November Monthly Expenditures Round-Up

November went haywire and the month ended without a single weekly round-up report, so I sat down today and added up my receipts for the entire month. I was a bit apprehensive about what the total would come to - I like tracking my purchases as I go along, so I can tell if I am close to or far from my $200 budget as the month comes to a close.

If you are relatively new to my blog, I will explain: I try (and generally succeed) in keeping our family's weekly budget for food, paper products, and toiletries at or under $50.00. That works out to $10.00 per person. Since my son went off to college in August, it has been much easier, but I manage it by doing only the very best deals each week at each store.

Although this budget does not include eating out, I would say that we eat out very rarely compared to most families in Northern Virginia. I aim for a sit down dinner every night of the week. My kids pack their own lunches for school each day, and my husband frequently takes his lunch in to work. We pretty much only eat out if we have gift cards, or a certificate from Groupon, Living Social, YipDeals, Specialicious or Restaurant.com

Anyway, on to the tally!

Here are my totals for each location where I shopped in November:
Food Lion - $54.65
Giant - $43.73
Harris Teeter - $58.39
Rite Aid - 23.84
Total - $180.61

I normally list every item that I purchased, but since we are halfway into December I'll skip that and suffice it to say that we didn't go hungry!

Additionally, I earned $17.15 from Saving Star and sent off for the following mail-in-rebates:

Redd's Apple Ale NBPR - $4.00
Finish Powertab and Jet Dry - $9.00
CK Mondavi Turkey purchase - $6.00
Mrs. Smith's Pie - $2.00 x 3 = $6.00
MillerCoors Gift Card NBPR - $10.00
MillerCoors Meat  NBPR - $5.00
Kendall Jackson Cheese/Poultry NWPR - $2.00
Kendall Jackson Chocolate/Greeting Cards NWPR - $2.00 x 2 - $4.00
Total - $46.00

My Saving Star and MIR total equate to more than an entire week of grocery expenditures, if they all arrive.

Last year I did several rebates for gift card purchases that I never received, and since I didn't copy the info I wasn't able to follow up. It just isn't worth it to me for a few dollars, although I do keep a notebook with each rebate that I send off, so that I don't accidentally do the same one twice. I just try to keep under budget each week and consider it a fun surprise when an unexpected check comes in the mail!