I am so excited about this Saving on Saturday!  Food Lion, our one and only local grocery store, is running it’s house brand sale!  In the past they have ran this sale twice a year, usually January and July. This has not been the case in 2015, this is the first time this year they have offered this sale. With each “house brand” item you purchase you receive a coupon for $.0.25 off your next order. You must purchase 4 items at a time and they limit you to 40 items or $10 at a time. The reason I like this so much is they have house brands of just about everything.  In addition to this coupon, they often run sales on the house brand items . I was also so glad to read that this sale will continue for the next four weeks with new/different items on sale each week.  My biggest disappointment is that I have not came up with a legitimate way to figure the true savings. Because the “house brand items” are usually cheaper to begin with it is hard to enter a saved amount.  I did use my usual tracker to get an idea and it gave me a savings of 42% with my two trips. The other method I have seen and like but really is not accurate in most case is to take the number of items purchased and divide by total cost. I have spent 79 cent on each of these items which is a better way to judge but still not the most accurate.

I spent $66.19 in 7 transactions for the following:

8 2 L Soda
15 Bags of frozen corn
4 4lb bags of Sugar
40 cups of yogurt
18 packets of taco seasoning
6 packets of Ranch dressing
6 boxes of Ziti Pasta
4 boxes of Jumbo elbow noodles
6 cans of cream of celery Soup
6 cans of cream of Chicken Soup
1 can baked beans
2 blocks of cream cheese
Bag of potato’s
package of Pepperoni

After hearing and confirming the sale, I went to my pantry and made a list of “wants” that if I can purchase over the next several weeks, I will consider my stockpile full. So far I am approximately 75% of the items. I am trying really hard to stick to a small grocery budget of $300 this month. Currently I have $32 in cash left in my envelope. My plan is to watch for a sale on Ketchup as this is the next “big” items on my wish list. I will then use my remaining cash and be done for the month! Easier said than done but it is a goal!