Grocery Planning For August

Our supplies were hit hard in the month of July. We ran out of so many things and had very little wiggle room to restock. I sacrificed the purchase of all-purpose flour so that I could buy more milk, fresh produce and take advantage of a deal on tomato paste. The good news is that we have a 9 or 10 month supply of tomato paste. That's a lot of pizza, spaghetti, tomato soup, and ketchup. With the all-purpose flour, I hid away a small stash (about 2 quarts) in another closet, only using it when absolutely necessary. We used whole wheat flour exclusively for everything else, pancakes, waffles, muffins, bread, and as a thickener. This worked -- we got through a long month on very little white flour. I also ran out of decaffeinated coffee. I'm on to my stock of various herb teas. They are quite good, but I do miss the taste of coffee first thing in the morning. We finished off the fresh eggs (from the 15 dozen case I bought a couple of months ago); however, we still a some frozen eggs. And we just kept running out of milk. I pre-spent some of August's grocery money on 2 gallons of milk over the weekend, as I had a coupon. I thought this would be August's milk, but I noticed yesterday that one of those gallons had been brought into the kitchen from the garage fridge. Sigh. We've gone through 10 gallons of milk this month. That is double what we had been using. I think someone must be watering the garden with the milk. What this must mean, though, is that if we're going through so much milk, then we must be going through less of something else. Produce needed constant replenishing. Even with a garden, I had to buy additional produce all month long. So for this next month, I need a better plan.

I have 13 cents leftover from July, but I pre-spent $3.98 on milk for August. For the rest of my August budget, then, I have $121.15.

Given how much milk we went through, I need to up my milk purchase to about 9 additional gallons. Flipp.com indicates that milk will be on sale at Fred Meyer through next Tuesday (Senior Discount day), so a gallon will cost me $1.71. Next item, even though the all-purpose flour is not on sale at Cash & Carry, I'll buy the 50-lb bag that I had planned for this past month. And I'll get my jar of instant decaf the next time I'm down by Walmart. Hopefully we can get by with an additional $15 for produce for the month, beyond the bananas and watermelon. We'll see. But I do think I need an extra $10 that isn't allocated to any item, just to be on the safe side to get us through till September.

Let's see how this all works out, now.

13 cents leftover from July, 2 gallons milk pre-bought ($3.98) -- $121.15 for the rest of August's groceries.

Cash & Carry/SmartFood Service

old fashioned rolled oats, 25 lb bag, 15.89 (63 cents/lb, check WinCo’s prices first)

Simply Value egg yolk mayo, gal, 5.97, thru 8/4

ADM hotel and rest. flour, 50 lbs, 13.09

First Street large loose eggs, 15 doz. 8.99

so far at C & C 43.94

WinCo

chocolate chips 1.88

oats, maybe if under 63 cents/lb

garlic powder if less than $4.61/lb

bananas, 42 cents/lb, 6 lbs total, 2.52

corn tortillas, 80 ct, 2.29

cocoa powder, about $1 worth

WinCo so far – 7.69 (w/o oats and garlic powder)

Fred Meyer -- Senior Day

butter, Moovelous 2.51 ea, get 2 (5.04),  get 1

milk – 9 gals, 16.11

instant coffee, One of the Perks, 2.69

Heritage Farms hot dogs, 75 cents, 2 packs

almond milk, 1/2 gallon, 2.25
kroger canned tuna, 71 cents, get 2 (1.42)

Fred Meyer, so far 29.01 $26.50

Walmart

decaf coffee 3.58

bananas, 42 cents/lb (if don't get at WinCo)

garlic powder 98 cents

chicken leg quarters 5.98

Great Value orange juice, 12-oz 1.23

shortening great value 3.44

Walmart so far 15.21 $14.23

Sprouts

watermelon, 1.98 whole (w/ raincheck)

That is $97.83, so far. A bit more than I would like to have already allocated. So, I went out to the garden to check on the garlic. Remember the garlic scapes from a couple of weeks ago? Well, some of my garlic is ready for digging. This means I can x out the garlic powder for the month. In addition, I thought I'd cut back on the butter to just 1 pound. After digging a little garlic, I made some soft butter just as I have done in the past (see this link).

In addition, I thought we could use oil that I flavor with herbs and garlic from the garden. Have you ever seen flavored oils for dipping bread? The oil base is usually olive oil. Desperate times call for desperate measures, or so they say, so I just used my ordinary vegetable oil (that I bought in a 35 lb box a couple of months ago -- gee, I knew that would come in handy). For this first batch I chose rosemary, garlic, and kosher salt. The salt is completely optional. I just thought it would ease the transition between salted butter and oil for my family. I made just a very small jar of this seasoned oil. In case you haven't heard this, you shouldn't make flavored oils with garlic and then store at room temperature or for too long. There's a slight risk of botulism growing in homemade garlic-infused oil that is kept unrefrigerated or for too long. (See this article for more info.) The FDA recommends using homemade garlic-infused oils within a week and to keep these oils refrigerated. So, that will be on my radar for the beginning of next week. I'll plan a dinner that incorporates any remaining seasoned oil for Sunday or Monday. (Hmmm, pasta salad might be good with this oil.)  After making the oil, I made something else that can be used for spreading on bread -- pesto! I know this won't last more than a day or two, but it will be very appreciated, here. We should be able to manage just fine with buying only 1 pound of butter this next month. (I still have 2 pounds in the freezer, but I'll be saving those for the holidays.)

This now brings me to $94.34. That will leave $26.81 for wiggle room, extra produce as we need it, and a little leftover in case I find a great sale on something. Another tight month, but I think we're doing okay. I'll be stocking up on oats for the cold weather season. (It's not that far off,  shudder.) The mayo is on sale and will replace our current container sometime this fall when it runs out. The eggs will last at least 3 months, perhaps 4 months. Our stockpile of staples is very slowly growing.