What was in my grocery cart for September?

a north-facing window seat -- our produce staging area for the time being

If you'll recall, last month I spent a whopping amount grocery shopping. Part of that was a beef delivery, which about doubled my spending for the month. Another hefty part was stocking up for an extended repair of our car after my daughter's accident. (The car is still not repaired -- ugh -- they ordered the lamp kit and it went missing. Waiting on a reorder. . .) Anyway, I expected to spend a lot, lot less this month, due to all of the stock-up last month and not having a car for several weeks.

So, how much did I spend? How did my shopping differ from my norm?

Here we go . . .

Just before turning in the car -- on the way home from church, we stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up hot dog buns and applewood smoking chips for our cook-out and smoke-out the next day. I spent $7.19. 

The car went in for repairs Tuesday morning, September 3.

By September 13 (Friday the 13th), we were out of milk and had no car. One daughter needed a few things for herself, so she took a bike up to the highway, then caught a bus to Walmart. She had enough room in her backpack to add a gallon of milk and head of cabbage for the family. I reimbursed her $7.21 for those items.

We found out our car was totaled -- repairs exceeded the value -- so my husband and I took 2 buses to get to a car dealership. We thought we'd just be looking, but we came home with our new-to-us car. Directly across the street from the car lot is a Walmart. We swung by there just to get bananas, turkey snack sticks, and a couple of non-food necessities, spending $8.05.

Loving having a car again, I happily drove to pick up one daughter from a cat and house-sitting gig on September 21. We stopped by QFC to get some apple cider. They had half-gallons of cider for $1.99.

September 26. In the deal for our car, we asked to have the windshield replaced. Today was the day it was scheduled. Both Grocery Outlet and Walmart are a short walk from the dealership. I went to Grocery Outlet for a package of bacon ($2.50) and Walmart for a gallon of milk ($3.56) and a bag of frozen turkey sausage links ($6.98). I spent $13.04 this day. The brand of bacon at Grocery Outlet is Top Valu. It's uncured bacon from Canada. The quality of the bacon is good, although the slices are irregular. GO's regular price on this bacon is $2.50/12-oz package, much, much less than bacon at Walmart or WinCo. I seek out uncured deli products when I can.

Something weird that I noticed in Walmart today -- the freezer compartment where frozen sausage is located was practically empty, ditto on the milk case. I haven't seen bare shelves like this in a couple of years. And it wasn't overly crowded when I've been lately. It doesn't feel like they're just selling out of everything quickly due to crowds. The last time I saw a milk shortage in a store was during a winter storm period when trucks couldn't get through mountain passes, I think in 2019. Eggs were $22.00 per 5-dozen case, almost $4.50/dozen at Walmart. I did see at Grocery Outlet that they had medium eggs for around $2.60 or $2.70/dozen. I'll be picking up several dozen eggs at Grocery Outlet later this week or sometime next week.

September 29. So far this month I have spent $37.48 for the month of September.

I'll stop right here for a moment. Grocery shopping in person without a car is challenging, but not entirely impossible if you have physical mobility. I wouldn't want to go through a month without a major stock-up again. My last major stock-up was the last week of August. So it has been a month using primarily what we had. The good news is that with a garden, I could do this in the summer and early fall months again if I had to. We got so much produce out of our own little yard. The garden along with a big stock-up in August carried us through, nicely.

What I bought this month through September 29:

2 gallons milk

2 packages turkey snack sticks

12 oz package bacon
bag of turkey breakfast sausage

1 head cabbage
1 bunch bananas

1/2 gallon apple cider

1 package hot dog buns
1 bag smoking wood chips

Now on to the rest of September's grocery shopping.  I could have bought more at Walmart the day we bought the car. But I didn't think we'd actually buy a car that day, but just look. So I didn't have a shopping list made out for a big shopping trip, and I really, really don't do well shopping without a list. Without the car, we would've been carrying the groceries home on 2 buses then walking a mile at the end. My husband is disabled and uses crutches all of the time. He couldn't have helped with the carrying. So the plan had been one bag of groceries at Walmart that day. As for the rest of the month, I've been busy with getting the garden taken care of and canning. 

