I am very thrilled to report that the grocery money is stretching really far this month. I have shopped at the restaurant supply (SmartFoodservice/Cash & Carry), Fred Meyer, and Walmart and have spent $90.24 so far, leaving $34.89 remaining of my $125.13 for the month. The only other store at which I will definitely shop this month is WinCo. However, I only plan on spending $5.67 there. I will have $29.22 leftover for making stock-up purchases as I find great deals.
What I bought:
25 lbs of rolled oats
1 gallon of mayonnaise (a stock-up item for winter)
50 lbs of all-purpose flour
15 dozen eggs
1 lb of butter (stretching this butter with oil, making soft butter to get us through August)
8 gallons of 2% milk (for drinking -- I'll freeze what we don't use for September)
3 gallons of whole milk (for making yogurt)
1 jar of instant regular coffee
1 jar of instant decaffeinated coffee
2 cans of tuna fish (a stock-up item for winter)
1/2 gallon of coconut milk (for my non-dairy use plus a couple of nights of curry for the family)
2 packages of hot dogs (for 4 small cookouts in August)
10 lbs of chicken leg quarters
3 cans of frozen orange juice concentrate (a stock-up item for winter)
3 lbs of vegetable shortening (for pie-making this summer and fall)
I plan to buy:
12 oz of chocolate chips
80 corn tortillas
$1.50 worth of cocoa powder (a stock-up item for fall and winter)
You will notice that there is no mention of buying any fresh produce. That is because we simply don't need any this month! Yay! We were given a whole watermelon, and we've been picking blackberries, pears, and apples for our fruit. And we still have rhubarb! For veggies, we have tomatoes, lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, beets, cucumbers, snow peas, garlic, and watercress that we're harvesting right now from our garden. We still have about 5 pounds of carrots, some onions, a little cabbage, and a few potatoes left from previous months. The summer squash and green beans will be ready to harvest in about one week, and the potatoes, winter squash/pumpkin, plums, and more pears, apples, and a few ever-bearing raspberries will be ready in September. I nixed the bananas and any other produce purchases for August, unless I come across a stellar deal.
As you can see in my list of purchases, I'm already stocking up (little by little) on some foods for fall and winter. I'll continue to buy what I can, here and there, as I find good prices. So, that's the state of our grocery budget for August. We're doing well and feel so blessed.
