December 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

I'm posting the end of the month grocery spending journal, now, as I'll be posting our weekly Cheap & Cheerful Menus, tomorrow, and then it's on to New Year's! So, closing out December's budget today, and anything I spend between now and January 1st will fall into January's budget.


Dec. 2 Cash & Carry for all-purpose flour, 50-lbs on sale for $9.99. I had planned on buying 2 bags (100 lbs), but they only had 1 bag left, and that bag had a tear. They offered me $3 off that bag. They taped it up. It didn't look like much had leaked out, no more than 1 lb. So, I bought probably 49 lbs of all-purpose flour for $6.99, or about 14 cents/lb.

Dec. 3 Dollar Tree, I buy 1 box of graham crackers, 1 box of Wheat Thin type crackers, and 1 box of Ritz type crackers -- spent $3

Dec. 9 WinCo -- I buy 8 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips, at $1.68 each, 1 bag of coconut for $1.38, 2 bags of marshmallows for 98 cents each, and cocoa powder, for $2.06. I received 12 cents in bag credit.Total spent -- $17.72

Dec 10 Fred Meyer, Senior discount day. I bought half-gallon of almond vanilla milk for $1.99. I received a 16 oz jar of roasted peanuts, free, a bottle of Kraft BBQ sauce, free, and a small bag of Werthers caramel candies, free. I spent $1.99

Dec. 13 Fred Meyer, another Senior Discount day. I bought 4 15-oz jars of natural peanut butter, at $1.35 each, 1.27 lbs of salted, roasted almonds, at $4.49/lb, less a $2 off coupon, 3 packages of hot dogs for 80 cents each, 4 packages of flour tortillas for 89 cents each, 2 8-oz bricks of cream cheese, for 89 cents each, less a 45 cent coupon, 4 red-tape bananas at 49 cents/lb, 1 head of cabbage for 49 cents/lb, 6 half-gallons of whole milk and 4 half-gallons of orange juice, at 89 cents each. I spent $27.37

Dec. 14 Target, picking up stocking stuffers. I also buy the 70 oz bottle of Market Pantry Medium Salsa, for $4.99

Dec. 14 WinCo for some items for a veggie platter. I bought broccoli crowns ($1.10), baby carrots (98 cents), celery (98 cents), grape tomatoes ($1.48), Ranch dressing mix (58 cents) 16 oz mini-marshmallows (98 cents), 28 oz bag of tortilla chips ($2.98). Total spent $9.08.

Total spent for December, so far -- $71.14

Dec. 19 QFC for shank hams, unsliced, at $1.29/lb, limit 2. I also find turkey bacon on markdown for $1.39/12 oz package. I bought 7 packages. Total spent $39.64

Dec. 20 Fred Meyer for another bonus Senior Shopping discount. I bought a half-gallon almond milk for $1.79 (coupon plus discount), 2 lbs of BarS Meat franks, marked down to 79 cents/lb (went into the freezer right away), 5 lb box of mandarins for $5.99 (this will be the only box of mandarins I buy this year, likely, as they are so much more expensive than navel oranges), 1 bundle of celery at 69 cents/lb (83 cents for a the bundle), box of white cake mix (Friday Freebie), 2-liter of 7UP soda (Friday Freebie), package of Tim Tam cookies (Friday Freebie).  Total spent today -- $10.19

Total spent for December, so far -- $120.97

Dec. 25 I bought a $15 gift card to Jack-in-the-Box, at Fred Meyer, for the bonus fuel points. We used this gc on Christmas Day, along with $3.95, for a total of  $18.95

Dec. 26 at Fred Meyer for discounted items. I bought candy for Valentine's Day and next Christmas, but the cost of these will come out of our holiday budget. I also bought a 16 oz container of marked down candied glace cherries (the kind used in baking and fruitcake), for $1.79

Total spent for December 2016, $141.71

What I bought:

Produce

4 bananas
1 head of cabbage
4 half-gallons of orange juice
70 oz jug of tomato salsa
3/4 lb broccoli crowns
1 lb baby carrots
2 bundles of celery
3/4 lb of grape tomatoes
5 lbs of mandarin oranges (tangerines)

Dairy

2 half-gallons of almond milk
2 packages of cream cheese
6 half-gallons of whole milk

