For my Poverty Law class, we are required to do a food stamp challenge. For a week, we are only allowed to use $19.50 to buy groceries. Last night after a delicious meal at Fridays (have to go out with a bang), I went shopping for my food. My first stop was Target. Thanks to www.hip2save.com I knew that Target was giving away a $5 gift card if you bought 10 Smart Ones meals. On top of that, I had a $4 coupon. So the 10 Smart Ones meals were $18 - $4 (coupon) = $14 and I got a $5 gift card! With my gift card, I bought bananas (.69), loaf of bread (.84), box of fruit snacks (1.33), box of peanut butter crackers (1.75), and ice cream sandwiches (1.69). I had to pay an additional $1.63. Total spent at Target = $15.63. If you are looking for a good deal on food, don't overlook Target. They have great deals on snacky stuff and ice cream!
My next stop was Walgreens where I picked up a carton of eggs for $1.19. I always forget to check places like Walgreens and CVS, but they have great deals and good coupons. Today with my remaining $2.80, I am planning on going to Publix to pick up some peanut butter and whatever else I can afford. I also have 8 empty Starbucks bags, so I can get 8 free cups of coffee this week! My whole menu was designed around how I could afford coffee!!!
So, we'll see how this goes. I will eating a lot of Smart Ones meals, scrambled eggs, and PB and banana sandwiches, but I think I will be doing a lot better than some of my other classmates :)
Are both you and Josh eating on the $19.50? Or just you? I think I could do this with no problem. I've had to budget for food long as I remember. It's cheaper to make food from scratch. I think people place too much importance on food anyway. Sounds like you'll do fine and you've got some good ideas on the shopping. Carol Gardner
ReplyDeletehey, check out southernsavers.com. i look through their sales and coupon deals before i do my grocery shopping. they match coupons with sale items every week for publix, walmart, kroger, etc. they also have posts where they list the prices at each store for your basic items like meat, staples, etc, so that you can know where to go to get the best prices, and they have weekly posts on items that are less than a dollar each week.
ReplyDeletewhat's the empty starbucks bag deal?? free coffee sounds amazing.
Carol, yeah I don't think it will be that bad. I do not have to include Josh in that amount, which is good. We are pretty good about working on a budget too but usually not this strict, but I was pretty pleased with my grocery shopping.
ReplyDeleteAmanda,if you buy a bag of ground coffee from Starbucks, you can take the empty bag to Starbucks and get a free brewed coffee!
Thanks for the tip on southersavers. I'll have to add that to my list.