December 2014 Grocery Money Journal

Happy New Year, friends!!!

I love the start of a new year. I don't think I've ever had a year when I thought, "oh I wish this year weren't coming to an end".  I love the hope for things to come. Perhaps that's why I enjoy planting the spring garden so much -- it's the hope of a fantastic gardening year that pulls me in.

And this new year has special meaning and hope for me. I've been suffering from extreme fatigue for the last couple of months (okay, let's face it it's been years now). I'm working on this, and this year, I have expectations of getting my energy back. So, if you can ride the waves of energy highs and lows with me, while I figure this out, I'll be blogging as much as my energy levels allow.

To the grocery money journal!

We are well-stocked for winter, now. I've been trying to organize the pantry so that I'm not tripping over things in there. I am very grateful, though, for a full pantry, fridge and freezer. However, I've got to get a handle on my spending. Again this month, I am in the hole. Here's how it panned out.


Dec. 5 Dollar Tree for soy milk. I buy 4 quarts, spending $4

Dec. 11 Cash and Carry wholesaler. I've got one of my daughters with me to help with a 50 lb sack. I buy 50 lbs of brown rice ($23.89 -- we've been out of rice for a month now and I've been missing it, not on sale this week, but who cares -- throw caution to the wind and buy it anyway, at 48cents/lb), 3 pound brick of frozen spinach ($3.08), and another 3 pound brick of frozen collard greens ($3.57). (These frozen blocks of greens may look difficult to work with for just family meals, but when I get them home from the store, they are softened just enough to use a serrated bread knife to cut each 3-lb brick into quarters. I bag up the quarters, and pop into the freezer. Problem solved.) 2 heads of green cabbage ($1.45 each), and 1 head of red cabbage ($1.58), and 1 72-count package of corn tortillas (for making chips and tacos ($1.69). I also find 1 lb blocks (not cut into quarters and separately wrapped, so I cut them for cooking and table use as I open each one) of butter for $2.48/lb. I buy 10 pounds. This may be the best price I find on butter, for a few months. Total spent at Cash and Carry, $61.51.

Also, Fred Meyer is one the way home from Cash and Carry, so when I have time, I run in and check for marked down milk. I pick up a flyer at the door, and find whole grain pasta on sale for 79/cents a 12-oz box (w/coupon, limit 4), and I buy a jar of mayo (30-oz) for $2.19, and 12-oz bag of chocolate chips (for making peppermint bark this weekend) for $1.79. Total spent at Fred Meyer, $7.14 (and sadly, no marked down milk :-(  )

Dec. 13 Dollar Tree to pick up a couple of stocking stuffers, and 2 boxes of crackers for our family tree trimming party. I was going to only buy 1 box, but I lost my head, and bought 2!! (Must have been just before lunch, and I was hungry, or hangry as the case might be.)

Dec. 18 I just got the call from the radiologist and it's good news, benign. How should we celebrate? Let's go buy a box of chocolates at Bartell's (local drug store). They have boxes of Russell Stover's chocolates on sale this month for $3.99. These boxes usually sell for $9.99 to $12.99, so this sale is a good one. I would like to stock up on these for future gatherings, but I just can't trust myself to have an extra box of chocolates sitting in the pantry. So, we buy 1 box for $3.99

While out, I remember that Walgreen's has eggs on sale for $1.29/dozen, and I am very low on eggs. So we swing by and pick up 4 dozen eggs, spending $5.16.

Dec. 19 Cash and Carry has 40-lb cases of navel oranges on sale again. W have really plowed through the last 2 cases of oranges, so I want to get more. When I check the cases, it looks like the oranges are nearing the end of their peak eating quality, so I find the best case, and only buy 1 case, for $16.98. They'll last through January, and perhaps into early February. We also really went through the cabbage, so I pick up 2 more heads of green cabbage ($1.45 each), plus about 10 bananas for $2.46 (45cents/lb), and a container of chili powder ($3.49). Spent $25.83

Still looking for marked down milk, so we stop at QFC. I pick up my 2 half hams for $1.49/lb, 2 small packages of turkey hot dogs, 5 hot dogs per package, for 49 cents, and enough almonds from the bulk bins to make holiday almond and dried fruit bread. Spent $28.70.

