.00, plan on using a $0.55 coupon from 11/04 RP, making it $0.90.

Cooked Perfect meatballs (for my Thanksgiving side dish)
On sale for $2.50, plan on using a $1.00 coupon from 10/7 SS, making them $1.50.

HT maraschino cherries (for my Thanksgiving dessert)
On sale for $1.77.

Dollar Tree

Coffee - $1.00 for 7 ounces (lasts me about 1 month) 

So I'm hoping to spend less than $35 this week for groceries, including what I'm cooking for Thanksgiving lunch.

Okay, what great deals did you find? Help me out if you can! :)

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Update:

Harris Teeter trip 11/17:

Dawn detergent - Free, purchased 3 (as planned)

Franks hot sauce - Free, purchased 3 (as planned)

Snyder's tortilla chips - $2.50 (as planned)

Tyson nuggets - $3.49 (as planned)

Cool Whip - Free (as planned)

Sister Schubert's rolls - $1.00, purchased 3 (as planned)

Silk fruit juice - $0.27, purchased 2 (as planned)

I didn't realize I had a HT e-coupon for Dawn which took off an extra $0.50 on my order.

Final shopping total - $35.82
OOP - $9.47
Saved - $26.35 (saved about 74%)

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 Food Lion

Apples - $2.79 (0.93/lb) (as planned)

Clementines - $4.97 (0.99/lb) (as planned)

FL Tasteeos - $0.48 (Didn't go as planned... they have discontinued my bulk bag of Tasteeos!! They are now sold in teeny bags (7 oz) that are $0.99 each. A travesty. But I am completely out and desperate, and happened to print out a $1.50/2 coupon at the kiosk... so I got them. Gotta find a new best deal on store brand Cheerios!)

Final shopping total - $11.49
OOP - $8.40
Saved - $3.09 (about 27%)

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Harris Teeter trip #2

Dole pineapple slices - $1.00 (forgot I needed this for Thanksgiving... they were cheaper than the store brand though!)

HT maraschino cherries - $1.77 (as planned)

Eagle Brand condensed milk - $0.90, purchased 2 (as planned)

Cooked Perfect meatballs - $1.50 (as planned)

Final shopping total - $12.31
OOP - $6.23
Saved - $6.08 (about 49%)

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Dollar Tree

Coffee - $1.00 (as planned)

Wheat bread - $0.50 (didn't realize they mark down their bread! Sweeeet.)

Total spent OOP - $1.55

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Bo's (not planned)

Welch's grape juice - $1.00 (on clearance)

PopTarts - $1.20 (on clearance)

Dannon yogurt - $1.50 (on clearance; a 2 lb container)

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Final Update:

I didn't stray too much from my plan. I skipped Nature's Own and decided to make my own allspice, but I went to Bo's and spent almost four bucks on clearance items (very good clearance items, I might add.)

In the end, this week I spent $29.42 on groceries (I had hoped to spend $35 or less) so that's great. Our grocery total for the month is just $90 so far.

How did things turn out for you? Did you have a plan?