Bulk Groceries of the Odd Kind
No, I didn’t go over budget. And I didn’t spend a single penny on impulse items at the grocery store today. But yet I spent more than I thought I would, simply because there were some very odd bulk buys going on.
First, when I went to buy ground beef, there were only family packs left. Just family packs. So I had to buy 5 lbs at once. Which is not a big deal, because we will use it eventually, and I generally freeze ground beef before using it anyway. But it was just odd. I didn’t know holiday shortages extended to ground beef, but, whatever. Then when I got to the dairy case, I found that Walmart has started stocking gallons of organic milk, which are 50 cents cheaper than buying two half gallons. My son generally only drinks a half gallon of milk a week but the milk will be good for two weeks so I got the gallon. Ouch. That stuff is expensive.
But, all in all, I spent $22.35 at Walmart and $64.49 at Aldi for a total of $86.84, which was a wee bit under my $90/week budget for December. And, I won’t have to buy milk next week or beef for a while so the bill should be even less next week. Maybe. We’ll see.
Tomorrow I’ll have to relate my adventures at the scrapbook store today using my gift certificate I got for my birthday a while back. Oh, how I love scrapbooks stores. More than Target even. 
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December 1st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Have you checked around to see if you can find a better price on beef? Wal-Mart’s pre-packaged beef is infused with a sodium laden liquid, not good. If you taste fresh meat vs. WM you can taste the difference for sure.
Also have you checked out The Grocery Game? They’re adding new stores all the time and I spend way less now shopping at the “expensive” grocery store vs. WM and Aldi like I was doing, average is $60-65 for family of 3.
BTW enjoy the blog very much:)
December 1st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
I don’t get beef at Walmart
The grocery game has one store in my area listed and I’ve thought about trying it, but I am horrible at the whole coupon thing. until I can commit to cutting coupons it would be a waste of my money
Thanks!
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:50 am
Oops sorry! I guess I assumed when I saw the milk entry you got the meat at WM too:) You should really look into cutting coupons and at least trying the $1 for a month trial, it’s really worth it. Then you don’t have to worry about not having things in the house when you need them because you’ve more than likely already stockpiled it! It’s been a real money saver for us, a real money saver.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I have been trying to use Coupon Mom because it is free and if I can’t do free I can’t do paying for it too. And I have failed miserably in my plan to get, cut, and use coupons.
I told myself if I collected couons for 4 weeks I could sign up for the Grocery Game, because the game uses coupons from past week to match up to current deals, so if I don’t have coupons from past weeks it is a waste of money (in my eyes). I have not successfully managed that yet.
It all hinges on my reluctance to sign up for the sunday paper (because of a horrid experience with the paper customer service people when i called to sign up that resulted in me hanging up the phone in disgust and vowing never to deal with those people) and my inability to manage going out on sundays to buy it.
Needless to say I have some hangups about the whole process. I have improving to do
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
My grocery store will split up a family pack if you want to buy smaller quantities, so if you run into that problem again you could check.
That said, at our store family packs are usually about 10 cents a lb. cheaper. I buy several lbs. at a time and freeze it in patties (after spicing it up a bit). I do 3 packs, 2 packs and singles, that way I can use them as needed for whatever recipe I’m doing.
Good for you for not spending anything on impulse items! That’s one of the areas where I most need improvement.
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Coupon clipping does take time but it’s worth it;) I tried coupon mom and found it to be very confusing vs. GG. Good luck with what you decide but I promise if you start cutting coupons you’ll see a big difference in your savings every week vs. shopping at WM and Aldi.