Even when you have a larger budget, you still might scratch things off your list at the store - Meal Planning for April 18th - 24th

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Since we're mid-month and the mortgage has been paid, we had more money to work with ($110.00).  It's always the weeks we have more money to work with that we end up needing a lot more.  Our Sam's Club membership expired at the beginning of the month and even though we don't do a lot of shopping there, we do purchase our gas there.  Seems to be the cheapest place a majority of the time so we think the membership is worth it.

 Sam's Club has two levels of membership.  We just have the normal membership since it's the cheapest ($45.00 a year).  When we became members, I was pregnant with Michael.  We had no idea how much we would use that membership within the first year.  It's the best place to get Simalic baby formula and they take the $5 coupons that Simalic sends (even when you're not pregnant in my case) in the mail!  Recently, Jon's place of employment gives a slight membership discount.  The downside is that you have to pay the full membership and then they will give you a gift card for the discount (in our case, it was $10.00).  Here's the list that I had for Sam's Club.  I forgot to write down the costs of the items and can't find the receipt.
  • diapers
  • deodorant

 We ended up adding ketchup and breakfast sandwiches to the list.  The breakfast sandwiches are for Jon and will last him three weeks since he works 4 days a week.  Every so often, us regular membership members will get to enjoy some of the benefits of the higher level.  That was going on this past weekend.  The diapers were $6.00 off which made it around the same price of the largest box at Walmart and more diapers!  The deodorant and ketchup were both $2.50 off.  We go through ketchup like crazy in this household so a three pack of ketchup will probably last us the rest of the year.  We spent $57.52 at Sam's, but only used $47.52 of our grocery budget because of the $10.00 gift card.

 Before talking about our trips to Walmart and Wegman's, let me go over our dinner meal plan for the week.  Even though we had more money to work with, we didn't have enough to make a traditional Easter meal (hams and turkeys are rather expensive and we already spent close to half of our budget at Sam's).  We decided that we would go out for Easter lunch since my brother was coming over to hang out.  Here's what we decided on for our dinners for the week.
  1. Chicken Wings
  2. Tacos (carry over because the hamburger meat went bad)
  3. French Bread Pizza (will be making a post about this)
  4. Cheese Steaks
  5. Chicken Alfredo (carry over)
  6. Chicken Enchiladas (already had the chicken breasts)

 Yep, another week were we have some carry overs.  So far, there will be no carry overs next week!  After going to Sam's, we went next door to Walmart and did our shopping there.  Here's the list and the prices for the items.

  • air fresheners 
  • birthday card for our nephew, Jasper  $3.97
  • fruit gummies  $2.00
  • cinnamon rolls $1.52 x 2 = $3.04
  • rinse aid  $3.57
  • hoagie buns  $2.78
  • enchilada kit  $2.50
  • chicken wings  $9.98 for 4lbs (you can get 10lbs at Sam's for around $20.00)
  • salsa  $1.88
  • French bread loaf  $1.68 x 2 = $3.36
  • Olive Garden salad dressing  $3.28
  • cereal for Jon
  • sippy cup
  • garlic bread  $2.28

As you can see, there were some items on our list that we crossed off.  Since we got breakfast sandwiches for Jon, there was no need to buy him cereal.  I have several baby showers that I'll be going to this year and had a coupon for a sippy cup to help start with the gifts.  Walmart was out of the items that the coupon covered.  We ended up using only two coupons, one for $0.40 off of two cinnamon roll packages and a $0.50 off garlic bread package.  So, we only saved $0.90, but I will earn $0.20 through InboxDollars.  The total spent at Walmart was $39.66.

Off to Wegmans with the a good majority of our grocery budget already spent.  Here's the not so short list and the prices for the items.

  • spaghetti noodles  $0.99 normally, but was on sale for $0.69
  • peanut butter  $2.79
  • 1lb hamburger meat  $3.55
  • Steak-umms  $3.49 for 6 steaks (you can get 14 steaks for $7.16 or 21 steaks for $9.22 at Walmart)
  • pepperoni  $2.29
  • shredded pizza cheese  $2.69 x 2 = $5.38
  • tortilla chips  $3.99
  • onion  $0.51
  • gallon of whole milk  $3.59
  • OJ  $2.59

The total spent at Wegmans was $29.49.  We knew we went over budget before heading to the checkout.  I had $5.00 in cash so we used that to help offset the overage.  The total of our three store grocery shopping was $116.67.  Making us go over $6.67, but I put that $5.00 in so it was really $1.67.  Ended up transferring some money from the savings to help out with this overage.  I also did the steps to earn $0.50 for the milk through Ibotta.   How are you doing with staying in your budget?
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