March 2025 Grocery Shopping

It's the last day of March and I don't think I'll be going out grocery shopping this evening. So, I'll tally up our grocery spending for the month and close this chapter.

March 2  My husband and I went out to lunch after church. We split a 3-entree/1-side Panda Express meal. We chose Broccoli Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Orange Chicken, and Chow Mein for our side. They gave us 2 fortune cookies when they saw we were sharing a single meal. It was more food than we could finish. My husband took the leftovers in for his lunch the next day. We decided if we do Panda Express for a lunch together again, we'll split a 2-entree meal. Spent $13.04 While technically not "groceries," the meal did feed us, and we would have eaten something at home. And I took the lunch out of the grocery cash envelope.

March 5  Walmart for 1 package turkey snack sticks, canister onion powder, applesauce, bunch bananas, barbecue sauce. Spent $12.15 at Walmart. Then I went across the street to Grocery Outlet to pick up beet root powder. I add beet powder to my daily smoothies. Spent $9.99 at Grocery Outlet.

March 7  Town & Country for 2 bottles of sparkling water  to take to my brother's on the 9th. I was at Town & Country picking up a couple of birthday gifts for my two daughters -- items they'd both noticed when we were here together in February. The sparkling water is good for the price. Spent $4.00 on the water.

March 8  Fred Meyer for cucumber, grape tomatoes, package of chicken breasts to make an Italian chicken salad to take to my brother's on the 9th. The Italian chicken salad I brought contained cubed cooked chicken breasts, halved grape tomatoes, chunks of cucumber, shavings of Parmesan cheese, in a homemade herb and garlic vinaigrette. It was pretty tasty. We had leftovers later that night that I stretched with some steamed broccoli and more cheese. While at Fred Meyer, I was also buying pantyhose and hair accessories, gifts for my daughters for their birthday. Spent $10.63 on food.

March 12  WinCo for 2 canisters cocoa powder, frozen peas, frozen spinach, frozen broccoli cuts, gallon milk, block cheddar, block mozzarella, about 1 pound pepperoni, vanilla flavoring, 2 cans tuna, bulk peanut butter, bag of dried dates, bulk chili powder, bulk instant dry milk, 5 lbs carrots, celery, 1 head cabbage, 2 avocados, 1 red and 1 green pepper, 3 lbs apples, 2 lbs tangerines, bunch bananas, about 1 lb Roma tomatoes. Spent $73.00

March 22. We went to Starbucks to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. We used gift cards that had been gifts to us, so no cost for the celebration.

March 24  Walmart for 36-oz bag chocolate chips, frozen mixed vegetables, frozen broccoli cuts, frozen peas, gallon milk, uncured beef franks, 3 packages turkey snack sticks, small block cheddar, 3-lb bag tangerines, 5-lb bag carrots, celery, 4 Roma tomatoes, couple bunches bananas, natural peanut butter. Spent $53.86

March 27 WinCo for a whole chicken, 6 avocados, 3 large tomatoes, bulk raisins, bulk flax seed meal, bulk flaked coconut, bulk table salt, bulk peanut butter, block of cheddar, block of mozzarella, 4 cans tuna, 2 canisters cocoa powder, 1 jar regular coffee, 1 jar decaf coffee, 5 jars applesauce, 1 package dried dates, 1 bag pork sausage links, 1 bag turkey sausage links. I spent $92.58

At WinCo, a new brand of chicken caught my eye, Just Bare. No antibiotics, no hormones, no steroids, and they're raised on family farms. The price worked out to just over $2.00 per pound for a whole chicken, with no neck or giblets. I usually toss the neck and giblets, so that makes the price per pound more competitive with the Foster Farms that I often buy ($1.48/lb). Foster Farms has gotten really sloppy in recent years. I sometimes find a couple of livers in the cavity, adding weight to the chicken, parts that my family won't eat. Anyway, the whole chicken was clean just out of the package.

I rubbed my whole chicken with salt, pepper, sage, thyme, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. The chicken was delicious, and the seasonings added flavor to the meat and to the drippings, which I used for gravy.

I didn't include what we bought for my daughters' birthday celebration picnic or pie in the grocery spending, as those come out of a different budget. But, if you're interested, we spent about $60 total for those foods and slices of pie in the pie shop. (We had tap water to drink with the pie.)

My daughter bought me some candy this morning, she said because I did a last-minute favor for her. I told her it was unnecessary to buy me anything. But it was very sweet of her. Some candy -- no cost to me.

