I apologize for the delay in reporting how my first shopping trip went. I actually got home from work last Wednesday evening to find out my daughter had come down with the stomach flu. Since then I've been dealing with that particular joy as it hit first daughter, then son.
So, to catch up since I'm coming up on another shopping trip, I'll fill you in on what happened.
After finding out what I had on hand, my next step was to create a menu plan for the coming week. Since I was running a bit behind this past week, once the menu plan was done, I went through my shopping list and added whatever might be needed to create the meals.
With my shopping list on hand, I then went through store flyer's to start my price matching. Now, normally I take my time going through the flyer's, but this past week, I was sleep deprived and out of time from having been taking care of daughter. I did my best though, and I also went through the coupons I had on hand. I sometimes search online for coupons as well, but again, on a time crunch this week.
Now, when I went grocery shopping, I will admit I broke my own rule and bought a "meat" item during this past trip. Based on what I had in my freezers, I estimated I wouldn't need to buy any meats for at least 2 weeks, but this upcoming Friday is Good Friday and we normally eat fish on that day. Since my kids prefer the breaded fish, and I noticed a store had one of the pre-breaded fish on sale for only $4, I decided to take advantage of that.
After all was said and done, I spent $118.99 after taxes, on last week's groceries. Not what I wanted, but not a bad start, especially since I needed to buy diapers and 2 of the spice mixes I use in my regular cooking had run out and I had to stock up. I'll also admit that I went outside my list and bought some items that I do normally buy, but weren't necessarily needed last week, because they were on sale. I'm not one to turn down a sale.
I'm working on my menu plan tonight for the upcoming week, and I hope to price match and coupon search tomorrow. I'll let you know how I did this week.
