Stay Connected

Monday, September 8, 2025

After 4 weeks, I finally did a major grocery shopping. I didn't spend as much as I would have thought. Why would that be?

So like it says above, I finally did a stock-up shopping after 4 long weeks. I'd been popping into the local Walmart to pick up milk, cheese, and bananas once per week (spending under $10 each week), but that was about it.

Then last Friday, I made a WinCo run. I had been keeping a list going as we'd run out of items. I brought a fist full of cash and a bunch of shopping bags. I cruised through the aisles, picking up the foods on my list. I thought I would spend a lot, a whole lot. 

At the check-out, I was rather surprised that I "only" spent $125.73. After allowing our supplies to dwindle for a month, I had anticipated spending closer to $200.

I was thinking about why I didn't spend more. Here's what I think. Like many questions in life, the answer is multi-faceted.

  • Our garden has been in heavy production for the entire month of August and now into September. We have featured garden fruit and vegetables very heavily in all of our meals, meaning we used more produce and less of the ingredients that we would need to purchase to replenish. Most dinners included a serving of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables this past month. We snack on garden fresh fruit when hungry between meals. Every lunch contains 1 fruit and at least 1 veggie, sometimes 2.
  • We used purchased foods that are low cost or practically free throughout the month. We turned to our surplus of dried beans instead of using all of our meat for protein. We used our copious supply of saved meat fat in place of vegetable oil or butter in cooking. This meant that I didn't need to buy more meat or more vegetable oil/butter.
  • As our garden will continue to produce enough for our meals for another month, we have no need to stock up on frozen or canned veggies just yet. The only produce I bought at WinCo were 2 bananas, 1 bag of carrots, 1 bundle of celery, a bag of potatoes, and a bag of onions. We'll have enough produce with this purchase plus garden fruits and vegetables to last several weeks and still have variety.
  • Stocking up on groceries may be more cyclical for some of us. Right now I'm still coasting on what we have on hand and not yet needing to make our big autumn stock-up purchases like a case of canned tomatoes and a case of tomato paste and a jumbo 50-lb bag of onions to get through fall, winter and spring. I'll need to buy those items in two to three weeks.
The lesson I learned is that August is a very good month for me to skip major grocery shopping. By shifting away from the pricier purchased foods and incorporating more of the almost free garden produce and low-cost purchased foods, fewer expensive foods need to be replenished after a month of eating.


Maybe you're curious what I actually bought at WinCo on Friday. Here's the list:

10-lb bag of potatoes (I'm 3 weeks away from harvesting our potatoes)
10-lb bag of carrots (I just have a small patch of carrots that we mostly eat as baby carrots)
2 bananas
bundle of celery (for fresh eating, our garden celery is better for cooking)
3-lb bag onions (to get me through until I buy a 50-lb bag in a few weeks)
10 cans tuna (still on sale)
1 jar mayo (still on sale)
2 large cans tomato paste (for pizza sauce)
1 large block cheddar
1 large block mozzarella
bag of pitted dates
25 oz of frozen sausage (on sale)
2 pints natural peanut butter
large bag roasted peanuts
large bag oats
salt
bulk cinnamon
bulk onion powder
bulk garlic powder
bulk peanut butter powder
bulk pickling spice
bag of raisins (smaller amount than I would normally buy, as we have so much fresh fruit)
2 lbs sliced pepperoni (on sale, to divide into 10 smaller bags for making pizzas)
1 gallon milk
5-lb bag whole wheat flour 
2 5-lb bags organic white flour (no additives that I'm allergic to)
2 canisters of cocoa powder

And that's it. I really didn't need all that much, even after going 4 weeks with minimal grocery shopping.

I have to include some pertinent information to our overall grocery spending. I will be receiving another delivery of beef (quarterly deliveries) in a week. That, of course, bumps up the actual grocery spending considerably this month. But that meat will last 3 months, so I divide the meat cost over those months when figuring monthly grocery spending for my own purposes.

5 comments:

  1. For a major grocery stock up, that's still a pretty low price. With your resourcefulness, I bet you could have gone longer without much shopping.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      I maybe could have gone longer, but we were running low on some foods that we particularly enjoy, namely peanut butter and mozzarella cheese for making pizza, both of which I buy at WinCo, my stock-up store. But really, those foods are preferences. We could have eaten other foods with similar nutritional merits. I think we all could go longer than we might believe with minimal shopping.

      Delete
  2. This is such a good time of year for garden produce. We are at the end of our blueberry stash, which makes me sad, but we have lots of peaches, and I think my husband will pick up pears this week. I have also noticed that my grocery costs are down--this is partly due to our daughter being back at college, but I think that the garden production is helping out with that. What a pleasant surprise for you, to have a relatively inexpensive grocery bill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      That's interesting that you've noticed a reduction in grocery spending. I really do think our garden has helped us a lot this year. Also, you noted that your daughter back at school may be contributing to a lower grocery cost for you. I've noticed when I'm just cooking for my husband and myself, I cook less starchy foods, lighter desserts, and more veggies (which come from the garden this time of year), and less food overall. Gone are the years when my husband would eat a lot every night.

      Yum, pears and peaches. Those are favorites of mine. Enjoy the abundance of summer fruit while you can!

      Delete
  3. My big stock up on groceries ends up being may 8 items. Usually, I need milk, half and half, and sweet italian coffee cream (sugar free). Raspberries, colored peppers and watermelon for now. Peanut butter, flour for bread making, a bag of carrots every 8 weeks. I buy frozen veggies but maybe ever 10 or 12 weeks and freeze them. I don't use an entire bag for a meal. I buy big bags of brown rice and keep that in the freezer so we can make that anytime. Also, gone are the days for us that we eat a lot. Last night was one slice each of chicken pot pie that I froze from a big pie I made about 8 weeks ago and a small baked potato to go with it. Apple slices and yogurt for "dessert". I'm still making things from things I find in the freezer. Tonight is one small steak with sliced peppers and onions sauteed to make fajitas. I always have tortillas in the freezer so that will go along with supper. Lettuce if we want. I really don't need to grocery shop. I found some pork chops in the freezer and I see a bag of meatballs as well as two servings of sloppy joe that I packaged with two buns for tomorrow.
    Alice

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for joining the discussion today. Here at creative savv, we strive to maintain a respectful community centered around frugal living. Creative savv would like to continue to be a welcoming and safe place for discussion, and as such reserves the right to remove comments that are inappropriate for the conversation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be a voice that helps someone else on their frugal living journey

Are you interested in writing for creative savv?
What's your frugal story?

Do you have a favorite frugal recipe, special insight, DIY project, or tips that could make frugal living more do-able for someone else?

Creative savv is seeking new voices.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

share this post