What Does a Less than $40 Grocery Trip Look Like

Today I headed out to the store, pretty unprepared. Usually I take 30-45 minutes going through the sales as well as matching and cutting coupons. Since we got home yesterday and will only be home for 3 days I didn't have time or need much of anything at the store. Throw in a teething baby who would not sit in the cart and cried 75% of the trip once she saw I had bananas and strawberries that she wanted and it was a success all things considered. I wanted to show this trip, because it probably is more true to form of what someone just starting out could do easily. Typically for this amount I could get lots more because there would be more freebies or more reasonable items. Most of what I got were Cecily's must haves! You'll notice that there is not much meat or fresh produce, but that is because we have plenty to fill in from our stock pile in the pantry and freezer.
So here is what I got for $35:
3 DiGiorno Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheeses (Love the fresh kind so for $1 it was a real score)
1 Pack of fattening Fudge Cookies because I ran into to my friend Lil in that aisle and she said I should just get them if I wanted to, so I did!
1 Pack of Strawberries that are 1/3 gone only hours later, should have gotten two packs.
1 Bag of Grated Cheese (half gone already from lunch!)
1 Pack of Advil- not the best deal but Rich was complaining that we needed more.
1 Can Don Peppino's Spaghetti Sauce -half price
1 Pack Cheese Sticks- we were all out and we really like to have these on hand!
1 Four Pack Yo Baby Yogurt because Cecily was able to point to tell me which pack she wanted and that was a new skill.
1 Chunk Mozzarella Cheese for Ziti
1 Container Cool Whip great for quick easy pies
1 Container Sour Cream -free
1 Container Chip Dip to take up to PA for Cecily's Birthday party
4 Bananas one of which was eaten in line by Cecily
1 Container All detergent spent under $1.50 which is my buy price for detergent
2 Packs of Chocolate Chips because we are always baking something around here.
3 Shave Gels- we go through these a lot since we both use the girly kind! $1 each
1 thing of Apple Juice for Cole's party, got something simple since the Fruitables juice I sent last time was apparently "disgusting."
1 Large Coffee Creamer- free item
Wonder Bread- opened in the store as a ploy to get Cecily to settle it was unsuccessful
1 Free Ham that I earned since they calculated our total spending BEFORE coupons.
2 New York Strip Steaks for dinner.

So the grand total $35!

We'll have NY Strip with red skin potatoes and a Steamfresh veggie tonight
Tomorrow the kids and I will have Turkey Bacon and Cheese Omelets with toast
Wednesday we will do a baked ziti that uses sour cream instead of ricotta.

Hope that shows a little of how I shop. It is not an extreme coupon trip, but shows how you can save through sales and coupons. It would have been a $88 trip if I had not put in my ten minutes of effort!

Would love to help someone local do a Shop Rite trip sometime and write about it:)