Do you ever feel like this is your last chance to go grocery shopping for a long time?  Okay maybe not, but that was me this week.  I kinda went into panic mode trying to think of what family would want when they were in town, easy meals that they can fix my older kids while I’m in the hospital and pretty much every other scenario that one can ponder.  I know my family won’t starve, but I did worry over that to for a while.

I did a few unusual things for us because of that.  First I give you a menu plan list every week, but I’m not really a meal planner.  I’m a stand in the pantry and decide what I want to cook kinda girl.  This totally works with our stockpiling life, since our pantry is a small version of the grocery store.  I realized though that this may not work for grandparents that are stepping in.

So… I made a menu for the next week and half.  Planned easy meals for large groups (having a baby in our family is a family affair), snacks, everything!  Most of the items we had and were good, but some of them I decided to splurge on and just get things I know my kids will love.  If there is any week to try to make kids happy this is one of them.  After all that planning I was already tired, so I looked at the kids and just decided we were going.  I grabbed two $5 off coupons I had and we hit the road.  No other coupons in hand…

I went to Publix for two reasons… we were going to stick with mostly BOGO items, and they will unload the groceries on the conveyor belt, put them in the buggy and then put them in my car.  This is incredibly important to my 39 week pregnant self.  I would have been in tears by the end of the trip if it were all on me.

We did save a chunk of money, but we didn’t really use coupons.  Sometimes that’s life.

Publix
Total before sales and coupons: $218.91
Total spent: $127.15
Total Saved: $91.76

This is way more than we would ever spend in a week.  Most of this was planning for a lot more mouths, and a lot more meals than we normally do (leftovers for lunch is fine by me).  I will say that a normal grocery shopper wouldn’t hit $91 in savings though, so even without coupons it pays to watch sales!

Next week I post a link up for Friday Finals only, there will be no shopping in my week, and I’ll actually be in the hospital so no time to write either.