$50 Grocery Challenge - Spent $50.15

It has been a while since I have posted my shopping trips.  This week I bought the following:

Egg Nog  1.99
Organic Buttermilk, reduced   99 cents
Gala apples  3.28
Eggs  2.69
Frozen blueberries  2.50
Frozen blackberries  2.50
Store brand cottage cheese - Two at 88 cents each
Bananas  1.06
Ground beef, reduced 4.04
Avocados  Two at 69 cents each
Organic potatoes  4.99
Lemons  - Three at 50 cents each
Fruit Muesli in bulk  52 cents

Prices below are after coupons:

Canned veggies -  12 assorted at 36 cents each
Canned fruit - Two at 38 cents each
Sour cream, 16 oz.  - Two at 50 cents each
Cran-grape juice  1.49
Cran-raspberry juice  1.49
Tilamook 2 lb cheese, one Pepper jack and one Co-Jack at 5.99 each


Bag refund of 5 cents

How did you do this week?  Did you stay in your budget or get any good deals?  Link up and share!

Living Well on Welfare: Can You Feed Your Family for $4 a Week?

I posted this video a long time ago, but wanted to post it again for those who didn't get the chance to watch.

 
There is a lot of satisfaction in finding a way to feed your family well in the amount of money you have.  A lot of people have been complaining about cuts in welfare benefits, but I believe it is better to use that energy to find ways to stretch your dollar instead of complaining about having less.  Using coupons is one way you can do this and there are lots of websites out there to get you started on your way if you are interested.

A few years ago, I decided to try using coupons to see if it made a difference.  I did save a lot of money, but we don't have stores in my area that double coupons so I couldn't do as well as the lady in the video.  Another thing you can do is to watch Extreme Couponing to see how others use coupons successfully.  Sometimes they have clips of Extreme couponing on youtube.com which are free to everyone.  Just don't get too caught up in the free items and get a lot of things that aren't good for you.

If you can stay within the food budget that you have, you will have money freed up to use in other areas.  You don't have to buy a newspaper to get coupons.  Ask neighbors, local coffee shops, etc. for their coupon inserts if they aren't going to use them.

It takes a couple of hours a week to use coupons like the lady above in the video, but if you have the time, it could really pay off.

Conquer Clutter: Try the 21 Item Toss

Get rid of 21 items today.  It doesn't matter where you get it from.  Just get rid of 21 things.  I have seen this idea of a 21 item toss on a couple of blogs, so I thought I would do a short post about it today.  I found these videos that are also about the 21 item toss on you tube if you are interested in watching them.  

I didn't like either of videos very much, but they are here if you want to see them.  

My 21 items for today:

Suit, broken watch, shirt, green Tupperware cup, purple Tupperware cup, plastic container, mailing tube, papers to recycle, old key, chap stick, new package of floss- brand we don't like, music for a song, another plastic container, razor package, cymbal polish bottle - consolidated two into one, new pencil case, note cards, colored pencils, silly putty, more papers to recycle, flashlight.


How about you?  What are you getting rid of today?