Total spent for the month of March -- $269.25

What I bought:

1 restaurant lunch out for two

4 packages turkey snack sticks

chicken breasts

whole chicken

sliced pepperoni

uncured beef hot dogs

1 bag pork sausage links

1 bag turkey sausage links

6 cans tuna

2 gallons milk

3 blocks cheddar

2 blocks mozzarella

bulk powdered milk

vanilla flavoring (artificial vanilla)

3 containers natural peanut butter

bulk chili powder

bulk iodized salt

2 bottles sparkling water

36-oz bag chocolate chips

flax seed meal

coconut flakes

4 canisters cocoa powder

1 jar coffee

1 jar decaf

2 bags frozen peas

1 bag frozen spinach

2 bags frozen broccoli cuts

1 bag frozen mixed vegetables

beetroot powder

bulk raisins (about 2 pounds)

2 bags dried dates

onion powder

6 jars applesauce

10 lbs carrots

1 head cabbage

2 bundles celery

8 avocados

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

3 lbs apples

5 lbs tangerines

3 bunches bananas

a couple pounds tomatoes

1 cucumber

grape tomatoes

You may have been wondering, "why all the cocoa powder? Why all the peanut butter?" The smoothies I make with beet powder -- the cocoa powder and peanut butter cover up the flavor of the beet powder. But beet powder is a good food for me. And I like to get a little beet powder in every day.

I don't know if you can relate . . .

I went grocery shopping this morning. It's the end of the month, I'm about out of cash for groceries until the first. This morning's shopping was at WinCo, where they only accept cash, debit, and checks. I don't carry a checkbook with me, and I don't have a debit card. So I have to bring cash to shop there. I brought all of the cash I had in the envelope at home. 

I also needed to stop and get gas with some of that money. I could charge gas, but I would be paying a higher price per gallon if using credit. So I bought $20 in gas on the way to WinCo.

I had counted how much cash I had on hand before leaving home. But I wasn't making a strong enough mental note on the amount, just that I had enough to buy a week's worth of groceries for us and get $20 in gas.

Once in the store, and seeing some of the prices on foods, I was motivated to add up the cost of what was in my cart and count the cash in my purse several times. I knew it would be a squeaker. I even used my calculator and the in-store scales to calculate how much my bulk items would cost. I swapped out some cheaper brands here and there. But I also bought a couple of more expensive versions of items on my list, because I felt the quality would be better. With those particular items, quality was a value for us. I didn't get the breakfast sausage that my husband requested, and I didn't stock-up on the applesauce that was on sale. I knew the final total would be tight, based on the amount of money I thought I had in my purse.

As I placed foods onto the conveyer belt at the checkout, I purposely left a few items to the very end. These were the things I felt we could most live without. My plan was as the cashier rang items up, and I could see the subtotal along the way, I would cut-off the purchases when I thought we'd exceeded the amount of cash I had with me.

I felt a sigh of relief when I could see that the total was below the amount of cash in my purse. As I pulled out the bills to count out to the cashier, I realized that there was a $20 bill stuck to another $20. I actually had $20 more than I had thought!

I paid for my groceries and met up with my husband in the car. At that point, I related to him everything that had transpired with the cash in my purse and the cost of the groceries, and that I had skipped his breakfast sausage. I asked if he would still like that sausage. At first he said not to bother. But then I told him I would use that $20 to take advantage of the sale on applesauce and canned tuna, and go back into the store anyway. Of course, at that point he was thrilled to get his sausage and said "yes."

So, I unloaded my paid-for groceries and pushed the cart back into the store. I was able to buy 2 more cans of tuna, 4 more jars of applesauce, my husband's preferred pork breakfast sausage, and as a bonus, a bag of my preferred turkey breakfast sausage.

Even though I had that extra $20 in my purse the whole time, it felt like I'd been blessed with $20 extra worth of foods for my family for the week. 

I'll have more grocery money in just a few days, but I won't get back to WinCo for another 2 weeks. By that time, the sale on applesauce and tuna may be over, and I might have missed my opportunity to stock up on those items.

I don't know if any of you grocery shop on a strict budget, either imposed by your planning or by shopping only with cash. But judging by some of the comments from you, here, at least some of you will relate to my sigh of relief when it turned out I had more cash on hand than I had thought and could purchase everything and more on my list.