You know you're spoiled when you're disappointed to see that you only saved $16.60 or 26% on your commissary bill. Here's a recap on my savings for the week of August:
from the menu plan. Once in a while I would add an item on the list
that was on sale or that I had a high-value coupon for, but for the
most part we stuck to what we needed. And the result was a savings of $77.68 with coupons, on top of the savings from just shopping at the commissary versus somewhere else.
Our total grocery bill for August comes out to $203.83, which is only $3.83 over our budget. But this is technically inaccurate because everything that I bought today goes towards September's meals. That's alright though, because the "Budget bank" in my budget spreadsheet will take care of that.
Today I ended up spending $49.37 for everything you see in the picture PLUS 1.5lbs of ground beef, pork chops, and round tip steaks. I partially blame our large bill on the meat, and I know we could save money by having meatless meals, but this family is a family of carnivores and we have long agreed that we would rather save elsewhere and be able to eat meat all the time.
Another factor for this higher than usual bill is that $11.68 were dog treats that I had coupons for. In my budget, I put $11.68 under the dog category, and then just put the $37.69 under our grocery budget. Everything that we buy, with the exception of diapers/wipes and dog food/treats, goes under the grocery budget. $11.68 seems to be a huge amount of treats, but after coupons they came out to less than $1 each, so I was stockpiling.
Speaking of stockpiling, the case lot sale is set for next week, and I will NOT be attending. I'm going to steer clear of the commissary on those days. You must think I'm nuts because everyone LOVES the case lot sale, but we've found that it actually hurts us to buy stuff then. We're a small family, and we've been eating like royalty for $200 this past month thanks to menu planning. Most of the meals that I made were from scratch, and as a result tasted better and were healthier for our family. We don't need to be stocking up on instant foods. I have a hard enough time getting the motivation to go cook every night...I don't need the temptation of 12 boxes of hamburger helpers or 24 packs of ramen sitting around.
Besides, where in the world am I going to put all it? We buy only what we need and we STILL have a hard time fitting things into our tiny kitchen. And I still have things from the case lot sale that I went to LAST year. I'm not kidding. They were vienna sausages that were ridiculously cheap, but never got eaten. Nothing on the case lot sale list are staples in our family, and when it comes time to move again we'll either have to pack a box of food or throw it all out.
As for the non-food items, I just don't see the point of spending money to buy 6 bottles of shampoo even if they're 53% off, because I can get paid to buy them by CVS and Walgreens. They are having a 11% discount off Huggies, but only starting at size 3, so it'll be no good to us. And since we're not going to be here for years on end, I really don't want to have 6 bottles of dish soap or 4 boxes of laundry detergent lying around.
Back in Charleston, their case lot sales are in May and I was really disappointed that I missed it. The little princess decided it was time to make her big debut, and by the time the hospital cut us loose the case lot sale was over and I was so bummed about it. But this was BEFORE I started menu-planning and making smart decisions. I'm sure the commissary case sale works for bigger families permanently
stationed here, but for us it's just plain stupid and a waste of money
to do it.
- Week 1: 30% ($21.95)
- Week 2: 34% ($12.20)
- Week 3: 42% ($19.90)
- Week 4: 23% ($7.03)
- Week 5: 26% ($16.60)
from the menu plan. Once in a while I would add an item on the list
that was on sale or that I had a high-value coupon for, but for the
most part we stuck to what we needed. And the result was a savings of $77.68 with coupons, on top of the savings from just shopping at the commissary versus somewhere else.
Our total grocery bill for August comes out to $203.83, which is only $3.83 over our budget. But this is technically inaccurate because everything that I bought today goes towards September's meals. That's alright though, because the "Budget bank" in my budget spreadsheet will take care of that.
Today I ended up spending $49.37 for everything you see in the picture PLUS 1.5lbs of ground beef, pork chops, and round tip steaks. I partially blame our large bill on the meat, and I know we could save money by having meatless meals, but this family is a family of carnivores and we have long agreed that we would rather save elsewhere and be able to eat meat all the time.
Another factor for this higher than usual bill is that $11.68 were dog treats that I had coupons for. In my budget, I put $11.68 under the dog category, and then just put the $37.69 under our grocery budget. Everything that we buy, with the exception of diapers/wipes and dog food/treats, goes under the grocery budget. $11.68 seems to be a huge amount of treats, but after coupons they came out to less than $1 each, so I was stockpiling.
Speaking of stockpiling, the case lot sale is set for next week, and I will NOT be attending. I'm going to steer clear of the commissary on those days. You must think I'm nuts because everyone LOVES the case lot sale, but we've found that it actually hurts us to buy stuff then. We're a small family, and we've been eating like royalty for $200 this past month thanks to menu planning. Most of the meals that I made were from scratch, and as a result tasted better and were healthier for our family. We don't need to be stocking up on instant foods. I have a hard enough time getting the motivation to go cook every night...I don't need the temptation of 12 boxes of hamburger helpers or 24 packs of ramen sitting around.
Besides, where in the world am I going to put all it? We buy only what we need and we STILL have a hard time fitting things into our tiny kitchen. And I still have things from the case lot sale that I went to LAST year. I'm not kidding. They were vienna sausages that were ridiculously cheap, but never got eaten. Nothing on the case lot sale list are staples in our family, and when it comes time to move again we'll either have to pack a box of food or throw it all out.
As for the non-food items, I just don't see the point of spending money to buy 6 bottles of shampoo even if they're 53% off, because I can get paid to buy them by CVS and Walgreens. They are having a 11% discount off Huggies, but only starting at size 3, so it'll be no good to us. And since we're not going to be here for years on end, I really don't want to have 6 bottles of dish soap or 4 boxes of laundry detergent lying around.
Back in Charleston, their case lot sales are in May and I was really disappointed that I missed it. The little princess decided it was time to make her big debut, and by the time the hospital cut us loose the case lot sale was over and I was so bummed about it. But this was BEFORE I started menu-planning and making smart decisions. I'm sure the commissary case sale works for bigger families permanently
stationed here, but for us it's just plain stupid and a waste of money
to do it.
1 comment:
We live in Germany and recently attended our local (well 1-hr away) case lot sale and we saved over $348 buying in bulk! Toilet paper, paper towels, Cheerios, soups, veggies, detergent, soap, freezer bags (most of these things PCS well). We spent $186 which includes $7.05 in coupons. We usually shop every 5-weeks (have a deep freezer in our basement) and spend about $315/avg per go round. Obviously if you don’t use the things you buy, it's not worth it but we were lucky to see everything we'd normally buy, at the case lot. If not toilet paper and paper towels that most people need. Depends on if you have the money up front to invest and since we do- we do. I normally avg $24 in coupons per trip (our family sends them to us from the States) which is 7-8% of our total bill (before coupons) We don’t menu plan because we don’t have kids and well- we can eat PB/J if we want to for dinner w/o being considered abusive and unhealthy. Since we can’t dbl up mfr and store coupons we take what we can get. Considering our COLA decreased by $300/month coupons are greatly needed! Good work on your budget
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