Sept. 2025: Another Month of Few Grocery Trips

late September flowers

Last month when this happened, it was the deck railing paint job that was keeping me from shopping. This month it has been the harvest. Every day I tell myself I'll try to work a grocery trip in the next day, but the work comes before shopping. We can always eat from what we have on hand, but I can't harvest and process the plums, apples, pears, green figs etc after they've fallen and been pecked at by squirrels, rabbits, and birds.

Once again, it's been about 4 weeks since I went to WinCo last. In between that visit and now I popped out to Walmart for the necessities, then down the road to the restaurant supply. 

Our refrigerator shelves look a bit bare. But we're still eating well. The thing that is allowing us to go so long between grocery shopping trips is our garden. 

A typical meal at our house uses a lot of garden produce.
Tonight we had garden pumpkin cubes, roasted, garden kale salad,
garden fresh tomatoes, plus stuffing topped with chicken and gravy

I've thought about going to WinCo after dinner. But that's a sketchy area after dark. In fact, most of my area is a sketchy area after dark these days. My daughter-in-law warned about evenings in the parking lot at one store. My husband doesn't like me or our daughters going to another grocery store after dark. It's just sketch, sketch, sketch in the parking lots of the bargain grocery stores after dark these days. I could go to a more upscale grocery store in the community adjacent to us. But that would cost extra for the basics.

Desserts usually contain something from the garden, too.
Tonight we had spiced fig bread, using unripe green figs.

Anyway, all that to say that I did the one big stock-up at WinCo the first week of September (blogged about here), spending $125.73. And then not until the 22nd did I go shopping again, Walmart and the restaurant supply. Walmart for milk, instant coffee, instant decaf, 1 dozen eggs, 1.5 lbs jalapẽnos, 1 can of frozen apple juice concentrate (to mix with homemade crabapple juice for spiced cider), a mega pack of chocolate chips, and a handful of bananas, spending $39.93. The restaurant supply for canned tomatoes for making salsa before the garden cilantro bolts. I bought a case of 6 #10 cans, spending $21.49. My total in-person spending for September $187.15. My big stock-up shopping list keeps growing. I had hoped to go to WinCo today, but the green figs need harvesting and processing. Maybe tomorrow . . .

I will add that my low spending doesn't reflect all we actually spend, as in August I paid for our latest beef delivery. I get deliveries every 3 months. So I need to add $119.66 each month to my local spending, bringing September's spending up to $306.81. On top of this, we use a greens powder (that I order online when running low and I find a stellar coupon code) in smoothies everyday, adding about $65. So, about $371.81 for food for my family for the month. I still think that's a very low spend for 4 adults who are eating at home or making food to take almost every meal of each day. In comparison, the thrifty food plan put out by the USDA suggests $1003.10. I'm doing good.

So, another month with very few grocery trips. Will October be any different? I'm done with the plums and almost all of the apples. I still have crabapples, late pears, potatoes, carrots, celery, and unripe figs to deal with, But maybe this next month wont' be so crazy.