Today, Monday the 30th, is the first day I could dedicate to a big shopping trip. I went to WinCo, which is further from our house that any of my other stores. WinCo has a great bulk section, and I needed a few bulk items. The rest of their prices meet or beat Walmart's most of the time.

Here's what I bought at WinCo this morning:

Fruits and Vegetables (fresh and frozen)

head of cabbage

bananas

2 bags Gala apples (green tag--means marked down)

jalapeños for salsa

green pepper

red pepper for relish

acorn squash

whole pumpkin

frozen broccoli

Bulk Section

bulk sliced almonds (for almond coconut bars)

bulk baking powder

bulk kosher salt (for relish, pickles, and salsa)

bulk iodized salt

bulk peanuts

bulk corn starch

bulk natural peanut butter, freshly ground

bulk orange slices candies

Meat

family pack boneless skinless chicken breast

Pantry

bag of dates

vegetable oil

5 jars of applesauce (green tag)

6 cans tuna (also green tag)

mayonnaise

Dairy

gallon milk

4 lbs butter (green tag)

I spent $109.07 today at WinCo, bringing up my monthly spend to $146.55.

This shouldn't be at the tail end of my post, but to all of those impacted by the hurricane and storm damage, my prayers are with you. We have friends here on this blog in NC, SC, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida. If you're okay, could you let us know? Take care, friends.

Bacon-Pumpkin Quiche

just out of the oven and still puffed up

I have a recipe to share with you that uses 1 of the budget fall vegetables from yesterday's post, pumpkin (plus onions, which are also a budget fall vegetable.) I've been looking for more savory ways to use pumpkin, as it's such an affordable vegetable for me (especially when they grow well in our garden or when buying Jack o Lantern pumpkins for cooking in October). 

So this savory pumpkin pie sounded like just the right thing. The flavors of pumpkin, sage, onions, and Parmesan cheese complement each other really well. I make a pasta sauce with those ingredients (plus Italian sausage) that my family enjoys.

just before going into the oven

If using home-cooked pumpkin, drain off as much liquid in a mesh strainer before measuring as possible. I know one of us has a family member who doesn't do onions. This recipe could be made without the onions. Increase the bacon/ham and Parmesan cheese to compensate for flavor and bulk.

I loosely used the following recipe from Food Network: here. I decreased the fat, eggs and milk/cream, increased the onions and pumpkin, added the Parmesan cheese to the quiche and baked it longer. I also left off the arugula salad topping, as I didn't think my family would enjoy that. 

I served this with a tossed salad and a rice-millet combo. My family thought it was very good. It has a very mild pumpkin flavor and a rich and dense texture. The next time I make this (and it was good enough to qualify for a next time), I'll increase the sage and Parmesan just a bit, and add a dash of nutmeg.

Below is how I made mine.

Bacon, Caramelized Onion and Pumpkin Quiche

Ingredients:

6 to 8 strips of bacon, reserve about 1 tablespoon bacon fat --or 1 cup of ham diced plus 1 tablespoon fat

1 large yellow onion, sliced thin
1 cup pureed pumpkin (or butternut squash)
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh sage leaves or 1 tsp dried sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
6 large eggs
1/3 cup rich milk, heavy cream, or milk/cream substitute 
1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese or 1/3 cup of shelf stable grated Parmesan (shaved Parmesan lends a nutty and sweet flavor which compliments the caramelized onions) 

1 9-inch pie shell, chilled. Prick with fork, press foil into shell, covering edges. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, allow to cool

Pre-bake the pie shell, covered. Set aside.

Pan-fry the bacon. Remove from pan. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the rendered fat. (If using a leaner smoked meat, such as turkey bacon, or lean ham, lightly brown the meat in about 1 tablespoon cooking fat, then set aside.)

Sauté the sliced onions in the pan from the bacon, stirring, until caramelized. Crumble the cooked bacon into the cooked onions. Stir in salt, pepper, and mince sage leaves or dried sage. 

Whisk eggs, pumpkin puree, milk/cream/substitute. Gently fold in the bacon-onion mixture and Parmesan cheese. Pour into baked pie shell.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45-50 minutes, until knife inserted comes out clean. Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes before cutting into servings. Yields 4 to 5 servings.

Bon Appetit!