On Friday, I did the rest of the shopping for my cause party. I had $138.30 left from the $200 party supplies stipend that Johnson & Johnson had provided me with, so I headed to Safeway and Fred Meyer to pick up the rest of the food.

Safeway:

Got:

12 oz bag of organic, fair trade coffee – price: $7.99
1 bag of hamburger buns – regularly priced at .89 cents, used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to bring the price down to .79 cents.
1 bag of hot dog buns – regularly priced at .89 cents, used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to bring the price down to .79 cents. Each store had a different sale on buns, and since both stores had a limit of 2 per transaction at the sales price, I bought buns at both stores in order to maximize my savings.
2 20-count boxes of hamburger patties – price: $8.99 each, for a total cost of $17.98.
1.55 lbs of onion – price: $1.22. These rang up at the wrong price initially, coming up at $1.53; so I went to customer service and got a .31 cent refund.
3 lb container of potato salad – price: $3.99
1.07 lb container of potato salad – price: $1.59. There was a weekend sale at the Safeway deli for potato salad at $1.49 per pound, so I decided to get 4 lbs for my party. However, the guy at the deli let me know that it would actually be cheaper to buy one of the 3 lb pre-packaged potato salads, and then get one separate pound of the $1.49 potato salad. So thank you, deli guy, for saving me money!

Next stop, Fred Meyer. Remember the chicken I bought there on Wednesday that turned out to be rotten? Well, I took it back to the store to see if I could return it. The unopened package smelled so awful that I had to drive with the car window rolled down. As I stood in line at customer service, everyone inched away from me and gave me funny looks. When I showed the package to the customer service rep, she practically gagged from the stench! Suffice to say, it was obvious that I had been sold rotten meat and they had no issues with refunding my $2.57!

Total spent: $104.69, paid for by Johnson & Johnson
Receipt to come once my scanner is back up and running!

Got:

48 ears of corn – on sale for 12 for $3.00, final cost: $12.00
1 package of Chocolate ChipMate cookies – price: $1.77
6 boxes of Boca veggie burgers – price: $2.50 each, final cost: $15.00
3 boxes of Zips crackers (store brand for Ritz) – price: $1.99 each, final cost: $5.97
1 box of disposable cutlery (150 pieces total) – price: $6.99
1 package of plastic cups – price: $2.69
2 quarts of half and half – price: $1.50 each, total cost: $3.00
1 bottle of ketchup – price: .85 cents
1 package of chocolate cookies – price: $1.79
5 packages of hamburger buns – your first two are priced at .39 cents each, and each package after that is .89 cents. Total cost: $3.45
2 packages of hot dog buns – they were all out of the .89 cent buns, so I bought two of the next cheapest kind for $1.19 each. Total cost: $2.38
2 heads of red leaf lettuce – price: $1.29 each. Total cost: $2.58
1 package of white chocolate ChipMate cookies – price: $1.77
1 package of chicken drumsticks (roughly 4 lbs worth) – to replace the rotting meat from Wednesday! Price: $3.63
1 tub of Fromage Blanc cheese spread – marked down to $2.49
1 bag of croutons – price: $1.50
1 box of vanilla wafers – price: $1.79
1 big block of cheese – price: $4.99
1 package of pepperoni – price: $3.00
2 lbs of organic salad mix – price: $4.99 each, total cost: $9.98
6 bottles of BBQ sauce – these were marked on the shelf as being .69 cents each, with no limits stated on any of the signs. But when they rang up, only a few came up at the sale price and the rest came up at .85 cents. When I asked the cashier about it, she spent a long time trying to ring and re-ring the sauce to figure out what was going on. It was extremely confusing, and after 15 minutes she eventually said, “Let’s just total you out and then I’ll refund the difference.” After she did this, we saw that only 3 had been rung up. The cashier told me that I ought to “Just take” the other 3 bottles without paying for them. I insisted that no, I was going to pay for them, so she ended up ringing the other 3 up in another transaction and having the same problem. She finally called a manager and they told her that the sale was supposed to have been .69 cents for your first two and then .85 cents for each one after that. Since she rang them up in two transactions, I ended up paying .69 cents each for four and .85 cents for two, for a total of $4.46. Very confusing!!!
1 bottle of mustard – price: .99 cents
3 gallons of ice cream – price: 3.99 each, total cost: $11.97

I also received .35 cents in bag credits for bringing my own bags.

So my total cost for food was $198.17 – just under the $200 that Johnson & Johnson sent me to buy party supplies with. The day of the party, we found out that we needed to buy a tank of gas for the grill, and it also dawned on me that I needed coolers and ice for the drinks and meat. I also wanted to get an ice cream scooper, since I didn’t have one. The cost for these supplies was about $50 – I say “About” because Jai picked these items up for me while I did other party prep, so I don’t have the receipts. It didn’t occur to me that I needed these things until after I had bought the food, which is why I didn’t work them into the stipend budget. But it was well worth it – we had a great party with a huge spread, and I have a HUGE amount of food left over. And most importantly, we raised a lot of money for an important cause! I’ll be posting party photos later today and showing you what I’m going to do with the leftovers, so stay tuned!