This is from my trip to Hy-Vee. A good deal of this trip was party food, and I bought diapers. I suppose on days like this I should have the cashier ring things separately for budgeting purposes, and sometimes I will. This particular night, however, I had an especially tired, teething and crabby birthday girl. What a combination. I just had to get in and get out as fast as I possible could (which was not fast enough.)

1 package of peanut M&Ms
1 1/2 gallon of OJ
2 Freschetta pizzas
2 cans of black eyed peas
1 Old Orchard blueberry pomegranate juice
1 jar of pimentos
1 bottle of Hunt's ketchup
1 can of black olives
1 can of green chilies
2 cans of white corn
1 bottle of Louisiana hot sauce
1 package of flour tortillas
1 box of Nutri-grain bars
1 bottle of Italian dressing
2 huge bags of Margaritaville chips
1 box of Nature's Path organic cereal
1 1/2 gallon of organic whole milk
1 package of Klondike bars
1 pacakge of Hillshire Farms honey ham
2 Hormel entrees
10 Dannon yogurts
1 jalapeno pepper
5.5 lbs of braeburn apples
1 green bell pepper
1 bunch of green onions
3 lbs of yellow onions
1 package of 82 sized 4 diapers

Total after tax was $81.26. Oh how did I see how much the non-sale party items added up. ICK.

What a crazy month. I am hosting a wedding shower, my mom's 60th birthday party and my youngest daughter's first birthday party all in the next few weekends. That said, I know we are shamefully over-budget, but I couldn't even really tell you how much. With all of the partying and gift buying, I've been cross-borrowing from our different budgets and envelopes like a crazy person. That being said, I've been able to drop some serious $$$ and not charged anything. Overall, that sounds like a "win" to me.

We stopped at Hen House last night...all of this stuff is for us (ie not for a party.)

1 Charmin toilet paper
4 2 litres of Mountain Dew
2 Organic Ragu spaghetti sauces
1 gallon of Diet Lipton green tea
1 1/2 gallon of strawberry milk (let the little one talk me in to it!)
1 box of frozen Snickers
1 1/2 gallon of BlueBell Groom's Cake ice cream (can't wait to try it!)
1 box of El Monterrey Tornados
1 family sized El Monterrey cheese enchiladas
5 lbs of blueberries

My pre-tax total was $29.22. I saved $32.38 or 53%. Not the best I've ever done, but we'll live. Stay tuned for Friday night's bigger shopping trip.

I was not thrilled at all with the groceries ads this week. I normally would have gone to Sam's on a week like this, but my mom is out of town which meant that I couldn't use her for her membership.

Also, i need to add that I now have a 1 year old who has moved from breastmilk bottles to whole organic milk. I kept my first daughter on all organic dairy (except for cheese) until she was 2. Then, prices started to go up, and I switched to hormone free. I've since strayed from that all together. I decided that as I've watched grocery prices start to come down a little and as I've gotten better at couponing, it's time to add organic back in where I can. We will never be able to go organic entirely, but we will at least be sticking to organic white milk and pairing organic sales and coupons when we can.

My total this week was about $68.00 after tax, but I bought 4 Pepsi 12 packs ($9) and baby wipes ($5.) These items will come out of different budgets this time, which leaves us at about $52.00 pre-tax.

Here's what I got...

1 Old Spice deoderant (This was free. I have a nice collection of stuff for the food pantry.)
2 packages of various hair accessories for the girls
1 box of Good and Plenty
1 box of Strawberry Whoppers
1 Daisy cottage cheese
1 Laughing Cow cheese wheel
2 1 lb bags of peas
2 boxes of plain Cheerios (so glad to buy these now instead of Gerber puffs!)
2 boxes of Chex
2 boxes of Whole Wheat Ronzoni
1 package of frozen shrimp
1 bottle of taco sauce
1 12 oz van of tomato sauce
1 dozen eggs
2 cans of black beans
1 1/2 gallon or organic milk
1 box of Cascadian Farms granola bars
1 pint of Starbucks ice cream
1 box of corndogs
about 5 lbs of fresh chicken breasts
1 gallon of chocolate milk
1 box of Electrasol powerballs
1 Glad clingwrap
4 8 oz bags of cheese
1 lb of stawberries
2.33 lbs of peaches (These were more per lb than I typically pay, but they have been DELICIOUS. Worth every darn penny!)
1 white onion

And, I just noticed that it looks like one of the 12 packs of pop was not free like it was supposed to be. That actually makes my total even better. I'll have to take my receipt in and get my $3.67 back!

Not our best effort, but it is what it is. I'm pretty low on coupons, so that just doesn't help. Also, we are on total food overload, so I truly don't NEED much other than produce and dairy staples. Regardless, this is what we ended up with. It was about $44.00 before tax. I will go to one more grocery store today to get cherries and blueberries (both on sale for $1.00/lb.) I'd like to get a BUNCH to freeze for the winter, but it's not exactly in the budget. I may have to break the rules a little at that price.

Kind of a silly trip. I very seriously considered skipping the store this week. I don't even have ROOM in my fridge, freezer or any of my pantries. Even my section of my MOM''s freezer is fully. But, once again I get back t the fact that I'm afraid skipping a week would cause us to get behind, and we wouldn't get caught up.

So, basically, for this trip I just bought the stuff I needed for our 4th of July functions. Cumulatively, I'm responsible for berry lemonade, pasta salad, chips, a centerpiece for the table, berry crisp and ice cream. Everything else I got was just tryin' to get ahead a little.

