Grocery Haul & Savings: A How-To Guide
Today is grocery shopping day and I thought I would share what’s on my list, what I get from the store, how much it costs, and how much I’m saving.
This haul I will only be using the Weekly Ad and Digital Coupons from Safeway. I despise going into the store so I will be ordering for pickup.
I like to do a larger shopping trip once every 2 weeks – usually around pay day. Then if we need anything small during the week it’s easier to just run in and grab it.
My grocery shopping process is pretty easy. First, I develop our meal plans. Then I make the list off of the meal planning. Third I look through the Weekly Ad for sales and fourth I look for digital coupons. I also like ordering my groceries online because I can keep track of what I am spending to keep it all within budget.
Today’s budget: $200
Groceries for: The next 2 weeks
Store: Safeway in Olympia, WA.
My current list:
Frozen chicken
Mayo
Cream Cheese (for bagels)
Oreos
Elbow noodles
Pasta sauce
Spaghetti noodles
Hawaiian rolls
Frozen pizza
Salsa
Tortilla chips
Bell Peppers
Salad Kits
Fresh green beans
Bread
Peanut butter
Pretty normal list. You’ll notice there’s not a ton of meat products on there. I’ve been stocking up on ground beef while it’s been on sale so I’m trying to use some of that on these meal plans. I’ll include my meal plan list to compare but I was trying to shop my pantry this round.
Meal Plan:
Breaded chicken and mashed potatoes
Pasta salad and chicken
Spaghetti and meat sauce
Ham and cheese sliders
Taco Night
Breakfast
Crockpot chicken fajitas
Salads
Sheet pan kielbasa, potatoes, and green beans
Crockpot cream of chicken, chicken, and rice
Hamburger helper
Mac and Cheese and beans
You’ll notice there are not 14 days worth of meals on there. We like to go out every Sunday and sometimes we prefer to throw a frozen pizza in the oven. I like to account for those nights.
There were some coupons on cereal this week on their Weekly Ad. I wasn’t planning on getting more cereal but I did just run out of Frosted Flakes. While we have plenty of other cereal – I am still not going to pass up $1.99 box of Frosted Flakes since it is one of my favorites. So I’ve added that to the cart.
These digital coupons are available on the weekly ad for everyone. I’m just clipping them digitally to my Safeway account.
I liked the sale on Pringles on Buy 2 Get 1 Free as well so I decided to add Pringles to my order. I feel like snack food such as this keep getting more and more expensive. It feels difficult to keep up with the raising prices recently so when I can snag a sale like this I certainly will!
After I scour the Weekly Ad for some great sales, I head over to Safeway’s digital coupons.
Since I frequently purchase these items, Safeway pulls these coupons to the top for me. I do need more tortilla chips as they were on the list. My partner really likes the Juanita’s Fiesta Bag Tortilla Chips and I prefer to stick with brands we like. So I’ll clip that coupon and add the tortilla chips.
Ok – now that I’ve completed my list I will go over everything I put in my cart to purchase and what the sale price is.
Campbells SpaghettiOs Pasta Meatballs – 14.75 oz
$1.50 x 2 = $3.00
$1.99 x 2 = $3.98
Rosarita Traditional Refried Beans – 16 oz
$1.49
$1.99
Libbys Naturals Corn Whole Kernal Sweet – 15 oz
$1.25 x 5 = $5.00
$1.69 x 5 = $8.45
Mission Tortillas Flour Soft Taco Super Soft 10 Count – 17.5 oz
$1.99 x 2 = $3.98
$3.29 x 2 = $7.96
Kings Hawaiian Original Sweet Rolls – 12 oz
$5.49
Sara Lee Butter Bread – 20 oz
$4.59
Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted Sourdough Bread – 22 oz
$4.79
Signature SELECT Pasta Spaghetti Box – 16 oz
$1.63 x 2 = $3.26
$1.99 x 2 = $3.98
Barilla Pasta Elbows No. 41 Box – 16 oz
$2.29
Prego Italian Sauce Creamy Vodka – 24 oz
$2.50
$2.99
Prego Alfredo Sauce Roasted Garlic Parmesan – 14.5 oz
$2.50
$2.99
Lucerne Cheese Finely Shredded Mexican Style 4 Cheese Blend – 32 oz
$7.49
$7.99
Lucerne Cream Cheese Spread Whipped – 8 oz
$2.49
$2.99
Lucerne Cheese Slice Muenster – 8 oz
$1.47
$2.99
Lucerne Cheese Slice Pasteurized Processed Gouda – 8 oz
$1.47
$2.99
SunnyD Tangy Original Orange Juice Drink Bottle – 1 gallon
$2.99
$3.99
Green Beans – 1 lb
$2.99
Fresh Cut Sliced Bell Peppers – 8 oz
$3.99
Fresh Express Salad Chopped Caesar Kit – 10.4 oz
$4.49 x 2 = $8.98
TOSTITOS Salsa Con Queso Medium – 15 oz
$4.99
$5.49
Signature Cafe Salsa Fresca Mild – 16 oz
$3.79
$3.99
Juanitas Tortilla Chips Fiesta Bag – 24 oz
$3.79
$3.99
Pringles Potato Crisps Lunch Snacks BBQ – 7.1 oz
$2.33 x 3 = $6.98
$3.49 x 3 = $10.47
Oreo Cookies Original Family Size Cookies – 18.12 oz
$3.97 x 2 = $7.94
$6.99 x 2 = $13.98
Kraft Real Mayo Creamy & Smooth Mayonnaise – 30 fl oz
$5.49
$9.49
Signature SELECT Peanut Butter Creamy – 16 oz
$2.49
$2.79
Hillshire Farm Polska Kielbasa Smoked Sausage Rope – 14 oz
$3.39
$4.99
Signature Farms Boneless Skinless Chicken Tenderloins – 40 oz
$8.99 x 2 = $17.98
$12.99 x 2 = $25.98
Signature Farms Hickory Smoked Sliced Bacon – 16 oz
$4.99
$7.49
Red Baron Pizza Thin & Crispy Pepperoni – 15.77 oz
$4.00 x 2 = $8.00
$7.49 x 2 = $14.98
Frosted Flakes Breakfast Cereal – 13.5 oz
$1.99
$5.49
And the final total is: $133.28!
I was able to save an extra $10 by using the Honey Paypal Rewards extension on my browser.
If you don’t have Honey – you are missing out! Honey finds coupons from across the web and automatically tries them to see if one of them will work for you.
You can join Honey through my link here:
I was able to buy $193 worth of groceries for $133. That’s a total savings of 31%. Instead of using my entire $200 budget, I was able to save $60 which I can either use towards more groceries later on in the week or towards another budget category like our savings accounts.
I like to take the extra time to save more money.
