March 1 2008 Shopping Trips

Ok, so to start off, since I'm giving birth in just under 2 weeks, I've been trying to stock up on stuff around the house to prevent the knee-jerk reaction to shopping on virtually no sleep. I mean, who will have time for coupons and reading internet boards just to keep up with the good deals?? Plus, as we all know about me, I'm a germaphobe and not brining my new baby out anywhere for a good few weeks! ;-) That being said, the grocery stores in my area have just started experimenting with high value doubling and even tripling of coupons. You can really get good deals this way for stockpiling if you do your research. As such, lately, I have been spending over $50/week. When this happens, I simply deduct from the next week. For example, I've already spent about $90 this week. So, I'm only going to spend approximately $10 more until March 15. Some might think this is crazy but we don't really NEED anything. Of course, I would never let my son go without, but if I run out of milk, well, there's always oatmeal (which of course, I have a huge stock of!!!).

Target: Total-$14.36

Bloom: $6.16

Giant: $68.77

GRAND TOTAL: $89.29

This includes A LOT of stock up items for Luke in particular, for the week I'll be in the hospital with Jake. Now, as stated, I have only $10 left to spend for next week. I know already that I will be spending a maximum of $15, however, in order to get 4 FREE items at Giant (my total needs to be at least $15 to qualify for the free items!) I don't stress if I go a few dollars above my budget each week, I know I need to be somewhat flexible. Plus, after this final trip for the week, I will have plenty of groceries, to include meat, bread, milk, and OJ for awhile!

I also made 2 trips to CVS this week and I got:

4 packs of diapers (3 pampers and 1 Playskool)
2 boxes of Carnation Instant breakfast
2 large cans of Arizona Iced Tea
1 bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper
4 Reece's Whips (for Andy!)
1 Makeup bag w/ eyeshadow

All for $18--which went on a G/C I got for transferring a Rx! I also earned $20 in ECB's, so a money maker overall. At this point, I am often using ECB's to buy groceries when the budget gets tight. I will typically buy snack foods and milk at CVS using my ECB's.