January Savings

I have been keeping a spreadsheet of savings/spendings.... For January I spent $561.68 on groceries. That includes all three meals for 3 people (sometimes 4) and drugstore purchases and pets. I used 63.35 in coupons and saved 208.75 w/ coupons and store sale savings. I also had 85c gallon Bi-lo gas savings. So using coupons and shopping sale items, I saved 37% off my groceries. I spent 8.25 buying coupons. This brought home to me the importance of shopping sales.

We budget $100 a month for restaurants, and I still have $60 of it left at the end of the month. When you think of the cost of food at a restaurant, it is hard to eat out, although I love love not having to cook or do dishes. But think of this, tea at a rest is $1 or more a glass. you can brew a whole gallon for less than 25c. Spaghetti at monet's is more than $5. WIth free spaghetti from my stockpile and sale sauce assembled into home made sauce, this is less than $2 for 4 people. A whole roast chicken from the 79c pound sale and potatos and vegetables is less than $6. To that end I love the $5 dinner website for ideas and inspiration.

One of my new years resolutions was to make more bread, which I have been doing since I got this great three day bread recipe. 3 loaves costs less than $2 to make, but homemade bread doesn't "last" as long as publix store bought, so I freeze it and reheat with certain dinners and use the store bought in between.