Grocery List

Ok, so as I said yesterday, my weekly ads come in the mail on Tuesday. There are so many to go through, but the only 2 that I keep are for Safeway and Lucky.

This morning after I dropped off all the kids at school, I walked into my kitchen to evaluate what I have in my fridge/ freezer and my pantry cabinets.

My freezer is getting pretty bare. I had already taken out one package of chicken that I will cook tonight. I have one package of pork ribs, 4 packs of chicken breast and 2 packs of thinly sliced steak. I need to purchase some ground beef.

My cabinets probably look a lot like your's. I am not an overly organized person, but most items have a general location and I know exactly where to find everything that I need while cooking.

Next, I sat down and reviewed both the ads and went to work. Here it is.

At Grocery Outlet I have a budget of $25 for this coming week. We run out of fruit fast in our house. I generally do not buy a lot of chips, cookies and crackers and other sugary snacks, mainly because my weekly grocery bill would be much larger, and also because I do not like to give them a lot of junk food. So I will be stocking up on fruit and veggies.

My list at Grocery Outlet:
Bananas
Apples
Watermelon
Lettuce
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Carrots
Cabbage
Zucchini

My list at Safeway is:
Milk
Provolone cheese
Cheddar cheese
Heinz Ketchup
Mission soft tacos
Red Lobster Biscuit Mix
Pop Tarts
Ore-Ida French Fries
Safeway chicken and beef broth
Coke

My list at Lucky's is:
Kellogg's Cereal
Hidden Valley Ranch
Mt. Olive Pickles
Kinder's BBQ Sauce
Capri Sun
Ragu
Sunnyside Yogurt
Stouffer Lasagna
Sunnyside Coffee Cream
Lay's Chips
Sunnyside Hamburger Buns (free with my reward card)

All of this comes to approximately $106, which means that I have $13 to spend on the ground beef that I would like to buy and still be in budget.

One important rule that I have for myself is to take cash to the grocery store. If you bring your ATM or credit card it is to easy to go over your budget. And by writing out your list with dollar amount next to each item you are bound to stay in budget.

Also sign up for the rewards program, you will find a lot of good deals on the items that you like to purchase, this happens to be the only "coupon clipping" that I do.

I will be heading to the store on Friday, so that I can take advantage of the Safeway Friday deal on Lucerne Cheese.

On Friday I will post pictures of my shopping trip.