Dec. 28 Coming home from church, my daughters ask to stop at QFC and Rite Aid, so at QFC we find half-gallons of eggnog marked down to $1.99 (buy 1) and a 1-lb package of turkey bacon for $1.59. Spent $3.58

Dec. 29 Making a return of a Christmas gift at Fred Meyer, I pick up a flyer at the door and find half-gallons of milk on sale for $1.25 each, limit 4 w/ coupon. I buy my 4, all of whole milk, so I can make yogurt, and spend $5.

Dec. 31 Stopping in at QFC on errands, and finally find milk on markdown. Gallon jugs of 1% for $2.09. My freezer is really full, so I only buy 6 gallons, spending $12.54.


For the month of December, I spent $159.45. I know, that doesn't sound like much, but I was carrying forward a deficit of $117.96 from November. My budget this month was $160, less $117.96, leaving me with a budget of $42.04. At the end of December, I am now in the hole, $117.41. This deficit will be carried forward into January 2015's grocery budget. Perhaps I just won't need all that much, or just won't find any stellar deals. In any case, I do need to rein in my spending, and bring my budget back into balance.

Do you get an office holiday party?

My one paying job, childcare, doesn't exactly provide a holiday party for me. The ladies whose children I take care of on Thursday mornings, all enjoy a holiday party while I watch the kiddos. Hmmm, yeah, not quite fair, right? Oh well, it's all part of that job.

Anyway, as my son and husband were heading out the door, one day last week, they mentioned office holiday parties. "Holiday party?" I exclaim in a rather disgruntled tone, every year. "Nobody provides a holiday party for meeeeee". (Think whiny voice, here.)

So, what's a lonely housewife to do, with no holiday party? Well, make one for myself, that's what!

And, as circumstances would have it, a good friend of mine, is currently working just down the street from me, at her boss's home, and is the only employee there, with, you guessed it, no holiday party either. Plus, there are my 2 daughters home during the days, on winter holiday break from classes.

That's one plus two plus me, equals four for this holiday party!

My daughters are helping me plan and prepare a nice little luncheon for the four of us, on Tuesday (with much appreciated input from another good friend -- :-) thanks friend!).

Here's our menu:

Tomato-basil soup (made with canned tomato paste and frozen basil from summer)
Toasted cheese sandwiches, cut into stars using a star-shaped cookie cutter
Pumpkin bread with cream cheese (made the pumpkin bread over the weekend)
Curried pea and peanut coleslaw
Fruit salad (using whatever fruit we have on hand, canned, fresh and dried)
Nuts
Chocolates
Frosted Christmas sugar cookies (made those on Sunday afternoon)
Orange-spice tea (black tea infused with fresh orange slices, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks)


When my kids were younger, the day that my husband had his office party, the kids and I would put on our own party. Some years, we had enough cash to do a lunch out, other years we just put together fun and festive foods to enjoy here at home. This year, we're doing lunch, using only food items we have here on hand.

We even happen to have the chocolates "on hand" this year! "How does a frugal person happen to have chocolates on hand?", you ask. Thursday afternoon, after I got my good medical news, I asked my girls what we should do to celebrate. One daughter exclaimed, "See's!!!!!!!" (She was rather vocal about wanting to hit up the candy shop.) But it was mid-afternoon and the mall parking lot would be jammed. So I suggested that we go to the drug store and buy a box of Russell Stovers (which happen to be on sale this week, for $3.99 a box). We chose a box of all dark chocolates, brought them home and each picked 1 to eat, then and there. The rest of the box has been stashed in a cupboard for our "office" party.

If you don't get an office party, either, consider throwing your own party. Those of us who hold the fort down during the day really do deserve a holiday party, too!!!

Cheers!! (raising my cup of tea to all of us who make our own holiday parties)



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