I was able to find premium unleaded for $3.99 a gallon, I filled up and then went to the commissary to purchase my food for the month $357.38 (and this includes non-food items like toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, detergent for dishes, dishwasher, and laundry, ziplock bags, dog food, cat food, dog treats, mouth wash, toothpaste, hmmmm). I will purchase about $70 more during the month of fresh fruit and vegetables as needed.
Although a few items went up in price, most actually came down, coffee sure did, but most stayed the same - not too shabby actually!!
Just a few examples:
My folgers black silk coffee in the large can went for $8.99 a month ago and was at $6.99 today (bought 3 of those suckers), the large bottle of coffee mate in flavors went for $3.00 and I believe a month ago it was close to $3.39. Large loaf of bread $1.25, dozen brown eggs $2.39.
I "try" to feed us both on $5-8 per day (not to include snack foods or non-food items) and do a pretty decent job at that but then again I've always been good at making my cooking dollar stretch!!
9 comments:
$3.99??? That's long past for us in the Chicagoland area. Our gas is between $4.12 to $4.49! Yuuuck!
Hey Debra:
Friday evening I sat in a LINE at my local Costco to pay $4.01 for regular unleaded. I was darn glad I did because at the local ARCO it was $4.17 and I saw it as high as $4.43 yesterday. Prices went up over the weekend, so $3.99 is fantastic at the moment. And I'm sure over the weekend, Costco's prices went up, too - but they've been consistently 12 to 15 cents cheaper than ARCO and no annoying "service charges" of $.45 to go there, either.
Funny - two weeks ago our chest-style freezer that the 'Publican bought in 1988 from Sears finally crapped out - apparently, putting Jagermeister keggers on top of it is NOT a good idea (hey, thanks, step-spawn #1!!!!), so we broke down and went off to where America shops and got another freezer - from 8.3 cubic feet to around 10 cubic feet.
DAMN!!! I love this thing - over the weekend, I shopped my little heart out at Costco and Trader Joe's and stocked up. I spent some money, but over the next couple of months it'll pay us back when we can just head to our garage and find frozen veggies or the no-sugar-sweetened organic blueberries we love and so on. I even have a butterball turkey in there.
I'm sure we spend much more than you on food, but it helps to economize where possible.
~Laura
zentalfloss
I saw a line for $4.04 the other day, and I even filled up while with a half tank when I saw $4.05 for fear of how much more it would be once I was lower on gas.
I love that you pay attention to price fluctuations to get good deals. I do that, too. Right now it seems every little bit helps, and my heart breaks for all the people who were close enough to the edge that the choice is being made between a meal or gas to get to work. I hope things improve. I'd love to know some of your favorite dollar stretcher recipe ideas if you have some that you'd love to share :)
Wow, I wanna shop where you shop. Folgers in oregon at safeway is $9.99 each just two days ago. Nice Post Flo!!! I second would love to know how you feed yourselves on that budget. Tell us the secrets girl!!!! Have a great day.
Isn't it sad when 3.99 is a good deal for gas?
Yikes! My husband said I was misleading y'all with the $5-8 a day food bill when it's probably closer to $4-6. We never eat ground beef because it doesn't do hubby's bowels well with the chemo. We eat a great deal of chicken though but we also eat steaks and seafood, always fresh veggies (never canned). Maybe some of the reason we eat on so little is because of our age and our sedentary lifestyle. I've never quite gotten out of the habit of over cooking though (I came from a family of 7 children and so 9-12 people is what I learned to cook for) so we have leftovers almost every night.
It really is easy to cook for cheap when it's just 2 people eating most of the time (although I do supply my FIL with at least 3 meals a week).
Yep, $3.99 a gallon for gas is horrible but this isn't the end of the rise in fuel costs so get ready........I have no doubt that we will see $5-6 a gallon before Christmas.
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One of the things I miss about either being in the military myself or being a military wife is the commissary. I haven't been in one in years and years and years now ...
You're fortunate that some of your grocery prices went down, it seems the ones here on the East Coast do nothing but go up and I won't even tell you what we're paying for gas right now!
You found Folgers Black Silk for $6.99? No wonder you bought 3 of 'em!
Ours is over $9 here now... I've switched to a store brand called Black and Tan that's actually pretty good - strong but not bitter. It's $6.99, the cheapest in our store for a decent coffee.
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