Meijer this week

I'm over budget this week. I've been mulling it over and I've come up with 2 excuses, er, conclusions.

1. I've been buying a lot of stuff to donate so I think I need to reel myself in a little bit. But it is nice to bring a bag full of food and one full of toiletries to church every week to give to our Food Gatherers food drive and Single Moms ministry, especially when I'm filling an entire paper grocery bag for around ten dollars.

2. My littlest is almost completely weaned, which means I'm buying tons of gold-plated, diamond-encrusted, $4-per-half-gallon milk now. Boo. I hope I won't have to increase our budget based solely on the cost of milk, so I'm going to keep an eye on it for the next couple of weeks and see if I can pare things down in other areas in order to absorb the cost a little more. Switching milk is simply not an option for me.

So for the next two weeks, I will probably be spending closer to $100 a week, but I'll make sure to clarify how much of that is being donated, and I'll use money from our "gifts" budget to cover the cost of donated items. Fair enough?

Now onto the good stuff. Everything was on sale but the best deals are highlighted.



(1) Frozen broccoli
(1) EB cage free eggs
3/4 lb. red grapes
(4) Chi-chi's salsa
(1) Aunt Millie's whole grain bread- .99
(4) boxes of Keebler crackers- under 1.20 each after sale & 1.00/2 coupon
(4) Sargento shredded cheese- 1.67 each after .75/2 peelies
(1) Sargento deli-sliced cheese- 2.45 with .55/1 peelie
(2) Philadelphia cream cheese- .98 each with .55/2 coupon
(4) Campbell's mushroom gravy (donate)
(1) bag frozen tilapia fillets
(1) Soleil razor- 1.99 with 3.00/1 coupon
(1) Soleil refill 4-count- 1.99 with 3.00/1 coupon
(1) Silk soy milk
(1) Dole orange juice- 2.50 (And upon checking out it triggered a 1.50/1 coupon for Simply Orange which I'll save until it goes on sale.)
(2) Healthy Choice vegetable soup- .55 each with .45/2 blinkie from Kroger last month (donate)
(2) Chef Boyardee Forkable pasta (donate)
(1) Veggie Crisps- 2.00 after 1.00/1 coupon
(1) California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizza for one- 1.25 with 1.00/1 coupon
(2) Pepperidge Farms garlic toast- 1.10 each with .45/1 peelie (These boxes also had coupons on them for .50/1 Prego pasta sauce. Those will double to a dollar... I'm holding onto them and waiting until Prego goes on sale.)
(1) Dole caesar salad kit- clearanced to 1.79

Total spent: 39.74
Total Saved: 77.09

Total donated item cost: 3.50