This was another expensive month. Are you finding this too, that your spending on groceries is far higher than usual? On paper, I had it all planned. Over the summer, I put together a large surplus pantry that I would supplement with some fresher foods throughout the fall and winter with a small-ish budget of about $100 to $150 per month. That sounds totally reasonable for my family. After all, how much can a few gallons of milk, produce, eggs, cheese, and a little meat actually cost each month, I reasoned.
So, in October I shopped in 4 stores, twice in Walmart, once in Dollar Tree, and once in Cash & Carry/SmartFood Service (restaurant supply). I spent $304.52. (Remember, this amount is to supplement all of the food that I bought for my emergency pantry. So about $150 to $200 more than I had planned for the month.)
Curious about this extra spending, I sat down and wrote out the reasons why I'm spending so much on food.
- We're all eating 3 meals and multiple snacks each day, for 7 days per week. Obviously, we all must have been picking up food here or there, such as meals and treats offered at the office or school, or a midday break at Starbucks for a treat and beverage. Since late February, I haven't had so much as a single French fry from McDonalds, frozen yogurt Sundae from Menchies, or a donut from Henry's Donuts. Home-cooked meals have become a 3/7/365 thing for my household.
- I'm no longer able to shop at multiple stores each week to get all of the sales and deals. Instead, I am choosing just one store to shop at a time (except the week that I also went to Dollar Tree, as it's usually a quick stop) and buy all that I am wanting at that store, spending more on some items than I used to. Here's an example -- I won't be shopping at the year-end clearance at my favorite produce stand. I typically buy a lot of produce on that day, saving a hefty amount on our fresh produce for the next couple of months. But, that day is crowded at that venue and I don't feel like standing elbow to elbow as I pick through the apples. Instead, I bought 10 pounds of apples in bags at the restaurant supply, spending nearly double per pound what I'd spend at the clearance event at the produce stand.
- I'm not shopping as often as I used to, so I'm not catching clearance markdowns on needed items, such as milk or meat. Instead, I'm paying full price on almost everything.
- The least expensive brand on an item is typically sold out, now. As a result, I've had to buy more expensive brands than I'm accustomed. Example -- Great Value decaf coffee is $3.57/jar, while Folger's decaf is about $6.50/jar. I've had to spend nearly double on decaf on several occasions. Great Value canned pumpkin has been sold out since mid-August at my local Walmart. I broke down and bought Libby's pumpkin this week. I was still able to save some money by buying the #10 can at Cash & Carry, but it was not as much of a savings per ounce as Walmart's store brand.
- I try to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible these days. I don't spend time in the aisles comparing prices, but instead make out a comprehensive list for each shopping trip and stick to that list like a fly on fly tape. I do make online comparisons as much as I can before I shop. But you often miss out on unadvertised deals when your only comparisons are made online before shopping.
- We need treats. Face it, life during a pandemic is complicated for many reasons. If treat food can help us all in dealing with the stress, then that's what we'll do. I don't eat a lot of sweet, baked items, so some of our treats are foods like nuts, crackers, and pretzels, which all adds up.
- I am feeding 4 adults while doing several other things each day. There simply isn't enough time in a day to make my own crackers and pretzels or other snacky foods. I bought frozen French fries this month, a processed food item that I would normally just make from whole potatoes. We could just always have oven-roasted potatoes, but back to needing treats -- French fries perked up a homemade burger meal.
- We all eat a lot of fruits and vegetables in our household. A lot of fruits and vegetables. My garden provides for summer, but not much for winter with our appetites.
- We're all being much more physically active, which results in larger appetites and more food.
- I am trying to shore up our health with a larger variety of fruits and vegetables to get through the next few months. I think that I've bought more items like Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cranberry sauce, beets, and yams than I would normally buy in fall. Since my fridge space is limited, I am buying many of these items in canned form for pantry storage. Canned yams are more expensive than fresh yams in the fall. But they store on a shelf and not in my limited fridge space.
- It seems like there are fewer deals out there. Fred Meyer discontinued Senior Discount Day and their Friday freebies. There has been little to nothing on Walmart's clearance shelf. In fact, many of Walmart's regular shelves have been looking empty. At Cash & Carry, I got the last bottle of lemon juice that was on sale this week. Cash & Carry doesn't offer rain checks. So, I would have been out of luck had I not been at the right place at the right time.
- Many grocery items are more expensive this year. According to usinflationcalculator.com, the cost of food in September 2020 was 3.9% higher than the same month of 2019. 2020's food inflation is the highest it has been since 2011, when the cost of food rose by 4.5% over that of its previous year. While I moan about the current food inflation, it's really not that bad. The US hasn't seen truly significant food inflation since early 1981. From 1973 through early 1981, there were several years that saw double-digit food inflation. We can be grateful for a mere 3.9% increase today.
- I think I am panic-buying food. I am afraid that I could run out of any particular ingredient in the next few months right during a period with high virus transmission in my area. Not wanting to run out for that necessary ingredient in an unplanned way, there is a part of me that is trying to prevent running out of anything. Now to qualify my fears, when I checked our counties "heat map" for most recent COVID cases, my immediate shopping area is right smack in the middle of the hardest hit neighborhood of our rather large county. In addition, case counts have nearly tripled in just the last month for this county.
These are not just excuses. Life has turned upside down with this pandemic. I've had to change how (and how much), when, and where I normally shop. The end result is a greater cost to keep my family fed.
So, since I know that we're all kind of curious what others have in their shopping cart, here's my list of what I bought (not with quantities, cuz I'm writing this from memory):
milk, cheese, eggs, beef, hot dogs, crackers/pretzels, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin, tomato paste, beets, corn, sauerkraut, spinach, green beans, peas, pineapple, applesauce, carrots, apples, a green pepper, broccoli cuts, cauliflower, mixed vegetables, blueberries, French fries, sugar, flour, salt, molasses, lemon juice, chili powder, ground ginger, curry powder, yams, cranberry sauce, graham crackers, cabbage, bananas, apple and orange juice concentrates, coffee/decaf, black-eye peas, toasted oat cereal, olives, candy corn, and a small amount of trick-or-treat candy (just in case) -- whew!
What I think will happen in November, December, and January is that I truly will not need to buy much in the way of groceries. My November list only includes celery, more carrots and bananas, oranges or mandarins, some sort of meat for Thanksgiving, sparkling cider, eggs, and milk. I expect that my grocery spending will be much lower in November than this month and last.
So that's my grocery recap for the month of October. I realize there's still a week left to the month. However, I'm done shopping until November.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends!
