Canadian Budget Binder

We are into the third week of our January Grocery Budget for 2 and we seem to be doing alright. I love getting emails from the fans and this week was no exception. A Canadian Budget Binder fan emailed me to share what she did with 2 of my free money-saving tools that I have on the blog. She took the menu plan and the grocery shopping list and put them together for those that want to do both. It keeps them together and in one spot especially when you are grocery shopping and referring to the grocery list and the meals you planned for that grocery shop. So if you want the free printable grocery list and free menu plan in one download it today. If you have any tools that use you that you created and want to share here free for the fans email me today and I’ll post it.

We have really been taking advantage of the great prices on fruits and vegetables this past couple of weeks while grocery shopping. When go to Wal-Mart, which we don’t each week we like to PM vegetable sales from Food Basics, Freshco or No Frills as the quality seems to be better. Maybe we just get lucky or it’s hit or miss. We were lucky to find a package of ripe avocados on the cheap rack at Metro today though for a whopping $0.99. You know what I’m making, you guessed it, guacamole.

Too bad Metro and Food Basics Canada don’t join the price matching bandwagon but I guess they just don’t need the business or in some cases the loss. I find Canadian stores very similar to those in the UK especially when it comes to pricing and the store environment. Really though, not everyone buys more than what they went into a grocery store to purchase just because they are price matching. Maybe I should have called this the grocery store game. How many stores can you not shop at to get the best deals at one shop?

We are just about out of our organic garlic so we had to buy it at the shop (not organic at $3.99 for 2 bulbs, heck no) so we will wait until the summer crop is ready. The soft soap was an excellent deal, well free is great no matter how you look at it. We picked up 7 soft soap refills for FREE although we paid the tax. We were able to use a smart source coupon for buy 2 save $2.00 and mail-out coupons from the Colgate company for $1.00 off any product.

While out and about we had to make a run into the Bulk Barn to pick up some items for a birthday party we are attending. Mrs.CBB and I will be making some cookies for the party and wanted to find a simple cookie cutter which we did. We decided to snoop around for coupons since the last time we were there we found Summerfresh dips coupons although nothing this time. What we did find was Tre Stelle Ricotta cheese on for 50% off which was awesome to us. We never buy it for the high price so we bought all that they had which was 4. Grocery shopping on a budget can sometimes hold you back from amazing deals like this one (especially if it’s not on your grocery list) but if you have the room in your budget go for it. This week we will create some new recipe using ricotta cheese or use a tried and true recipe that we’ve made for years.  Yes we used our spend $10.00 save $3.00 coupon at the Bulk Barn (awesome coupon by the way).

Milk was on sale for $3.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart which is still the cheapest around here so we picked up our weekly bag along with 2 cartons of eggs that were on sale. Our buy 2 dozen eggs save $1.00 coupon from Websaver came in handy for that.

And That is how to save money grocery shopping!!

Grocery Game Challenge January 2013 shop

I took a picture of our shop when we got home but was in a bit of a rush so you can’t see every bit of what we bought. Overall it was a great shop and we saved more than we thought we would.

Our Purchases

Metro

• 2 x Fresh Blueberries Sale 2 for $4.00
• 1 x Reduced produce Avocado $0.99
• 1 tub Astro Yogurt Sale $1.88

Total Out of Pocket: $6.87

Wal-Mart

• 6 x Old Spice Deodorant $1.97- $3.00 wub 2
• 2 x Sesame Oil $3.98
• 4 x Reach Floss $2.00- 4x $2.00
• 2 x Lemons $0.33 each
• 1 x Kikoman Soy Sauce $3.77- $0.50
• 1 x 3lb Carrots Sale $1.00
• 2 x Broccoli PM Food Basics $0.88 each
• 2 x Whole Mushrooms PM Food Basics $0.88 each
• 2 x 10lb PEI Potatoes PM Food Basics $1.88

Total Out of Pocket:$3.23 (used $10.00 GC from Christmas)

Shoppers Drug Mart

• 1 x 4L Milk Sale $3.99
• 2 x Eggs Sale $2.39-$1.00 wub 2

Total Out of Pocket: $7.77

Bulk Barn

• 4x Tre Stelle Ricotta 500g Reg $4.79-%50 = $2.39 each

Total Out of Pocket: $9.56-$3.00 when you spend $10 = $6.56 ( I bought birthday candies as well but that goes under our birthday category)

Freshco

• 7 x Soft Soap Sale $1.00- $7.00 
• 2 x Cabbage Sale $1.00
• 2 x Jello Sale $0.69
• 1x 3lb Yellow Onions Sale $1.00
• 2 x 5 packs of Garlic Sale $.87 each

Total Out of Pocket: $7.03

Our Grocery Game Challenge Results 

Total Grocery Amount Budgeted For the Year : $2819.38

•Total Grocery Budget for the Month: $235.00 or $78.33 week with one no shop week per month or $58.75 for 4 weeks per month.

Related articles

• The Grocery Game Challenge #2 January 7-January 13,2013 Join In!! (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
• How to Earn Optimum Points Fast at Shoppers Drug Mart (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
• The Grocery Game Challenge Dec 31-Jan 6 #1~Happy New Year 2013 (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
• Five Ways to Save Money on Everyday Expenditures (allstate.com)