Grocery Spending November 2025

my 2nd grocery haul of November, just before Thanksgiving

I grocery shopped 3 days in person in November, one at Walmart, then the trip that I previously blogged about and this one above. I also gave my daughter $10 to go get some donuts for us on the day after Thanksgiving. It was the end of the month, and I knew we had at least $10 left in the budget, so we splurged! She spent all $10 and chipped in about 75 cents of her own money.

Just before Thanksgiving I needed a few items, so I made the trip down to WinCo, photo above. From left to right, front to back, here's what I bought at WinCo for $119.38:

2 dozen eggs

1 gallon milk

1 bundle celery

8 Fuji apples

4 bananas

1 head cabbage

10 lbs carrots

big bulk bag raisins

big bulk bag peanuts

2 large sweet potatoes

2 bags of cranberries

4 cans corn

3 avocados

1/2 lb mushrooms

4 lbs oranges

4 cans green beans

bulk fresh ground peanut butter

small bulk bag iodized salt

small bulk bag almond flour

2 lb bag tangerines

8 lbs butter

2 blocks mozzarella

1 block cheddar

2 large cans tomato paste

4 cans black olives

1 jar green olives

1 bag breakfast sausage

1 pint whipping cream

small amount of bulk bin coffee for making cold brew

2 bags frozen peas

We're pretty much well-stocked. Some of these items I haven't even touched yet, obviously some of the canned veggies, but also the bag of tangerines, the bag of carrots, the avocados, the eggs, most of the butter, and the peanut butter. 

Most of what I bought specifically for Thanksgiving was priced near what I recall spending a few years ago. The celery was 97 cents/bundle, cranberries were 97 cents/bag, sweet potatoes were 97 cents/lb, canned olives were 98 cents ea, and canned veggies were 50 cents/can. The whipping cream was $2.58/pint, and I can't recall what I've paid for that in recent years. Do you recall if any of the Thanksgiving foods were a fair deal this year? I wouldn't say we got bargains on those foods, but at least I didn't feel gouged.

My total for the month spending, then, was $255.19 ($11.06 Walmart, $114.75 WinCo, $119.38 WinCo, $10 donuts) in person plus $119.66 pro-rated portion of beef delivery, for a grand total of $374.85 My budgeted amount is a max of $400 per month, with usual spending typically between $375 and $400. I came in just about average this month. 

Next time I shop I'll be buying Christmas foods!

How's the snow been in your area? We had a tiny amount of snow and rain mixed yesterday afternoon, but just rain since. I will say that it's been cold for here. I now get out for a walk in the afternoon, after the real chill has worn off, and it is still quite cold. And the nights have been very cold for me. Today when I did the laundry and remade the bed, I added a comforter to the layers. I'm hoping this will make sleeping much more comfortable. It's tricky. You put too many layers on the bed, and you wake up sweating, or like for me, I wake with a headache. If you put too few layers on, I find it too chilly to sleep well. Let's hope I got it right for tonight. I hope everyone is warm and cozy right now. Talk to you more tomorrow.

Christmas Decorating on a Dime (or Less)

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? Did you have a good time connecting with loved ones? How many here went out Black Friday shopping? We enjoyed our Thanksgiving. But was I ever tired after. I felt like I couldn't focus my mind at all on Friday. I stayed in and baked a batch of bread and washed a lot of dishes from Thursday's dinner. No Black Friday shopping for me. Or Saturday or Sunday. But I am gearing up for some shopping, just as soon as my family gets back to me on what's most important to them this year.

I have begun decorating, however.

You reach a point in life where you really have a lot of holiday decorative pieces. For me, unless I need to replace a worn out something, I'm not inclined to add more to our stash. So my cost to decorate is just about zilch.

Here's a cozy spot in our kitchen that I pulled together with what I have already. At first I just wanted to do something nice with my kitchen candle. I light this candle when I wake up. This time of year, it's dark for a couple of hours in the morning, and a little candle glow has a comforting feel.

First, I put the candle on a plate and surrounded it with greens from outdoors and some pinecones, red balls, and chunks of cinnamon that I had in a bag with our Christmas decorations. It looked nice, but I also wanted to accent more of the red. So I folded a red striped kitchen towel and placed it under the decorated candle plate. Nice, but not quite. So I added a wooden tray under the towel and candle plate. Good, but this would be the prefect place for our Christmas coffee mugs, I thought. And now, it has just the cheery look I was after.

I didn't spend a lot of time working on this. In fact, I was washing a large batch of dirty dishes (still no dishwasher). As I would finish a chunk, I would reward myself with a minute to do something with the candle plate. Switching up dull jobs with tasks that I enjoy helps me get through moments of drudgery.

Where is your cozy spot in the house? Have you added some Christmas cheer to that place?

One last invite reminder (I'll keep a link in the side bar this month) -- I'm doing some Advent readings on my other blog. You're welcome to join me. The first one went up yesterday morning, the second one this morning.