Giving Challenge: This Week’s Stretching $20 For The Food Bank 12/4

As many of you know, we started a personal giving challenge for this holiday season. We budgeted an extra $20 a week and challenged ourselves to buy as much as we could for $20 for the local food banks.

We always like to remind you that everything we do here is even easy enough for a guy to do it!  🙂  So this week off I went by myself to our local Kroger affiliate, Smiths, and purchased this week’s items for the giving challenge:

• 2 Similac formula on sale for $5.24 each = $10.48. Then used two $5.00/1 Similac formula checks = $0.48 for two or .24 each.
  
• 12 Bumble Bee Tuna on sale for $0.99.  Kroger Mega event (save $5 for every 10 products) made each packet $0.49.  Then used 12 $0.55/1 coupons Smart Source 9/12 (exp. 12/31/10) = $0.72 OVERAGE or .06 OVERAGE each
• 11 Krusteaz Cookie Mix on sale for 1.49.  Kroger Mega event made each $0.99.  Then used 11 $1/1 coupons Smart Source (exp. 10/10) = $0.09 OVERAGE or .01 OVERAGE each
  
• 7 Bumble Bee Tuna on sale for $0.99 (needed to get up to 30 items for the Mega event so purchased these).  Kroger Mega event (save $5 for every 10 products) made each packet $0.49.  Since we ran out of coupons  = $3.43 for 7 or .49 each
• 18 Hamburger Helper on sale for 1.00 each = $18.00.  Then used 6 $0.75/3 coupons 11/7 Smart Source Insert (exp. 1/1/11) = $15.00 or .75 each.
• 3 Kroger Spaghetti on sale for $0.82 each = $2.46 for 3 or $0.82 each
• 3 Kroger Stewed Tomatoes on sale for $0.53 each.  Then used 1 $0.40/1 coupon Kroger mailer = $1.19 for 3 or $0.40 each

Summary: The total before sale prices was $114.31.  The after sales price came to $52.73.  I then used $32.50 in coupons, final total was $20.23 for all of the above. The final total was 82% savings – not too bad for a guy if I may say so myself.  🙂

And just like we’ve shared before, I wanted to remind you about some of our favorites parts about this trip:

• We were able to use the coupons we had for products that we wouldn’t necessarily buy, but perfect for the food banks – the coupons did not go to waste. A few of these coupons made some of the items FREE too!
• Because we used coupons, we were literally able to buy $33 more food above the sale prices.  If we had only shopped the sale with our $20 budget, we would have only been able to buy 62% of the food above.  WOW – that is eye opening on coupon usage even for your regular budget!
• It was also a ton of fun to see what we could buy and accomplish with $20 vs. our everyday shopping trips filled with shopping challenges of food allergies, food pickiness, brand loyalty and trying to be as natural and organic as we can with our budget.
• Also, these items above are not the only thing we are giving.  Often times in our shopping trips, about 10% is given as it was items that were such a great deal that we couldn’t pass them up (even if we do not personally use them) and we could easily slip them into our regular budget and then give them to those that need them!

So Here’s What We Want To Encourage You To Do:

• Join us in the challenge between now and the end of the year. You can give in anyway that your family is able to do. Whether this be to clean out your current pantry and storage and donate, create a weekly budget (even as little is a $1!) to shop for those in need, give of your time at local food banks, charities, soup kitchens, etc.!  You could even challenge yourself to use any of the coupons you wouldn’t normally use to get FREE items to donate to your food bank.  Finally, don’t forget that your old clothing is also very needed by many and you might do yourself a favor by clearing out some extra space too!

To Participate:

• Just leave a comment on these giving posts that we will be posting each week with our results of our family’s personal challenge.  Share each week how you and your family were able to give to others this season.

Top Photo Credit to: 918moms.com