Grocery Shopping--October Week 1

Below is a picture of all the groceries that I have purchased during the first week of October. I only went to Target and HEB this week. Everything pictured below cost...



$14.20, and I saved close to $75.00. I also have a $5.00 gift card from Target left from doing the Mott's Apple Juice deal.

At Target I purchased:

10 Mott's Apple Juice $1.75 each...buy 5 and receive a $5.00 gift card. I did this deal twice, and in the second transaction I used my $5.00 gift card from the first transaction to lower my out of pocket spending.

Total at Target was $12.50...with an additional $5.00 gift card.

At HEB I purchased:

3 HEB Dr. B (12 packs)
-used 3 coupons for $1.50 off any HEB product (Catalina coupon from doing Ziploc deal last month)
2 Ozarka Spring Water (6 pack)
-used 2 coupons for FREE Ozarka Spring Water wyb Fresh Express Salad (HEB store coupon)
2 Fresh Express Salad
-used 2 coupons for $0.55 off any Fresh Express Salad (found here)
2 HEB Seasoned Croutons
-used 2 coupons for FREE HEB Croutons wyb Fresh Express Salad (HEB Store coupon)
1 5lb. bag of Russet Potatoes
2 Goldfish
-used 2 coupons for $0.75 off Goldfish (found in Shape and Woman's Day Magazines)
2 Campbell's Kids Soups
-used 2 coupons for FREE Campbell's Kids Soup wyb Goldfish
1 Hill Country Fare Onion Soup Mix
2.5 lbs. of bananas
4 Bumble Tuna Pouches
-used 4 coupons for $0.55 off Bumble Bee Tuna Pouches (found in 9/12 SmartSource insert)
4 Yakisoba Noodles
-used 4 coupons for $0.50 off Yakisoba Noodles (found in 8/29 SmartSource insert)
8 Barilla Pasta
-used 8 coupons for $0.75 off Barilla Pasta (found in 8/29 SmartSource insert)
2 HEB Bake Shop Bread
-used 2 coupons for $1.50 off any HEB product (Catalina coupon from doing Ziploc Deal last month)
1 HEB Hamburger Buns
-used 1 coupon for $1.50 off any HEB Product (Catalina Coupon from doing Ziploc deal last month)
2 Kikkoman Soy Sauce
-used coupon for Buy one Get one Free (found here)

I also used 2 $5.00 Catalina Coupons from the Box Tops for Education deal (no longer running) to get an additional $10.00 off my purchase amount. I had to break up my trip into two different transactions since they only allow you to use one $5.00 Coupon per Transaction.

Total for HEB: $1.70!! (Seriously I think my best trip to HEB...especially since I bought some produce and bread...$1.70 is about the price of one loaf of bread!!)

My spending for the second week of October will definitely be quite a bit higher than this week. I still had 2 1/2 gallons of milk and quite a bit of produce left over from the previous week, so next week I will definitely need to add a lot more of those items to the list.

You might look at what I purchased above and wonder how I can feed my family on the products that are shown. Keep in mind that I have been coupon shopping like this for months now, so I have a LARGE stockpile of other staples in our pantry and freezer. I make our meal plans based on what I already have on hand. I am able to spend a small percentage of our grocery budget each week on items we NEED for the week, and the rest I use to continue stockpiling items that are on sale and can be used to create future meals with what I already have in our pantry/freezer.

How did you do for the first week of the month?