June 8 Walmart and Grocery Outlet just before our Father's Day celebration, 1 week early. Many items that I bought were for our cook-out dinner.
2 lbs fresh strawberries, 2 lbs frozen broccoli cuts, large bottle ketchup, 5 lbs shredded mozzarella, package turkey snack sticks, canister whipped cream, 3 lbs apples, bagged salad kit, 3 lbs onions, small bag yogurt-covered pretzels, package hot dog buns, 1 bell pepper, bunch bananas, bar unsweetened chocolate, cabbage, 5 dozen eggs, 2 jars salsa, chicken bratwurst, Doritos, regular tortilla chips, andouille sausage, uncured beef hotdogs -- spent $87.56
June 13 WinCo for the last shopping before surgery
multipack string cheese, 1 gallon milk, 2 cartons tofu, 2 lbs butter, 2 lbs frozen broccoli, 2 lbs frozen peas, 5 lbs carrots, 3 lbs apples, cabbage, cucumber, celery, 3 tomatoes, 2 red bell peppers, 2 bunches bananas, bag of dates, almond flour, natural peanut butter, 2 cartons soy milk, 10 lbs bread flour -- spent $69.85
June 18 Daughter went out and bought some raspberry sorbet for me. Spent $5.48
June 23 Husband went to Grocery Outlet and bought 1 bag of frozen chicken breasts. Spent $6.99
June 27 Daughter is doing grocery shopping for this week.
Total spent in person for the month of June -- $214.72
We also received another delivery of beef, at a cost of $359.00. It was charged in May, but we received it in June. So my grand total for groceries this month is $573.72. Wow, that's a whopper! However, next month our total will be significantly less.
The Father's Day foods consisted of some of my husband's favorite foods for a cook-out, Doritos, regular tortilla chips, salsa, yogurt-covered pretzels, a salad kit, fresh strawberries and whipped cream for strawberry shortcake, andouille sausage, beef and chicken sausages plus potato buns. We otherwise wouldn't have spent quite as much that week. Our budget for our Father's Day cookout was $25. We went over by about $2. Still, not a high spend for a special meal.
I didn't do the grocery shopping for 2 weeks, instead sending out family members twice to get 1 item each time. This turned out to be a good thing with regards to food wastage. When I was finally up and around, one of the first things I did was straighten the fridge shelves. I only had to compost one item due to spoilage. My family did a great job trying to use everything up. What I did find that was still good to eat but in need of consumption soon was a container of cooked macaroni noodles, a container of cooked rice, and a container of pumpkin puree. I turned all of the macaroni and some of the rice into a dish of macaroni and cheese for lunches today. I've been working on the pumpkin puree. I made a snack cake the other day. Today I made pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies. I still have a few tablespoons left of pumpkin. I'll stir that into some applesauce along with some cinnamon to go with tonight's dinner. It's been a drizzly day today. Those are always good cooking and baking days, in my opinion.
I am in stock-up mode again, focusing on bread flour, butter, and cartons of soy milk this month. I'm not buying a lot, instead just buying maybe one or two extras of each item per month to slowly build a surplus. While it may save more money just waiting until these foods go on sale before buying a lot, buying one or two extra of anything not highly perishable each week is an easy and less financially painful way to build a stock pile.
So that's what was in my grocery cart this past month. What's been in yours?
Do you prefer to stock up little by little, even if you don't get the lowest price, or all in one fell swoop when items are on sale?
We try to take advantage of sales, especially for meat, but generally stock up little by little, trying to have enough in the pantry to fix a quick meal.
ReplyDeleteSame! I'm already finding that my shopping and cooking style is shifting, even though my daughter hasn't left for college yet. She works most evenings, which makes dinnertime a little bit different. She also has recently started preferring salads with protein for lunch rather than sandwiches, so I'm trying to change my shopping to accommodate that.
DeleteWe stock up on sales and clearances and buy essentials at need. This seems to work for us. Meals are planned around what we have in the pantry, freezer and what is going bad in the fridge. We try not to eat out too often or bring leftovers with us on errands. I much rather eat home cooked foods than any take out meal. What is helping reduce our need to shop often is our garden greens, kale, collards and malabar spinach. We hardly need to buy vegetables so we can stretch out our shopping runs. I also find that grocery can be cheaper on Amazon with coupons, and promotions from credit card issuers offering 30% off, or $10 off when you spend $50, for example.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful weekend,
Laura
Our social security check comes the 3rd Wednesday of the month and that is when I do my stock up of shampoo, deodorant, meds such as Tylenol or Advil and mouthwash. My son moved back home a couple months ago so we are spending extra on lunches for him. He was eating out both breakfast and lunch but now he doesn't spend as much.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on so little food waste, especially with your procedure and all that that entailed with others doing shopping and so forth!
ReplyDeleteI do stock up more if I find a great deal on something we use, but otherwise buy one or two ahead as you mentioned. It seems like there are less deals on whole foods such as produce, but at least some items are less expensive seasonally, which helps. Some staples in our pantry, such as coconut aminos and avocado oil mayonnaise, are the best price at Costco, so I wait and purchase those when we visit Costco (about 90 miles from us), as the savings are worth it.
After being out of town for 3.5 out of 5 weeks, the past week and a half have involved restocking on produce and such. I was first on a backpacking trip and gone for a week to New Mexico, then home 5 days before leaving for 18 days (my husband had to go TDY for work to a class in Virginia, near DC, and asked me to go with him), so we were both beyond ready for some home-cooked meals, though the eating out was fun.