Food and Finances!

So, this was a little bit of an unusual start... First, it's Wednesday and I usually do my shopping and cooking on Sunday. Also, I had Monday and Tuesday off of work this week PLUS I have tech rehearsals this week... so my standard food needs are all out of whack!

In any case, I sat down with my weekly circulars and decided that Rainbow Foods was this week's destination. (I'm not quite sure about going multiple places to shop -- I know I can save more, but the time and gas driving around is a little counter-intuitive.)

On The List:
Pepsi products (4/$8.88 otherwise I'd never need to buy 4 at a time)
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal (Running low! It's my standard breakfast)
Lean Cuisine (5/$10 -- a great solution for tech week)
Frozen Vegetables (2/$3 -- a great addition to the Lean Cuisines!)
Milk
Eggs (baking oatmeal cookies because I accidentally bought quick oats instead of old-fashioned and I have to do something with them)
Dried Apples (also for the cookies -- I have a couple coworkers that don't like raisins in their baked goods, and I have NO problem with apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies!)

The Process:
So the first thing I did was grab a cucumber for my daily salad... when I got home I discovered I already did that on my last trip, so my salads will be decidedly cucumber heavy going forward. I looked for dried apples in the bulk section, but didn't have any luck. This was probably the most expensive item I bought (and not on sale!) I found the oatmeal, and opted for Quaker, not the store brand, because Quaker cooks up in 2:30... and the other took 5 minutes. Worth .30 to me, because I'm impatient. Other than that, no surprises... I did buy a bag of cat food (on sale) because I always seem to run out at awkward times.

The result:
The trip was a little more expensive than usual, at $36, but I did pick up some specialty things and I shouldn't have to buy soda for a loooong time. However, I saved almost $22.

I think one of my goals should be a trip where I save more than I spend. I know this is possible, I've seen enough news stories and heard enough tales... but it sounds like a bit of work, too.