March 2024 Grocery Spending -- It Was a Doozy!

Wow, all I can say is it was an expensive month for us. Between getting another order of beef, my twin daughters' birthday, our wedding anniversary, and Easter, I felt like I was spending money every time I turned around.

I shopped at Fred Meyer 3 times, Grocery Outlet 1 time, WinCo 1 time, and Walmart 1 time. My arrangements with the rancher for beef are handled online and delivered to us.

I spent $65.54 at Fred Meyer, buying coconut milk, deli salads, bananas, strawberries, taco shells, potato chips, watermelon chunks, rye bread, tossed salad kits, cheese, butter, green cabbage, sparkling water and milk. A lot of these items were for a picnic celebrating my daughters' birthday and the cake that followed, plus a nice anniversary dinner at home.

I spent $16.61 at Walmart, buying corn tortillas, milk, prune juice, canned olives, Roma tomatoes, and bananas.

I spent $25.71 at Grocery Outlet, buying Cheez Balls snack, canned beets, canned pumpkin, graham crackers, saltine crackers, and a bag of apples. This was a stop after church. We discovered they mark a lot of items down on Sundays. Everything on the list above was significantly reduced in price, such as graham crackers for 49 cents/box, canned pumpkin for 25 cents/can. I stocked up! 

Last but not least, I spent $55.16, buying milk, dried dates, smoked salmon, eggs, cheese, grape tomatoes, sliced pepperoni, 2 bags of apples, tofu, peanuts, radishes, bananas, asparagus, celery, and strawberries. Most of what I bought on this day was for Easter dinner.

So, in grocery stores I spent $163.02. Our beef order came to $359. So in total, I spent $522.02.

April shouldn't be too bad for grocery spending for us, much, much lower than March. We do have 2 birthdays this month, and those always add something to our grocery spending. However, we are trying to empty one of the freezers, so I can defrost it before I begin to harvest and freeze garden produce. And that effort will encourage us to use what we have on hand.

How did grocery spending go for you in March? Do you tend to dine out for special celebrations, or do you cook at home? If you use a budget, how does holiday and special occasion meal-related spending fit in with your regular grocery budget? I used to keep a separate budget for holidays and special occasions. I dropped that a few years ago, mostly to simplify the budgeting.

Savory French Toast Sticks

This was another food I made for Easter dinner. In lieu of making scratch dinner rolls, I used some thick homemade bread slices from loaves I baked earlier in the week to make these, saving me some time and effort in making a bread side for our dinner.

Savory French Toast Sticks are just what they sound like they would be. They're thick slices of bread cut into sticks, then dipped in an egg, milk, and savory-seasoned batter before frying in olive ad/or vegetable oil. 

For my batch of Savory French Toast Sticks, in addition to the beaten eggs, I used coconut milk (both DIL and I avoid cow's milk), salt, black pepper, fresh parsley, dried oregano, garlic powder, and a couple of tablespoons of Parmesan cheese for the batter. I rolled the dipped bread sticks in additional Parmesan cheese before frying on four sides in a skillet with a combo of olive oil and vegetable oil. 

I made these earlier in the day, then reheated on a baking sheet and covered with foil in the oven just before dinner. These were very tasty, even as leftovers the next day we all thought they were good.

The bread I used was our usual homemade half whole wheat/half white sandwich and toast bread. However, I also think these would be tasty if made with whole slices of a narrow French baguette to use as a side for a soup or salad supper, like garlic bread but more flavorful and with the added bonus of protein from eggs and milk. Or, served as appetizers for a snack-y type of meal.

A week ago I mentioned I had scrubbed up several clay flower pots to use for serving foods on the Easter table. The Savory French Toast Sticks were one of the foods for which I used 2 plastic wrap-lined clay pots, one at each end of the table.

Have you tried a non-sweet French toast before?