I've set my grocery budget at an aggressive $240 for this month. My husband has minimal overtime right now and we've been tapping the severance account far too often for far too much. So we're determined this month to cover all our basic expenses with just his income.
I spent a little over an hour yesterday preparing a grocery list and scouting for coupons. Unfortunately the coupon pickings are a bit slim and my list was a bit longer than I hoped. I was trying to get my shopping done today for under $70 and instead came in at $77. I shopped at Stop and Shop - I usually shop at Shaw's. I realized today why I usually avoid Stop and Shop.....the overall pricing is higher and I had an aggravating checkout experience where all my online printed coupons were questioned. I know some stores have a policy about not accepting them but the part that aggravated me is that they didn't know what to do. I asked the cashier to please stop scanning my groceries until a decision was made as my whole list was based on sales and coupon matching....quite of few of my purchases would have to be put back if the coupons were not honored. The coupons were finally accepted but the whole experience left me frustrated....especially my total bill. Granted I did have $48 in savings between rewards card and coupons but it just wasn't as much as I had tried for. I left wishing I had just gone to Aldi.
So my grocery budget for the rest of the month is down to $163. Hopefully Sunday's paper will have a greater quanity of coupons (this week was only one flier) and Shaws will have some better sales and loss leaders. Although I did learn my lesson - an Aldi trip is a must this month!
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