July Grocery Money Journal -- spent $28.89 per week

July 5. Dollar Tree for 3 quarts of soy milk, and 1 bag of marshmallows -- for s'mores :) Spent $4

July 9. Country Farms (the produce stand). I check the mark-down bin first and find 1 1/2 lb. bag of broccoli florets (99 cents), 1  1/4 lbs of Rainer cherries (99 cents), then choose 2 watermelons (29 cents/lb), 2 cucumbers (2/$1), 3 small avocados (3/$1), 1 head of garlic (50 cents). I spend $11.58. Then I turn around and see they have added new items to the mark-down bin. I choose a bag of 3 bell peppers (99 cents) and a bag of 7 small and 1 large very ripe avocados (99 cents). I spend another $1.98.

July 9. Trader Joe's for 20 bananas (19 cents each) and 2 containers of tofu. Spent $6.78

July 9. Last stop at Cash and Carry restaurant supply. My daughters convince me that we "need" 1 gallon of molasses (otherwise we can't make more graham crackers, and then we can't make more s'mores!). Molasses was $13.39 for 1 gallon. I also buy a 12.5 lb bag of popcorn ($6.58), 2-lb bag of raisins ($4.59), 72-ct package of corn tortillas ($2.18) and 4 containers of tofu ($1.24 -- I didn't know it would be on sale here, it was about 20 cents less per container than Trader Joe's). Total spent, $31.70, for a month-to-date of $56.04.

July 13. I stopped at QFC after church and found milk and tofu on markdown. I bought all of the tofu (99cents/package, 7 packages) and 1  1/2 gallons of milk. Spent $9.70 You can freeze tofu, if you buy a package and only use part. The texture changes a little. It seems a bit grainier after freezing. For my purposes, this doesn't matter. I mostly use tofu in soups, mashed and in lasagna, in a chocolate silk dessert, and pureed in smoothies. A changed texture doesn't seem to matter.

One daughter went to Dollar Tree, so I had her pick up 1 box of lasagna noodles, for $1. Month to date spending -- $66.74

July 19.  I was out running errands and near Fred Meyer, so I thought I'd stop in to check for markdowns. I found 10 gallons of 1% milk at $1.50 each. I bought all 10! (And this was a challenge to fit into the freezers.) Natural peanut butter was also on sale, store brand, 3/$5. Unfortunately, the package has shrunk to 15 oz, instead of the former 16 oz. I still have some peanut butter at home, so I bought 4 jars. Also, down the baking aisle, I found powdered sugar for $1.59 for a 2-lb bag (bought 3 bags). This is less than I paid last fall, during the baking sale, so I went ahead and bought enough to get us through the baking season and hopefully enough for next spring's birthday cakes. Total spent -- $26.44

July 25. Safeway has whole chickens on sale for 88 cents/lb. This is more than last spring's price of 79 cents/lb, but I think it's a good price for right now. I buy 4 whole chickens. We still have a couple of chickens in the freezer, so with these 4 we should be able to get through fall with plenty of chicken. Also, they had 2-lb blocks of cheddar cheese on sale, today only, for $5, limit 1. Spent $23.89

July 25. Also go by Albertson's and buy 2 dozen eggs (medium size) for 99 cents/dozen. Spent $1.98. I thought this was a fabulous price on eggs, given how expensive eggs have become. However, on Sunday, checking Walgreen's ad, I discover Walgreen's has eggs on sale, large size 99 cents/dozen. Oh well. Total month to date spent -- $119.05

July 29 and 30. As I mentioned before, Walgreen's has eggs on sale for 99 cents/dozen, limit 4, this week. With 2 stops into Walgreen's I buy 8 dozen eggs, plus 1 package turkey bacon (6 oz -- 99 cents), and spend $8.91 in total. This is the end of spending for the month. Total month to date spent -- $127.96 which works out to $28.89 per week.

I was $37.04 under budget, which I'll add to my running surplus of $54.51, for a new running surplus total of $91.55. I'm banking this surplus for fall stock-ups, hoping to buy hams, turkeys, potatoes, autumn vegetables, butter, cheese and some canned veggies at that time. I expect we'll see higher prices this fall than last, so I want to bank about $150 for stock-up, in addition to my regular budgeted grocery amounts.

We are fortunate to have an abundance of garden produce right now. The red apples are ripening, blueberries have done well, blackberries are everywhere, plenty of lettuce and other leafy greens, plus cucumbers, zucchini, green beans and there's one almost ripe tomato, with more to come. I love looking at our dinner plates and seeing over half the plate has come from our garden or foraged berries. Our freezers are more full this July than last July, with hams, whole chickens, milk, butter, and ground beef.

Shopping very carefully and limiting extras has paid off for us. We have cut our grocery budget by $45 per month since last summer, and this despite rising food costs. I think I could cut our budget further, if I had to, but right now, I'd rather leave that extra amount in the budget, and buy more produce that I can't grow plus more meat.

The other thing that I've discovered is that I really prefer my home-baked goodies over anything store-bought. When I was in the store the other day, I was looking at a display of large chocolate chip cookies. They looked tempting, but then I imagined their shortening-ey taste, and realized that I could bake a much tastier cookie from scratch, using real butter, lots of real vanilla extract, brown sugar and some whole grains. I didn't make those cookies, yet, but got distracted with home-made blueberry muffins, also a delicious treat, adding some vanilla extract to the batter.

I had similar thoughts about packaged crackers. They look good, but then they often seem a bit greasy and taste of shortening. When we've wanted something with crunch, we've done fresh tortilla chips (from corn tortillas), crostini, or the occasional batch of crackers (usually of my daughters baking, they're the ones who really like crackers enough to bake some). Homemade can be much tastier than commercial products.

Well, that's it for July's grocery budget and spending. Last August, I spent very little on groceries, so it's possible that I will spend very little again this August. It depends on what I find at rock-bottom prices.

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