January Budget Review

It's a week into the new month, and I haven't posted my Monthly Budget Review, mostly because I went way over budget on groceries in January.  My husband and I started the new year on Weight Watchers, and I had to stock up on foods that were low in calories and fat.  Some of the foods that I stocked up on are:  low fat deli sliced meats, Walmart's Great Value brand sugar free gelatin (only 20 calories per box), Skinny Cows (bought 10 boxes at Costco with a coupon at a great price), Lean Pockets, Lean Cuisine meals, fresh fruits and vegetables, Weight Watchers yogurt (found at Walmart), and low fat popcorn. 

I haven't spent this much money on groceries since I started couponing, but I had to basically rethink everything that I was buying in the past.  Some of the items were on sale or were bought with coupons, but some of it had to be bought at full price (60 boxes of Walmart's gelatin at $.38 apiece).  So, now that I have more healthly foods stocked up, February should get back to normal.  The good thing though is that our eating-out expenses were only a fraction of what they had been in the past.  Normally we have $100 set aside each month to order in pizza on Friday nights, but we only spent $40 of that in January.  Instead of ordering in pizza, we have been making the kids frozen pizza, while we have a Lean Cuisine or Lean Pocket.

Total spent on coupons $23.35 ($20 for 8 Sunday papers for 5 weeks and $3.35 on Quaker coupons from Ebay)
Total value of coupons used $145.70 (only includes newspaper coupons, does not include Internet Printable coupons that I don't pay for)

Rebates- received $15 in rebates sent in December see here, and sent in an additional $10 in rebates this month see here

Groceries
Budgeted $350
Actual $666
Household
Budgeted $100
Actual $43
Total
Budgeted $450
Actual $709

Where the money was spent:
Albertsons $250
Winco $180
Costco $120
Walmart $111
Eddy's Bakery $5