July Grocery Tally and Coupons

Grocery Budget for July 2011 $450.00 plus $11.12 left from June = $461.12 less $43.54 for travel days (applied towards travel budget) = $417.58
Actual: $469.99! Yes, over budget. I bought a lot of meat for BBQ season and completely wonderful cherries, loads of watermelon and peaches.
$52.41 will be deducted from August $450.00 budget so I will have to be very careful this month as my August budget is now down to $397.59.

Coupons used $26.71 this month (year to date $306.67)

Best deal this month? Laundry detergent that my stepson got for $1 per bottle (see previous posts) and two free tickets (except tax) on Westjet to Comox in September for the start of our house hunt.

I love airmiles.ca. It turns out when I was short a few airmiles for the second airline ticket for our trip my speed shop at Safeway worked well as the airmiles were deposited within 10 days!

Cost of two return airline tickets to Comox from Edmonton On Westjet $805.52
Paid only $299.54.
Actual savings $505.98.

We already have enough points for at least 3 more tickets between Aeroplan, airmiles and hubbys Royal Bank Avion credit card for future trips to the island.

This has been the summer of almost nil entertainment costs as we have been taking advantage of freebies from hubbys job. First it was the Edmonton Indy, and then last weekend we ended up with a bunch of free food tickets to the Edmonton Heritage Festival. Although the festival itself is free as there is no parking so you must take public transportation and food tickets are costly.

I took my 14 year old stepdaughter and we grazed our way through 63 outdoor pavillions representing 85 different countries. Over 125,000 thousand people attended the day we went. It was hot, food was great, but after a couple hours we were wilting and the crowds were pretty large so went home. I still had extra tickets left so ended up passing those on to another friend who was attending on a different day plus donated a bunch of tickets to the food bank (who is able to redeem them for cash) who uses this festival as their largest collection venue of the year. Total spent? $5.50 on park and ride.

My plan to stay on track this month? Use more coupons and better plan meals. I have more time so should be successful.

I have stayed away from the garage sales this month due to our move as keep harping on hubby everytime he buys something that we will have to move it to another Province, therefore am trying to take my own advice. I have enough stuff anyway.

Summer in Alberta means nightly storms - last night we had a four hour electrical storm that started at 3am. These parting photos were taken a few nights ago while it was raining. Sunset, rainbows and clouds.

Get out and enjoy some summer fun!