Okay, I've dug up all the receipts I can find, and I'm going to try to figure out what the hell happened.
Week 1
6 July Coles $113.43
6 July Aldi $66.65
9 July Coles $42.65*
10 July Aldi $19.30
11 July Coles $23.05*
Total : $265.08
Week 2
13 July Aldi $89.20
16 July Coles $24.58*
17 July Aldi $34.51
Total: $148.29
Week 3
20 July Woolworths $96.01
20 July Coles $60.94
20 July 1st Choice $54.00
22 July 1st Choice $55.00
22 July Aldi $74.91
23 July Coles $53.63*
23 July Aldi $85.36
23 July Coles $34.52*
Total: $514.37
Week 4
26 July Coles $58.27
26 July Aldi $137.31
26 July Woolworths $49.47
27 July Coles $18.37*
Total: $263.42
Monthly Total: $1191.16
Weekly Avg: $297.79
*Karen
These numbers make sense based on what happened over the course of the month. Week 1 was a fairly normal shop. The only thing unusual about it was that I didn't blog it. Then Week 2 was when the two older boys left. I was just cooking for Tom and myself, so I just bought some quick and easy stuff from Aldi. Sausages, sandwich stuff, frozen chicken strips, stir fry stuff, and a bottle of bourbon. Then I went back a few days later and bought frozen fish fillets, more sandwich stuff, and spaghetti fixins.
In Week 3 the boys were still away, but Karen needed stuff from Coles and Woolworths, so I did a proper sort of shop. But with only 3 people, it was cheap. Under $200. Plus $200 or so worth of liquor. Good times, good times! Apparently I made a second trip to Aldi that week, but I don't have a receipt for it and I'm not entirely sure what I might've bought. I'm guessing there was a fair amount of liquor and junk food involved.
Then in Week 4, the boys came home, I went back to work, and it was time to start behaving myself again. And I did.
I've checked the bank account, and if there was more shopping done, it was done with cash and there's no records. In the end, while we didn't stay under the $240 weekly limit I've set so that we can save for our holiday this summer, we did manage to stay under the old $300 a week limit. And only looking at my shopping, I kept it under $250 a week. Nearly on budget.
But I have to cop some of the blame for her crazy shopping trips, because we've learned that if I keep the pantry stocked with all the crap she likes, then she doesn't need to go to the grocery store, and she doesn't go in there and go nuts. As an example, that trip to Coles on the 27th was the Friday after I'd gone back to work, and her last day off. We'd gone to the movies, then to lunch, but she wanted to go buy herself a bag of chips, and I didn't want to go. So she dropped me off at home and then went by herself.
Keeping in mind that a bag of Kettle chips costs around $4 a bag, and that I had just done the grocery shopping the day before, she ended up spending nearly $20. On what? I have no freaking idea. I'd bought her everything she'd asked for on Thursday. The only reason I didn't buy her a bag of chips is because she told me not to, because she started a new healthy-eating kick that week. Apparently the healthy-eating kick was over by Friday, when she had popcorn and a Coke at the movies, then a burger, chips and a Pepsi at lunch, and then decided she needed a bag of chips and whatever-the-hell-else she bought that afternoon.
So a couple weeks of junk-food bingeing and drunken debauchery didn't break the bank, and while we could've saved that money for our summer vacation, we still managed to hit 80% of our holiday savings target for July, so that's cool.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Shopping Day: 2 August 2012
Aldi: $89.68
Woolworths: $54.90
Coles: $119.19
Total: $263.77
I'm over the $240 weekly average, and I'm not done yet. Tomorrow I'll go to Costco and grab a few things, which will add another $28 or so, which will bring me up to around $300. I should be able to make up for it in future weeks, but I also need to build up my stockpile again. I'm starting to run low on some things.
Things got a little crazy last month. I had the month off, the two older boys went to their grandparents for two weeks, and I got a little carried away with eating, drinking, and generally being merry. But I kept my receipts, and I'm going to try to piece it all back together and see just what the hell happened.
But for now, I'm just focusing on this week. And the main thing is that I'm pretty damned happy with this week's grocery adventure. I'm a bit bummed out that I haven't seen any really great bargains that make me want to fill up my shopping cart with 643 cans of tuna or something, but on the other hand, I'm happy that my basic trip to the grocery store(s) is costing a lot less than it used to. I've got a weekly menu worked out that the kids are happy with, and I've got another month or so of winter before I'll start changing it up a little.
