Last month, I challenged my husband and myself to reduce our grocery bill. So, for the month of April, we challenged ourselves to not spend more than $75 per week on groceries (not including dining out).
To help us meet our goal, I attached an envelope to the front of the refrigerator, and every time my husband or I bought groceries, we put the receipt in the envelope. At the end of the month, here’s how we did:
Total: $192.95
Not too shabby, right?
So, here what really helped us save money at the grocery store this month:
How did you do on your Grocery Budget Challenge last month?
Trading Up Downtown Giveaway
Thanks to everyone who entered! Here’s your winner: 53
53. Jessie, on April 29th, 2010 at 2:11 pm Said:
This is so handy! I try to stock up on things that I use a lot whenever they’re on sale…Oikos was 4/$3 yesterday at Kroger so you can bet I got a bunch!
Congrats, Jessie! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize.
Coupons, coupons, coupons! I have a love/hate relationship with them. Of course, they save me lots of money at the grocery store, but keep tracking of them can be hard work, especially since my coupons are always a disorganized mess!
I used to keep my coupons in my wallet, but my collection got totally out-of-control. I’d open my wallet and they’d spill out all over the place. And, they’d fall everywhere– all over the floor, under things, and in hard-to-reach places– so, not surprisingly, random people would stop and help me pick them up. The whole situation was awkward and embarrassing. I definitely needed a new method!
My more recent method for keeping track of my coupons was storing them in a small basket. Every time I got a new coupon, I’d just toss it into the basket. Simple, right?
This worked well until I needed to go to the grocery store. Carrying a small wicker basket around the store was just not an option! Soon, I resorted to a regular ol’ paper envelope for storing and transporting my coupons.
An envelope was a great option until I realized that my larger store coupons didn’t fit in it. I tried folding them, but they still took up too much space.
The other day, I finally decided to get myself organized. I purchased a coupon-sized expanding file. (Office Depot has some really cute ones!) Now, I store all of my coupons in a lightweight plastic file.
I organized the sections of the file according to how my local grocery store is set up, so I can easily grab coupons as I walk through the aisles. For instance, the produce/deli/cheese coupons are in the first compartment while the ones for frozen foods and bread are in the very last one.
Nice and neat! 
Trading Up Downtown Giveaway
I love my new coupon expanding file so much, I’ve decided to give one away on Trading Up Downtown this morning! I also threw in a NuVal t-shirt. 
To enter: Leave your favorite money-saving tip on this post. I’ll randomly pick a winner tomorrow morning.
Good luck!
Once again, my husband and I divided and conquered our Sunday tasks. I cleaned the house while he did the grocery shopping for the week. Our little arrangement works for me!
Here’s what he bought this week:
- Bananas (NuVal score: 91)
- Vanilla soy milk
- Non-fat milk (NuVal score: 91)
- Teddie Unsalted Old Fashioned Natural Peanut Butter (NuVal score: 49)
- Seapak Frozen Tempura Shrimp
- Eggland’s Best eggs (NuVal score: 44)
- Canned Bumble Bee Tuna in Water (NuVal score: 57)
- Siggi’s yogurt
- Tomatoes (NuVal score: 96)
- Maple syrup (NuVal score: 1)
- Smart Balance (NuVal score: 3)
- Apple (NuVal score: 96)
- Broccoli (NuVal score: 100)
- Apples (NuVal score: 96)
- Shredded carrots (NuVal score: 99)
- Frozen chopped spinach (NuVal score: 100)
- Romaine hearts (NuVal score: 100)
- Diamond Sliced Almonds (NuVal score: 81)
- Pastene Artichoke Hearts
- Nature’s Pride Double Fiber Bread (NuVal score: 31)
Trade
One the recipes that I planned for this week, Cheesy Baked Pasta With Spinach and Artichokes, called Frozen Creamed Spinach (Green Giant gets a 34 on the NuVal scale), but I traded up to Frozen Chopped Spinach (no cream), which gets a 100.
Save
This week’s Save was all about meal planning! Before I made our grocery list for the week, I checked out what we already had in our cabinets and refrigerator and tried to incorporate them into this week’s meals. Here’s what I came up with:
Developed by an independent panel of nutrition and medical experts, the 