This week Superstore has the promotion “get 25,000 PC Points when you spend $250 in-store”.
I like this offer better than getting a $25 gift card when you spend $250 in-store, simply because PC Points do not expire, but the $25 promotional gift card does. You’re still being rewarded the $25, you just don’t have to feel the pressure of spending it before a certain time.
After a couple months of paying close attention to what we’re spending at the grocery and on what products, I’ve come up with a breakdown of our $350 grocery store budget.
Produce – $130 ($110 to Organic Box and $20 to use at the grocery store). Seems like a lot doesn’t it? BUT if you look at what you’re spending on produce in a month, you’d probably come up with something similar. In reality if you break it down, we are really only spending $32.50/week on organic produce for a family of four. That’s decent.
Milk – $36: Currently we’re buying Dairyland Organic Milk and that costs roughly $8.99 (not including deposit fees). I’m able to bring that price down to at least $7.99 (this week I can bring it down to $6.99 since it’s on sale at Sobeys) when I use coupons, but the tear pads are expiring this week and I only have 2 printed coupons and 2 coupons from the Ingredients Magazine. My kids drink about one 4L jug of milk every week so we budget roughly $36 for that (budget does not include coupon savings).
Dairy (cheese, yogurt, butter, etc) – $40: We spend roughly $12 to get four blocks of butter and that lasts us the month. Yogurt varies depending if the kids are on strike, but I usually buy them for 50% off and using a coupon. Cheese is whatever is on sale that week or free with Shoppers Drug Mart points. I’ll keep track of this spending as well.
Meats/Eggs – $100: If I am honest, I haven’t paid that close attention to how much we spent in meat in the last few months, but I do not think it was a significant amount at all, so $100 is my absolutely MAX. We basically buy ALL our free-from and organic meats for 30-50% off and freeze them. I’ll keep close track this month and let you know our spendings. We usually spend about $10 on eggs in a month.
Breads/Grains – $30: Last month I bought 6 loaves of Silver Hills organic bread and they lasted all month: this is because no one (except me) really liked the bread! This month we’re going to try Cobs bread. While it’s not organic, it has no preservatives, is fresh and has a customer rewards program where we can earn free bread!
Other – $10: This other category displeases Ryan somewhat because he likes chips, dips, Spitz, coke, etc, but we can use Shoppers Drug Mart or PC Points if he ‘absolutely needs’ his snacky foods.
So that’s kind of our rough breakdown of our grocery budget! I’m ready to go back to spending weekly and have already planned out my grocery list for April 1!
Don’t bother looking through the following flyers, because I did it for you. Here’s what I found so far this week:
London Drugs:
Not organic, but ‘good for you’ chocolates!
Decent price for almond butter!
I’ve never tried this brand before. I’d be curious to learn more about it.
Safeway
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card. Don’t forget it’s 10% off this Tuesday!
A great price for non-organic eggs!
Save-on-Foods
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card. Don’t forget it’s 15% off this Tuesday!
Either get 15% off and use a $1 coupon at Save on Foods, or price match at Superstore, use a $1 coupon and Superbucks!
Organic strawberries are $1 cheaper at Superstore this week!
Sobeys
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card. Don’t forget it’s 10% off this Tuesday!
Did you know that there are “free product coupons” for Organic Girl products?!
http://www.smartsource.ca has a $0.75 off coupon you can print and use on their products.
They didn’t list a price on their new gluten-free bread, but if it’s anything like their wheat bread I bet it’s great!
Superstore
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card. This week they are offering 25,000 PC Points when you spend $250.
These are the flyer deals I found this week. If you see any more or any in-store specials, let me know!
So the only place where I’ve been able to compare prices so far has been *surprise surprise* Superstore. It was somewhat shocking to find that the prices between non-organic/free-from, free-from and organic whole chickens was not that significant!
The regular, whole, air-chilled chicken is $9.48/kg and comes out to roughly $15/chicken.
$9.48/kg $15.17/whole
The free-from whole chicken is $8.28/kg and came out to about $14.50/chicken! That’s CHEAPER than regular whole chickens!
$8.28/kg $14.41/whole
The organic whole chickens came out to $9.90/kg and roughly less than $17/chicken. This is only $0.42/kg more than regular chicken!
$9.90/kg $16.92/whole
So, if you buy chicken and shop at Superstore, you’re really not saving that much by buying regular chicken vs. organic and clearly you’re not saving at all if you buy regular chicken vs. free-from!