One of the big changes in recent weeks that's saved us a little money is that I'm buying more fresh fruit and vegetables from Aldi. This week I got shallots (spring onions/green onions), avocados, cauliflower, iceberg lettuce, carrots, leek, sweet potatoes, red onions, bananas, white cabbage, and red capsicums (bell peppers), and it was all cheaper than I could get it at either Coles or Woolworth's. Maybe I could've gotten it cheaper at the Belconnen Markets or at the Farmers' Market, but then again, maybe not. And at this point, I just can't be bothered making those trips to find out.
The trip to Woolworth's was short and sweet, just to grab a few items that were either on sale or just cheaper than Coles anyway. Nothing special, although they're giving me a discount ($2.95 instead of $3.69) on my low-carb SlimPasta because I'm an Everyday Rewards member, so I'm grabbing a couple of packets every time I'm there.
Coles was great this week, because I bought a lot of stuff that was on sale--canned borlotti (pinto) beans, frozen chicken strips, frozen spinach, and more--and because I had a voucher for 500 bonus Flybuys (worth a whopping $2.50) if I spent over $120 (my total was $131.38), plus I saved $2.19 from my Flybuys My5, and then I got another $10 off for spending over $100 (apparently this was a Docket Deal (coupon printed on your receipt), but I knew nothing about it, didn't have one of the coupons, but the checkout chick gave it to me anyway. She also gave us about 4 times as many Sports for Schools vouchers than we'd earned, so the school may end up naming a playground or stadium after Tom or something.
So hey, it's no Extreme Couponing kind of thing, but hell, I got heaps of groceries, started building up my stockpile again, and just eyeballing it, I think I probably saved around 25% on the whole trip.
Woolworths: $54.90
Coles: $119.19
Total: $263.77
I'm over the $240 weekly average, and I'm not done yet. Tomorrow I'll go to Costco and grab a few things, which will add another $28 or so, which will bring me up to around $300. I should be able to make up for it in future weeks, but I also need to build up my stockpile again. I'm starting to run low on some things.
Things got a little crazy last month. I had the month off, the two older boys went to their grandparents for two weeks, and I got a little carried away with eating, drinking, and generally being merry. But I kept my receipts, and I'm going to try to piece it all back together and see just what the hell happened.
But for now, I'm just focusing on this week. And the main thing is that I'm pretty damned happy with this week's grocery adventure. I'm a bit bummed out that I haven't seen any really great bargains that make me want to fill up my shopping cart with 643 cans of tuna or something, but on the other hand, I'm happy that my basic trip to the grocery store(s) is costing a lot less than it used to. I've got a weekly menu worked out that the kids are happy with, and I've got another month or so of winter before I'll start changing it up a little.
One of the big changes in recent weeks that's saved us a little money is that I'm buying more fresh fruit and vegetables from Aldi. This week I got shallots (spring onions/green onions), avocados, cauliflower, iceberg lettuce, carrots, leek, sweet potatoes, red onions, bananas, white cabbage, and red capsicums (bell peppers), and it was all cheaper than I could get it at either Coles or Woolworth's. Maybe I could've gotten it cheaper at the Belconnen Markets or at the Farmers' Market, but then again, maybe not. And at this point, I just can't be bothered making those trips to find out.
The trip to Woolworth's was short and sweet, just to grab a few items that were either on sale or just cheaper than Coles anyway. Nothing special, although they're giving me a discount ($2.95 instead of $3.69) on my low-carb SlimPasta because I'm an Everyday Rewards member, so I'm grabbing a couple of packets every time I'm there.
Coles was great this week, because I bought a lot of stuff that was on sale--canned borlotti (pinto) beans, frozen chicken strips, frozen spinach, and more--and because I had a voucher for 500 bonus Flybuys (worth a whopping $2.50) if I spent over $120 (my total was $131.38), plus I saved $2.19 from my Flybuys My5, and then I got another $10 off for spending over $100 (apparently this was a Docket Deal (coupon printed on your receipt), but I knew nothing about it, didn't have one of the coupons, but the checkout chick gave it to me anyway. She also gave us about 4 times as many Sports for Schools vouchers than we'd earned, so the school may end up naming a playground or stadium after Tom or something.
So hey, it's no Extreme Couponing kind of thing, but hell, I got heaps of groceries, started building up my stockpile again, and just eyeballing it, I think I probably saved around 25% on the whole trip.
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