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More real grocery bills

Apparently I have a hard time resisting the grocery store! Here's 2 more of my grocery bills, although both are somewhat of a stock up trip. Chicken breasts were on sale for $2.99lb (skinless, boneless), and 3lbs of Parkay Margarine were on sale for $2.99. I know, I know, you don't have to tell me that skin on, bone in chicken breasts are cheaper, and if I debone and skin them, I can make soup. I've done that. Now I'm lazy. And in this case, these chicken breasts were the same price as the skin on bone in kind. 

The margarine was a good buy, because I usually pay $1.27lb for No Name cooking margarine. This works out to $1lb AND it comes over-packaged in little 1/2 cup squares. Wonderful stuff.

My sister took a trip to the U.S. today to go shopping, and I couldn't believe the prices over there!! $1.49lb for butter! A gallon of milk for less than $2.00! I can't wait to go check it out on Sunday - I'm hoping to find some good deals on powdered milk.

All right, enough procrastinating - on to my grocery bills. This keeps me honest, and aware of what I spend, that's for sure.

My real grocery bill

Okay, so I like to brag about spending next to nothing on groceries, but I thought I should actually keep track of what I *really* spend. I am on a budget - I think we all are - so let's compare bills. My advance budget for groceries is set at $225 for the month, to feed myself and three kids. My ex-husband and I share custody of the kids, so they are not here every single day but I do still have to feed them.

I should point out that I do not buy meat at the grocery store. In January I bought a half of a cow and have it in my freezer, and last summer I bought a half of a pig and there's still a little bit of pork left too. Chicken is one thing I still have to buy, since I haven't found a source of inexpensive market farm chicken yet.  But I will! And then I'll stock my freezer full of that too. The total cost for the half cow averaged out at $1.95 per pound (one quarter from one supplier at $2.30lb and 1/4 from another at $1.60lb). The pork was about $2 lb. There is about $450 worth of meat in my freezer, so that will have to be worked into the monthly bill over the year.

What I'll do is list my grocery bill and then see how it compares to my grocery budget for the month. I don't quite fit with the $35 per week grocery challenge, but I'm sure this will show me some areas I could cut back. 

Of course, today was a terrible day as far as stupid spending!! This bill is loaded with things we really didn't need. On a good note, even though we Canadians don't get to 'coupon' like our neighbours to the south, I still managed to cash in my PC points for $20 off my bill, and to use one of my gas coupons for another $1.11 off the bill. It's not a huge amount as far as coupons go, but it still helped out a bit.