Our big shopping trip!

Our oldest son's fifth birthday party is next Saturday (he will turn 5 years old on the 15th), so I had to plan food for about 25 people. It's not that much since usually we're closer to 40! But I still had to plan!

So we decided to make hot dogs and hamburger on the BBQ plus broccoli salad, broccoli slaw, macaroni salad, Cesar salad plus a cheese & cracker platter, a vegetable platter and of course, a nice cake!

Thankfully, I'm making most of the food homemade (taste great plus it saves money!), but it still requires a lot of "specials-hunting"!

So here's what I bought:

5lbs lean ground beef
1 pack of Spalding bacon
2 frozen Ristorante pizzas
3 dozen eggs
3 pints blueberries
2 containers mushrooms
4 romaine lettuce heads
24 corn on the cob
6 large green peppers
2 lbs organic carrots
2 celery
2 Kool-Aid jammers (10 packs each)
4 boxes Christie crackers
2 boxes Dale cookies
4 boxes of Chewy granola bars
4 pounds Lactancia butter
2 4L 2% milk
10 cans "cream of" Campbell soups

4 Black Diamond cheese bars (big 500g ones)

3 Pepsi 6X710ml Pepsi

1 bag Lay's chip

1 Philly dip

* Last 2 purchases for Robert!

Pillsbury crescent rolls

Puff cereal

Onion dip

Fresh-baked Italian bread

5 big family sized boxes cereal (including Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, Mini Wheats, etc.)

2 Meow Mix special cups

Baking powder

Salad dressing

153 piece heavy duty clear cutlery pack

Aluminum foil

Parchment paper

Ribbon

2 extra strength Aspirin boxes (50 counts)

Topsy Turvy upside-down strawberry plan holder (since bugs keep eating my nice strawberries!)

I still have a few things to buy for the party (like buns and icing sugar at Costco and some (minimal) decorations plus some poly-beads at Micheals for the party favors, but everything is quite cheap and for Micheals, I have a 40% off coupon that I will be using.

So, how much do you think all of this cost?

Here's the breakdown with prices (per item)

*PM = Price Match

5lbs lean ground beef - 0,80$/lb (cashier made a mistake that I only noticed way later, should have been 1,97$/lb) PM
1 pack of Spalding bacon - 2,47$
2 frozen Ristorante pizzas - 2,25$ (after 1,50$ coupon) & PM
3 dozen eggs - 1,66$ PM
3 pints blueberries - 1,66$ PM
2 containers mushrooms - 1,75$ PM
4 romaine lettuce heads - 0,44$ PM
24 corn on the cob - 0,25$ PM
6 large green peppers - 0,88$/lb PM
2 lbs organic carrots - 1,97$ (for whole bag)
2 celery - 0,97$
2 Kool-Aid jammers (10 packs each) - 1,44$ PM
4 boxes Christie crackers - 1,44$ PM
2 boxes Dale cookies - 1,44$ PM
4 boxes of Chewy granola bars - 1,44$ PM
4 pounds Lactancia butter - 1,34$ PM
2 4L 2% milk - 4,47$
10 cans "cream of" Campbell soups - 0,59$ PM

Bananas - 0,67$/lb

4 Black Diamond cheese bars (big 500g ones) - 4,44$

3 Pepsi 6X710ml Pepsi - 1,97$ PM

1 bag Lay's chip - 2,47$

1 Philly dip - 2,47$

* Last 2 purchases for Robert!

Pillsbury crescent rolls 0,87$ (after 1$ coupon)

Puff cereal - 3$

Onion dip - 1$

Fresh-baked Italian bread - 0,97$

5 big family sized boxes cereal (including Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, Mini Wheats, etc.) - 4,97$ (come with a 5$ gas card per box)

2 Meow Mix special cups (free with coupons!)

Baking powder - 2,58$

Salad dressing - 1,42$

Helman's real mayo - 3,49$

153 piece heavy duty clear cutlery pack - 5,98$

Alcan aluminum foil - 3,98$ for 100' (I like quality in my foil!)

Parchment paper - 2,97$

Ribbon - 3,50$ (to make MANY "I Spy" bags including favors!)

2 extra strength Aspirin boxes (50 counts) - (MADE me 1$ each!)

Topsy Turvy upside-down strawberry plan holder (since bugs keep eating my nice strawberries!) - 5$ on clearance from 12,97$!

So the grand total is 175$ (since the 1st cashier we had made a mistake on the green peppers, the 3rd one just gave them for free since it was way too complicated to fix after we had payed). And we have 25$ coming back to us in gas (that we need anyways!). So really, 150$ for ALL that stuff. We had 3 big Costco bags and we didn't have enough room. Even the grocery cart was overflowing!

Since we did not yet receive the 25$ gas card, I will put the original total.

Paid: 175$

Would have paid: 258$

Total saved: Almost 84$!!! Plus 25$ coming to us!