I had my 20% off coupon to use at Big Lots, which just made the prices that much better. Helped me keep almost everything under budget this year, even with tax included. Last year I saved big money on some key purchases, but those savings helped cushion the tax and other items that I was unable to bring under budget.
| Item | Annual Quantity | Need | Budget (50%) | Actual | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toilet Paper | 156 Rolls | 156 | $50.00 | $41.99 | 80 triple rolls = 240 regular rolls. $0.175 per roll. See Below. |
| Paper Towels | 52 Rolls | 24 | $15.00 | $12.84 | 24 rolls. $0.535 per roll. |
| Trash Bags - Large/Tall | 300 Bags | 75 | $10.00 | $7.96 | 76 bags. $0.105 per bag. |
| Dish Soap | 12 Lg Bottles | 9 | $14.00 | $10.66 | 2 gallons = 256 oz = almost 11 regular (24 oz) bottles. $0.046 per oz. |
| Dishwasher (Liquid) | 24 Bottles/330 packs | 110 | $15.00 | $16.03 | 135 packs. Package size increased from 110 last year. |
| Bath/kitchen hand soap | 24 Bottles | 20 | $15.00 | $12.84 | Three 56oz bottles each with a 7.5oz refillable bottle. 190.5oz total = 25 7.5oz bottles = $0.514 per bottle |
| Napkins | 6 Packs | 6 | $4.50 | $4.28 | See Below |
| Kleenex | 12 Boxes | 10 | $8.00 | $6.42 | 1 regular box = 75 tissues. I got 5 family size boxes of 200 which = 13 regular boxes |
| Windex | 2 Lg Bottles | 1 | $2.00 | $1.71 | 2 regular bottles. They only asked for 1 bottle, but I thought the bottle was kinda small, so I got 2 since it was still under budget. |
| Bathroom Cleaner | 2 Lg Bottles | 1 | $2.00 | $2.40 | See below |
| Kitchen Cleaner | 3 Lg Bottles | 1 | $3.00 | $2.40 | 1 bottle. |
| Sponges | 2 Packs | 2 | $4.00 | $3.42 | I got 4 total sponges, but they are a higher quality sponge. I wanted 8… but budget didn’t allow that. These that I bought can be washed and reused. |
| Duster | 1 | 1 | $5.00 | $2.66 | Microfiber duster with collapsible handle. |
| Vanilla Scents | 2 Sprays (bottle) | 1 | $2.50 | $0.00 | Haven't bought it yet. Couldn’t find it. I tried 3 places. Vanilla is a fall/winter scent. I'm still on the hunt for it. |
| HE Washer Cleaner | 1 box? | 1 | $5.00 | $4.26 | 1 bottle. |
| Oxyclean | 1 bottle | 1 | $2.00 | $0.86 | See Below |
| TOTAL | $157.00 | $130.73 | $26.27 under budget. Still need $2-$3 for Vanilla Spray once I can find it. |
Toilet Paper: Sam's Club had the best deal on TP this year. The 2 big boxes on the bottom of the pile are the TP. I promise, it's soft fluffy TP, and not single ply yucky Scott's brand. The chapter ran out of TP last year and had to buy more during the Spring. So this year, I wanted to be extra cautious about TP claims that their roll equaled however many regular rolls. Last year, Charmin mega rolls claimed to be the equivalent of 4 rolls each... and even though they were BIG rolls, they still, obviously, weren't enough. So this year I checked multiple brands regular rolls, and determined that a "regular roll" generally has anywhere from 120-170 sheets on it. So I split the difference and determined that a regular roll has 150 sheets, and double roll, therefore, should have at least 300 sheets, and a triple roll should have 450. (I highly doubt those Charmin rolls last year had 600 sheets each on them! Psh! Live and learn, I suppose...) The commercial brand TP that I selected this year had exactly 450 2-ply sheets per roll, and claimed that 40 rolls = 120 regular rolls. Price per box was $20.99 with tax, or 17.5 cents per regular roll - waaaay under the 25 cents per roll maximum that I'll buy TP at. I checked prices at Sam's club, went to Big Lots, looked at their options, and ultimately went back to Sam's club to get the TP because it was the best deal. Better yet, because I am so far under budget, if the powers that be who are reading this think that it would be better to have 1 more box of TP, to be on the safe side and hopefully not run out this year, there's still plenty of room in the budget to do so. Just let me know if I should get one more.
Napkins: Ugh… just realized the cashier only rang me up for 2 packs of napkins, instead of the 3 I bought! Well… it should have been 3 packs of 250 count napkins = 750 napkins (only needed 600). I was supposed to be over budget on this but since they only rang up 2 packs instead of 3, I'm under! Comes out to $0.57 per 100, but it really should have been $6.42 or $0.642 per 100. Next time I go back to big lots (which is often) I'll tell them and pay for it at that time.
Bathroom Cleaner: Edit. Scratch that. I was overcharged on the bathroom cleaner. The bathroom cleaner bottle and the kitchen cleaner bottle looked very similar, but they were NOT the same. The bathroom cleaner bottle was $1.95 before my discount was taken and tax added, and I should have paid a total of $1.67 for it. However, she scanned the kitchen cleaner twice, which was $2.80 before discount and tax. I guess she thought they were the same bottle. Boo!
OxyClean: First off, in my previous post, I mentioned something about oxy powder. I failed to realize that the wish list said "bottle" for oxyclean. Not tub or bin (indicating powder), so therefore I concluded that they are actually looking for the liquid kind. SCORE! Well, the problem is, name brand OxyClean in a bottle is $5 a bottle. And even the Clorox Oxy stuff at Big Lots was $2.80. Even after the discount, it was over budget, and I was doing SO GOOD staying under budget for almost every other item, that I just couldn't buy it at that price. So, I bought an empty spray bottle instead, and I fully intend to mix up two mason jars full of homemade Oxyclean for them to refill with. And... well, if they don't like it, I came in far enough under budget that if they want the name brand commercialized stuff that bad they can still afford to purchase it. Won't hurt my feelings none. :)
I'm 17% under budget, which is comparable to last year (18%). I'm blaming the dishwasher packs. The packs of 110 last year were $13.78 after tax, which is $2.25 lower than I paid this year. That $2.25 would have been JUST ENOUGH for me to beat last year. Well, boo!
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