Sherwood Park Superstore had a couple organic items for 50% off tonight.
These were a neat find. Note the bottom left on the price tag has a “DNO”. This means “Do not order” so watch your Superstores to see if they are clearing out these diapers too!
$5.37 for 36 GMO-free, natural and non-bleached diapers. Comes out to $0.15/diaper which is great!
$4.50 – $1 coupon = $3.50 for 4L of organic milk.
Lesson learned.
We hadn’t spent our entire grocery budget right at the beginning of the month since before we had kids. After experimenting this month, I’m reminded as to WHY we stopped doing that and that our decision to shop weekly is a better idea. Here’s why:
1. Spending all at once, limits my savings. By shopping weekly, I can search out the BEST prices for products that week. I can find clearance meats, sales on organic produce, shop based on PC Plus points or Shoppers Optimum bonus points or redemption days. That maximizes my savings.
2. Spending all at once, limits our meal creativity. When I shop bulk, we’re limited to a month’s worth of the same thing, which none of my family really likes.
3. Freezing my milk doesn’t save me anything. I go to the grocery store weekly to pick up a few produce items that I don’t get in my Organic Box, so freezing my milk is a bit more of a hassle then it’s worth. It’s not something I will do again.
4. I like getting out of the house. And shopping. And my blog is better. My weekly grocery trips are a way to get me out of the house and the kids like it too. PLUS I seem to have a ‘need’ to shop so doing it weekly helps to ‘fill’ that need. Also, my blog is really boring when I have nothing to post weekly!
5. I spent more by shopping only once a month. Our needs may differ from week to week and by spending everything all at once, I have nothing left for the “just in case” moments.
So next month I’ll be back to my weekly shopping! Stay posted for my breakdown of April’s grocery budget!
Don’t bother looking through the following flyers, because I did it for you. Here’s what I found so far this week:
Safeway
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card and Air Miles!
Not the greatest sale especially since considering Costco has them for $7.49 for 840g.
For organic frozen fruit, I usually try to only pay about $1 per 100g.
Save-on-Foods
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card!
Great price on organic carrots and not too bad for the apples either!
Sobeys
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card!
Not organic, but great price for eggs and bacon! Friday, Saturday and Sunday only.
Superstore
If you’re shopping at this store, don’t forget to bring your rewards card!
I saw $1 off coupons at my Superstore for this product!
Target
May of the Kettle chips are GMO-free!
Walmart
These are the flyer deals I found this week. If you see any more or any in-store specials, let me know!
We headed over to Costco this morning in search of their clearance black out blinds: no luck. Here’s what we saw while there.
First off, the Annie Bunnie Graham’s are on sale this week for $7.49 a box! These are regularly $9.99. If your kids like these treats, pick up a couple boxes: maybe use them as a healthy Easter alternative!
This is the box we got at the beginning of the month that I need to get price adjustment refund on.
Next, the price of their organic quinoa went up $4! I’m really disappointed, but I guess I’ll just have to stock up when they go on sale (hopefully that will be before we run out completely).
I was looking through the pharmacy section today and found their organic chia seeds there! If I remember correctly, there is only $1 difference in price with the non-organic chia seeds that they sell (same size bag)!
And lastly, these look like the organic equivalent of Brookside chocolates. I’d LOVE to try them, but might need to wait for a sale first.
Many times rebate offers are forgotten when shopping for groceries. Earning a dollar here or there back on your purchases can add up over time, especially when shopping for organic items! Today, I’ll focus specifically on SnapSaves.
SnapSaves is a great place to get rebates on fresh produce, and it doesn’t exclude organic! Yesterday, I looked at my SnapSaves offers and found that among the many produce offers they were offering $1 back on any strawberries and $1 back on any potatoes. What a great time to go in pick some up from the store this week!
Here are my suggestions for optimizing rebate offers.
1. If you have a smartphone, sign up for this app! It’s free and easy to use.
2. When you’re checking out Frugal Friday Finds or planning your grocery list, look through their offers to see what may apply to your purchases for the coming week.
3. If you’re planning to shop at Superstore, check out your PC Points offers and see if anything you’re buying can get your points as well!
4. Upload your receipt as soon as you can! This is to avoid forgetting and missing out on getting money back.
Until closing on Thursday night, you can get organic strawberries at Safeway for the same price (or less if you have the Earthbound Organics $1 coupon) as non-organic strawberries! Don’t forget your Safeway card in order to get this deal!
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