March Grocery Recap

I'm going to finish this up for the month a day early. For March, I had roughly 3 1/2 grocery trips. Early in the month, I piggy-backed on my daughter's shopping at Target for 1 gallon of milk, spent $2.59. A few days later I was shopping at Fred Meyer for garden items and picked up a bag of ground flax seeds for $3.29. Mid-month, I did a pick-up order at Walmart to begin restocking a couple of things, spending $46.20. Because I'm also shopping in person at WinCo now, I also shopped there mid-month to pick up regular food items to get through the month. I spent $62.99. And finally, the other day, I did another pick-up at Walmart to restock flour. I spent $37.70. My monthly spending for March came to $152.77.

This is what I bought:

3 gallons vegetable oil, Walmart, $4.44 each

8 10-lb bags flour for bread, Walmart, $5.98 each (these bags are airtight, reusable zippered plastic and can store without probs with bugs; exp date is Feb. 2022)

1 5-lb bag whole wheat flour, Walmart, $4.14 (trying a new brand)
2 5-oz bags dried cherries, Walmart, $2.98

1 bag oyster crackers, WinCo, $1.19
2 boxes crackers, WinCo, $1.28, $1.58
1 box animal cookies, WinCo, $1.38
1 box toasty o's cereal, WinCo, $1.68
10-lb bag sugar, WinCo, $4.95
1 bag chocolate chips, WinCo, $1.68

1 can black olives, WinCo, 98 cents
1 jar mayo, WinCo, $1.98

1/2 lb pastel M&Ms, WinCo, $1.95

2 jars instant decaf, $6.32 ea

bag of ground flax seeds, $3.29

3 gallons 2% milk, 1 gallon whole milk (for making yogurt), WinCo, $2.28 ea for 3, $2.78 for 1
1 gallon whole milk (for making yogurt), Target, $2.59
2 lbs shredded sharp cheddar, 2 lbs shredded mozzarella, WinCo, $4.98 each

2 18-ct eggs, WinCo, $1.45 ea

8-ct box all-beef corndogs (special dinner for daughters), WinCo, $4.58
refrigerated cinnamon rolls (special breakfast for daughters), WinCo, $1.69

10 lbs apples, WinCo, 50 cents/lb
1 bundle celery, WinCo, 98 cents
1 head cabbage, WinCo, 48 cents/lb
8 bananas, WinCo, 42 cents/lb
3 cans frozen orange juice conc, WinCo, $1.30 each
3 cans apple juice conc, WinCo. 99 cents each

I didn't shop for meat as I had planned. I'll get to that in the next week. I did stock up on flour for yeast baking. (I also keep standard all-purpose flour on hand.) I'm also trying out a small bag of 100% whole wheat flour from the same company. 

We are still eating out of our freezers and pantry. In addition, our garden is now producing kale, watercress, and chives for us several times per week, and the sorrel will begin producing in early April. 

We've been baking several times per week lately. A pan of brownies one day, applesauce muffins the next, followed by a couple of loaves of sandwich bread, cupcakes, pie, etc. There is always something to snack on in the kitchen. Breakfasts are toast, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, and/or yogurt. We've had a lot of homemade soups for lunches lately. Plus sandwiches, eggs, fruit, veggies, yogurt, cheese. As I've mentioned in past posts, dinners are homey and filling scratch foods like pizza, macaroni and cheese, eggs, meatloaf, chicken casseroles, chicken and dumplings, beef stew, chicken nachos, chicken salad, bean/TVP burritos, rice and beans, TVP meatballs and spaghetti, etc. 

These past few months have been rather easy on the budget, but I expect next month will be a big-spend month. I want to pick up several packages of meat and will need to restock some pantry items from the restaurant supply. Buying those institutional-size packages may be cheaper per unit, but up-front they seem costly. And that about wraps up my grocery spending for the month.