1 8 pack of Hershey's snack sized chocolate bars
1 bag of marshmallows
1 bag of Wacky Mac spirals
1 Betty Crocker frosting
1 McCormick cinnamon sugar grinder (This will be a stocking stuffer for my mom. Now THAT's planning ahead!)
2 loaves of Wonder 100% whole wheat
1 4lb bag of sugar
1 gallon of Lipton Diet Green Tea
1 box of Nabisco graham crackers
4 bags of Doritos
1 can of EZ cheese (a small thanks to Daddy who will be heavy-duty on Dad-duty for the next 5 weeks!)
5 various Coke 12 packs
3 1/2 gallons of lemonade
1 1/2 gallon of Breyers ice cream
.93 lbs of brocolli crowns
1 huge tomato
1 green bell pepper
1 dozen beautiful and perfect red roses (what a steal at $5.00!)

I saved $44.47 (49%.) Total after tax was $50.60.

I've been wondering what I could do with $100 these days, and I got to find out because we didn't spend our $50.00 grocery money from last week on our trip.

I made trips to three different stores when we got home. I had two crabby children and 100 weather and 1 seriously crabby checker against me, but we still did pretty good. Here's what we got --

Price Chopper -

1 Canada Dry 2 liter
8 Yoplait yogurts
3 Digiornos pizzas
5 boxes of GM cereal (Unfortunately, one rang up full price and messed up my total!)
5 boxes of Keebler cookies
1 box of Hefty gallon ziplocks
3 cans of Libby's corn

I would not normally have bought 5 boxes of cookies, but it came with a $10.00 mail in rebate. So, I basically got paid to buy them. I will have to hide them so we don't eat them all at once!

Pre-tax total was $30.20. Total savings was $32.86 not counting the mail in rebate.

Hen House

1 big bottle of Lysol multi-purpose cleaner refill
1 6 pack of ramen noodles
2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights
2 chocolate Chex Mix
2 Orville Redenbacher Natural popcorn boxes
5 boxes of Kellogg's cereal
1/2 gallon of chocolate milk
1 gallon of 2% milk
2 Tony's pizzas
1 box of Eggo's
1 Lean Pocket quesadilla
1 Marie Callendar Tortellini
18 oz of blueberries

Pre-tax total$24.35. Total savings $43.09. Total savings of 64%. A good trip, I thought! I also got a $10.00 mail in rebate for buying 5 boxes of Kellogg's. I've GOT to remember to send these in! I'm BAD about mail in rebates!

Hy-Vee

1 box of Reese's pieces
1 16 oz of 4% cottage cheese
4 bags of 6 store brand bagels
1 Laughing Cow cheese wheel
2 boxes of Edward's dessert singles
2 Kemp's yogurt parfaits (These look so yummy!)
1 12 oz honey bear
1 huge bottle of Bertolli olive oil (This cost $10.98 and was FREE!)
1 bag of Doritos
2 tubes of Gerber puffs
1 bottle of Hunt's ketchup
1 bottle of Pam for baking
2 Smuckers all natural blueberry jam
1 Hormel meatloaf dinner
1 bag of Tyson Anytizers
4 bags of store brand shredded cheese
5.30 lbs of bananas
1 pineapple
4 lbs of strawberries
1 cantaloupe
2 mangoes
1 small pack of raspberries
4.20 lbs of white peaches

LOVED the produce sale. I'm sliced and froze about 3 lbs of bananas. Once the peaches ripen, I will make peach sauce, and I may try slicing and freezing some of those as well. We'll also be eating tons of smoothies and fresh fruit salad.

This is the store that taxes crazy and that I never know exactly how much I saved. My pre-tax total was $60.00 even.

We are STUFFED to the gills on food. Fridge, freezer and pantry are all overflowing. We are very blessed. I probably could have banked our $50.00 from last week, but with my class coming up, I figured it best to try to get ahead a little. I may miss a week or two, and with me being gone from 6:30 AM - 8:30 PM two nights a week for the next 5 weeks, I've got to make sure the family is going to be able to fend for themselves. Groceries will be the last thing that I need on my mind.

A little summer tip --

As you all know, it is the small efforts that add up. During the summer at home and on vacation, I try really hard to not by drinks on the road. Instead, I divide up a bottle of juice in to sippy cups and freeze. When we're on our way out the door, I grab one for each girl, and we're good to go. This saved us considerably on our trip. I went through two bottles of organic juice that I paid $1.00 and change for each instead of buying 10 or so $2.00 single servings of juice on the road.

Forgive me. We've had the busiest week EVER. I'm exhausted, and I just don't have the energy for details. The picture on top came to right around $20.00. The picture below came to right around $30.00. I don't have specifics because the above picture excluded some items I had to buy for yet another family get together. Above picture is also missing 5 bagels. The picture below was actually made in TWO purchases, so I could get more than the max limits. (Special thanks to the guy that let me do that!) I didn't have a good coupon week. I was just TOO TOO TOO busy to do the coupon/sale matching ahead of time, and too TIRED once I got to the store. I even bought the Gerber puffs not on sale without a coupon. Bad mommy.

While we're on the subject of busy --

We will be in town part of this week and then gone for several days. I have a GOOD stockpile of food for our trip, which will be helpful! After that, we're home for the 4th of July, and then I'm going back to grad school for a summer class! So, all of that stuff AND working full time will make me a very busy lady. If my updates here are spotty, forgive me. We'll be back in full swing come mid-August. I am planning on taking a class in the Fall too, but it is an undergrad credit I have to make up for my grad degree. It shouldn't be so overwhelming.

So, wish me luck over the next 9 weeks or so! I will be a busy lady!