March Coupon Savings and Budget spending

Just a recap...what is included in the budget spending that I'm keeping track of is dog food/treats, all groceries, makeup/nail polish, and health/beauty items (excluding prescriptions).  My goal is to be under $300.

Here are the numbers:
Budget
Coupon Savings: $24.31
Advertised Savings: $30.56
Spending: $322.81

Non-Budget:
Coupon Savings: $34.69
Advertised Savings: $56.52
Reward Points/Rebates: $16.62

Total Coupon savings for the month: $59
Total Advertised savings for the month: $87.08



I went over the budget again in March, but by a tad less than $23.  I'm not too upset about this though because I know why it happened.  I bought $23 worth of electrolyte chews and drink tabs from REI (they are the only place that carries one of the brands I wanted so I stocked up since I don't live near the store).  At first I didn't think about it being a budget item but then realized that if I had been able to buy the items at a grocery store or Target/Walgreens, I would have included it in the budget.  I bought a lot in order to stock up for awhile, so it's not an expense I'll have again for a couple of months.  Now that I consider this a budget item, I'll be better prepared.

Roughly $36 of the spending was not on groceries, the rest was. That worries me a bit because the time will come soon when I need to buy some health/beauty items and that's going to put me over the budget really fast.  I know part of the grocery spending was high because my Husband dragged me to Walmart to get some deli meat and while there he picked up snacks for himself (since I don't normally buy snacks anymore). So it was full price and rather expensive.   The $36 was basically on dog food too..which is a normal expense.   I'm going to stick with the $300 budget for the rest of this year though, but might have to increase it next year.  We'll see.