Food Waste, Grocery Spending and Budget Updates

Food Waste:
We wasted a lot before and after our vacation.  I'm going from memory here but I'm pretty sure I threw away:

• 1/2 box of cereal no one wanted to eat - $.75
• 1 orange & 2 apples - $1.20
• 1/2 gallon of milk - $1.50
• fruit snacks and dum dum suckers in the snack bag after something sticky leaked all over it - $2.00

Ummmm. That's all I can remember.  So here's the total so far:

2015 Food Waste: $20.19

Grocery Spending:

Mr. R did a quick shopping trip on Monday to hold us over for the week until I could get a plan together.  He spent $73 at Aldi.

I stopped in at Acme today to get some more produce and found some great deals on meat.  I got:

• 2 - 1.25 lb packages of  Jennie O ground turkey - $2.50 each, plus they each came with a coupon for $.55 of turkey bacon
• 2 packs of Jennie O Italian Sausages - $2.50 each
• 2 packs of Jennie O Turkey Bacon - Regularly $3.49 each, on sale BOGO + 2 coupons from above = $1.20 each!
• a little over 2 lbs. of chicken breasts - $1.99 per pound

Some other great buys: fat free cheese slices - 2 for $4 (I bought 6 as we go through a pack a week), cake mix and icing - $.88 each (I bought 3 mixes and 3 icings), pasta $.88 per box (bought 2)

I also picked up some produce and a few other items we needed, spending $73.  We received a $50 Visa gift card for test driving Mr. R's car that we leased a few weeks back.  So out of pocket, I only spent $23.  I'm hoping to have $50 left in the food budget because of this next pay day that I can move over to our savings account.

Budget Updates

• Electric bill just keeps getting higher.  It came in at $373.
• Water bill was down slightly for both our house and the rental.
• Extra Money: Received a check for $46 from ebates and $50 Visa gift card that I mentioned above.
• The girls are taking the next 6 week session of gymnastics off mainly because when I tried to sign them up the classes we usually have them in were already full.  I like to be able to take them on Saturdays right after bumper bowling.  I really don't want to have to take them after work, especially when the weather is like this.  Next session hopefully they'll be openings, if not then I'll just have to suck it up and take them in the evenings.  But that gives us $152 that we aren't spending on gymnastics that can go to savings this month.