August totals...

Another month has ended (ALREADY), and that means I've tallied up all of the totals for the money I spent and saved this month. If you want to see last month's totals, click HERE.

Before I give you the totals, however, I want to let you know a few things...

The things that ARE included in my totals:
*Food (not including dining out)
*Diapers (for two kids)
*Cleaning supplies (air fresheners, household cleaners, laundry items, etc.)
*Toiletries (hair products, deodorant, feminine products, paper products, etc)
*Make-up/Cosmetics
*Medicine & health related items (non-prescription)
*Office Supplies (including school supplies)

Items NOT included in my totals:
*Clothing
*Dining out
*Prescription Meds
*Toys (unless it was part of a clearance/mark-down or was bought with gift cards/RR's received by promos)

Once again, I spent quite a bit of money....my total out-of-pocket spent for the month of August was $558.78. That's more than last month! BUT...before you get all worked up....there are lots of things to point out. First of all....the total that everything I bought SHOULD have cost me is $2180.20! I saved $1595.45 or 73%!!! So my percentage of savings went up 6% vs last month!

Second of all, I have $59.25 worth of rebates coming back to me that I should be receiving sometime this month! This includes my RiteAid SCR's and my Kraft rebate, plus some other random rebates. I also still have $22 worth of Walgreen's RR's to spend like cash. (I did subtract $7.48 from my total spent for my Staples Easy Rebate I received this month)

Also...I once again added a TON of stuff to my stockpile and there are even more items that I now do not have to buy for six months, a year, or more! Here is a list of some of those items (including the ones from last month)

Items that I am stocked up on and will not have to buy for weeks or more (up to 6 mos):
*shredded cheese
*yogurt
*soda for the hubby (if you only knew how hard it is to stay ahead of the game when it comes to buying him soda...he drinks a TON!)
*toothpaste (haven't found a screaming deal to completely stock up on that stuff, yet)
*Capri Suns
*ice cream
*ribs
*petite sirloin steak
*popcorn
*canned fruit
*trash bags
*pop-tarts

Items that I am stocked up on and will not have to buy for the rest of 2009 or longer (up to a year):
*spaghetti sauce
*sloppy joe sauce
*mac-n-cheese
*ketchup
*pudding/jello cups
*salad dressing
*cereal (I am to a point where I only buy cereal if it is at a super great price and it's a variety we don't already have that we want)
*hamburger helper
*rice/pasta sides
*au gratin/scalloped potatoes
*sugar
*vegetable oil
*baby wipes
*paper plates
*plastic & paper cups
*paper towels
*Kleenex
*storage bags (Hefty/Ziploc/etc)
*dishwasher tablets
*snacks galore! (fruit snacks, chex mix, cookies, etc)
*tea for me (snapple, tea bags, to-go packets, etc...a big tea person!)
*cookie/brownie mix/cake mix/frosting
*Dr. Pepper
*Body wash and shampoo for me
*Razors
*Lotion for me (haven't stocked up on the kind my hubby likes yet...I'm sure it will happen eventually)
*Lysol bathroom cleaners (toilet bowl cleaner, disinfectant spray, etc)
*Lysol pourable cleaner (like for mopping)
*Band-aids
*Laundry stain remover

Items that I am stocked up on and will most likely not have to buy for atleast a year:
*bbq sauce
*teryaki sauce
*pickle relish
*cooking spray
*steak sauce
*deodorant (for both the hubby and I)
*peanut butter
*dry drink mix (crystal light, country time lemonade, kool-aid, etc)
*air fresheners
*laundry detergent
*kids shampoo
*Ziploc containers
*my son's allergy medicine
*pain reliever/fever reducer (Tylenol)

Items that I will not have to buy for a LONG, LONG time:*q-tips! Lol.

That is by no means a complete list of items, just some of the main things I could think of off the top of my head. That gives you a bit of an idea of where all that money I spent went! Haha. A lot of my money spent this month was on that super awesome Albies promo at the beginning of the month! Hopefully next month my OOP really WILL go down....:) Again, though, remember that I was already easily spending this much a month, but was getting SOOOO much less for my money. It's amazing that I am constantly thinking to myself how much I hate shopping at Walmart because it's soooo expensive! Lol.

Oh, and one other thing that I have not been doing, but plan to do for the month of September forward is keeping track of my gas savings! That should definitely be something I keep track of so that I can see how much I'm saving my family in gas rewards! I didn't keep track this last month and do not feel like going back through it and figuring it out, so I will just start today and see what it comes out to be. I will not tally up accumulated cents off per gallon, but rather how much I ACTUALLY saved at the pump (which my receipt tells me). I think that will be a more realistic and accurate amount of the money saved.

If you're ready to start saving 60-90% on your grocery bill, click HERE to find out how!

(For more info on how I figure out my totals, refer to my post from last month, HERE.)