Grocery Challenge Part V: Buy One Get One Free

It is the last full week of April, which means it is time to wrap up our April Grocery Challenge!!

I have to say, I am quite proud of our shopping adventures this month even though we went over budget. This weeks challenge includes finals week woos and the buy-one-get-one-free items that haunted me throughout the store.

This week we bought:

2 Oranges 4 Bananas 2 Red Peppers 1 Sweet Potato 3 Broccoli Crowns 2 lbs of Baby Carrots 2 qts Grape Tomatoes 5 Yoplait Greek Yogurts 2 Coffee Creamers 1 can of Black Beans

Bagel Thins 2 loaves of Arnold Bread Sliced Turkey Sliced Ham Fridge pack of Coke 2 boxes of Club Crackers Goldfish 2 bags of Tortilla Chips 6 pack of Blue Moon

The italicized items were buy-one-get-one-free. How could I resist? Especially since the only perishable item were the grape tomatoes. (We freeze our extra bread). There are several items on this list that we normally do not buy like Coke, Bagel Thins, and Club Crackers. Since it is finals week, I felt OK buying Jay some goodies.

Other points to note are that since we stocked up last week, we did not need a lot of our normal food items. :)

Our total bill came to $79.22, that puts us $2.52 beyond our budget of $300. And, that doesn’t even include the $2.04 I spent today on cream cheese that I forgot to pick up for the Bagel Thins :(

But, we did save a whapping $19.29!!! Now, that is something to be proud of!

Overall, I think the Grocery Challenge went well. I did not feel deprived this month spending $300 and we were able to go on a normal stock up run at Trader Joe’s. At the end of the month, the fridge and the pantry are still pretty full, which leads me to believe that we have found our new grocery budget!

How often do you get caught in the buy-one-get-one-free trap? And how do you cope?

How much do you budget for groceries a month? Have you ever thought about cutting back? or have you ever gone way overboard at the grocery store?