Meat

4.25 lbs of mixed meat hot dogs
23 lbs of bone-in ham
5.25 lbs of turkey bacon

Pantry

1 box of graham crackers
1 box of Wheat Thins type crackers
1 box of Ritz-type crackers
8 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of coconut
2 bag of mini marshmallows
2/3 lb cocoa powder
16 oz jar of peanuts (freebie)
Kraft BBQ sauce (freebie)
bag of Werthers candies (freebie)
4  15-oz jars of natural peanut butter
1.27 lbs of smoked almonds
4 lbs of flour tortillas
Ranch dressing/dip mix
28-oz bag of tortilla chips
1 box of Pillsbury cake mix (freebie)
1 package of Tim Tam cookies (freebie)
2-liter of 7UP soda (freebie)
49 lbs of all-purpose flour
16 oz glace cherries

Other

Some fast food for Christmas snacky dinner -- chicken strips, onion rings, egg rolls


Not nearly as extensive a list of foods this month, compared to November. Our pantry, fridge and freezer are simply too full, right now.

My budget coming into December was $190 plus a carry-forward surplus of $11.84, for a total amount available to spend of $201.84. I spent $141.71. I now have $60.13 in surplus to roll over to January.

Our fridge, freezer and pantry continue to look full. We received a Honey-Baked ham, still frozen, as a Christmas gift. As we'd already planned our Christmas dinner, I put the ham in our freezer. We now have 4 hams. I'll use one on New Year's Day, that will leave 3 half hams for this next year. I also have 1 whole turkey and some turkey leftovers, still in the freezer, plus some turkey bacon, ground beef and hot dogs. We're set for meat, unless I find a great price. We seem to be well-stocked in baking ingredients and canned goods. I'll need vegetable oil and yeast, soon, but nothing els, really on the "need" list.

Later, next month, I'll do some planning for special meals this spring (birthdays, Valentine's Day and Easter), to make sure I set aside some of the meat and goodies for those specific meals.

I hope your budget fared well this month.

Refrigerator triage during the busy holiday week

Over the holidays, it's easy to overlook some of the highly perishable foods in the refrigerator. There are so many goodies, coming and going, that some ordinary foods, that would normally get gobbled up, are pushed to the back, to spoil before use.

Before that happens (or before it happens too greatly), I begin some refrigerator triage.

First, I use anything made with meat, or that has touched meat, in the cooking.

This past week, that meant some marinara sauce which had meatballs cooked in it, and some bbq sauce which had cocktail sausages cooked in it. I combined those two sauce remnants, to use a sauce on a homemade pizza.

Next, I use any soon-to-expire dairy products.

This meant milk, whipping cream and sour cream in our house, this past week. I pushed the milk on anyone who would drink some. In the process, we started a new tradition in our home. After the late church service on Christmas Eve, we all joined in the living room for some hot cocoa. It was a very pleasant late night, together. I believe that this will continue forward, as a tradition in our family. And I used the last of the sour cream in a dip on Christmas night. I already mentioned whipping up the last pint of heavy cream, to freeze in mounds for future desserts.

After the meat and dairy, I inventory, and make plans to use, all of the fresh produce.

I found 2 acorn squash, 1 butternut, 1 spaghetti squash and 1 small pumpkin, all needing to be used. I cooked the 2 acorn squash, first, as they looked to be on their last legs. The other 3 squash will be cooked within the next 10-14 days.

I also have about 15 pounds of aging potatoes to use in a hurry. It looks like the next few meals will be heavy on the squash and potatoes.

I also had 3/4 of a lemon and a handful of fresh rosemary that was gifted to us earlier in the month. I peeled the lemon, and sliced and quartered the rest of the lemon. The lemon zest will be combined with the rosemary to make some of the Lemon-Rosemary Finishing Salt in this link. The quartered slices went into the freezer, for sage-honey-lemon tea that I drink when I have a cold.

In addition, I have a glassful of fresh parsley in the refrigerator. Just before the very cold weather set in, in early December, I cut all of the remaining parsley in the garden. I put it in a glass of water and kept it in the fridge. Several weeks later, it still looks okay. I will use as much as I can in the next day or two.

And, I found about a dozen very wrinkly apples, in the garage fridge. I had wanted to make a pie with some of them. Sometimes, though, there's just no time for what we want, and we have to go with what is easy. So, I made a quart of applesauce, instead.

That leaves us with fresh carrots, celery, onions, cabbage, oranges, tangerines and not-quite-aging potatoes in the refrigerator to use over the coming month.

That's about it on the highly perishable items left in our fridge. I had about 1 cup of rice pudding that went too long in the fridge and had to be thrown out. But otherwise, it looks like a very low-waste holiday period.