July 2015 Grocery Spending Journal

My new grocery budget is $185 per month. I went over last month by $3.91. So, for the month of July, I have $181.09. Yay! That's a lot of moolah for groceries this month! The trick will be for me *not* to get carried away with the idea of feeling like we have loads of grocery cash, but stay my course of practical purchases.

July 2. Cash & Carry for 10 lbs 80% ground beef, $25.90 or $2.59/lb, 1/2 gallon heavy whipping cream, $7.45, 1-lb box cornstarch, 99 cents. Spent $34.34. (In case you wonder about the heavy whipping cream purchase, this is in large part as a way to top off some calories for my daughter needing to gain a few pounds. Any that is leftover, we'll use to top desserts, for the rest of the family. 1/2 gallon will last us 1 month. But we may be able to get her weight up to her healthy zone, in a month or two, adding whipping cream and more meat to her diet. So, not a long term monthly expenditure.)

July 5. stopped at Imran's ethnic market for apples, 39 cents/lb. Spent $1.69

July 6. Dollar Tree for my once/month stop. Only food item is soy milk (1 qt.). Spent $1

July 7. Fred Meyer -- Senior Discount Day -- love it! Everything I bought qualified for the 10% off, even the bulk bin items next to the nutrition center. Instant dry milk powder (enough to make 8 quarts, though I'll be using this in recipes, and not to mix up liquid milk as that's too expensive a use for this product), $6.11, 18-oz canister of dried plums, $4.49, dried dates at $2.49/lb, 85 cents, whole almonds at $6.29/lb, $1.95. Total spent $13.40

Cash & Carry. The weekly item this week is boneless pork loin, at $1.59/lb. Sounded like a good change of pace for us. I bought a 9.62 lb pork loin (to divide into smaller roasts for the freezer), for $15.30, a 5-lb jug of honey, for $15.29, a 4-lb bag of raisins for $8.59, 5-lb box of frozen cod fillets for $18.90, 10-lb box of pork breakfast sausage links for $18.99, and a 2 gallon box of milk for $4.18. Total spent $81.25

Month to date spent (I know I'd better figure this out soon) -- $131.68

A very meat-heavy month, so far.

July 9. Albertsons, they have 1-gallon milk on sale for $1.99/gallon, limit 2 w/coupon. I pick up my 2 (both whole milk). Spent $3.98.

July 18. Albertsons, they have medium eggs on sale for 99 cents/dozen, limit 4 w/coupon. I pick up my 4, my 2 daughters and I get cookies that were samples in bakery, then leave. Spent $3.96, and now I have fresh eggs again!

July 24. Albertsons, medium eggs on for 99 cents/dz, limit 4 again, bacon for $2.59/16 oz, limit 4 w/ coupon. Spent $14.32

Cash & Carry for 50-lb sack of white sugar, $20.99, 50-lb sack of all-purpose flour $11.99, wedge of Parmesan cheese (2.29 lbs @ $4.48/lb) for $10.26. Spent $43.24

On the Parmesan cheese wedge, I checked the price per pound at Albertsons and it was over $11 per pound, so Cash & Carry seems to be a great place for that. While Parmesan cheese falls under "luxury item" for our budget, it is aged over 12 months, which means I can digest it. When I make pizza for the family, it's best for me if I leave one little section without mozzarella, and only put sauce and other toppings. That little section is mine. But if I have aged Parmesan, I can put that in my little slice, and have cheese, too. Cash & Carry's regular price on that Parmesan is $5.59/lb. I paid $4.48/lb.

total spent for the month -- $197.18, over by $16.09. I did buy some treat items, but I'm glad that I did, this month. We are eating very well. The list of what I buy isn't always representative of the variety in our meals. If I were reading this list, I too would wonder, "what in the world is she feeding her family?!!" It really does look unbalanced, doesn't it? That's the nature of stock-up shopping. But in case you missed yesterday's post, Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week, go back one day and you will see that we're eating well and balanced.

What I have bought for the month of July:

Meat
10 lbs ground beef
9.62 lbs boneless pork loin
5 lbs frozen cod fillets
10 lbs breakfast sausage links
4 lbs bacon

Pantry
16-oz box cornstarch
1 quart soy milk
medium-size box (to make 8 qts of liquid milk) of instant powdered milk
1 cup dry roasted almonds, unsalted
5 lbs honey
50 bs white flour
50 lbs granulated sugar

Dairy
1/2 gallon heavy whipping cream (this is the really good stuff, 40% fat, they should put warning labels on these cartons, "warning, you could get seriously addicted to this whipping cream". It has such a high fat content, that I can have small spoonfuls of this, whipped, if I want. Most "heavy whipping cream" sold in supermarkets is 36% fat.)
4 gallons milk
8 dozen medium eggs
2.29 lbs Parmesan cheese

Produce
9 Red Delicious apples
18 oz dried plums
1 cup dried dates
4 lbs raisins

(This is for live and learn -- it's my homemade "magic shell" for ice cream. I'll post my directions on Monday.)

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the last week of July

Thursday
kale-cheddar quiche
brown rice (cooked in chicken stock with herbs)
mustard glazed carrots
apple slices  (2 apples from our tree)
leftover blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Friday
scrambled eggs
breakfast sausage
fried rice with carrots, green and waxed beans, Swiss chard, shallots and garlic
rhubarb-blackberry sauce

Saturday
linguine and meatballs in marinara sauce
cucumber-dill salad
gingersnaps

Sunday
refried bean, rice, yogurt, tomato, cheddar burritos in whole wheat tortillas
oven-roasted canned tomatoes w/ basil and Parmesan
rhubarb sauce
lemon bars

Monday
bean burger patties, topped with marinara and mozzarella
cornbread
flour tortilla chips (mostly for me, as I can't have the cornbread -- milk, but everyone else enjoyed the chips, too)
medley of Romano, waxed and green beans
fresh blackberries (the berries at the back of our property are now ripening. I picked a quart today)

Tuesday
chicken in gravy, over brown rice
sauteed kale and shallots in bacon fat
cucumbers in chive blossom vinaigrette
fresh blackberries (picked another quart today

Wednesday
chicken-vegetable soup
pumpkin muffins
pickled beet salad
blackberries

Fortune-telling: Butter prices down the pike

(I know you all think that I have way too much time on my hands, hence these posts on the forecasted price of eggs and butter. But in actuality, I have the same amount of free time as everyone else. I just happen to use my free time a bit peculiarly, as in reading domestic, Oceanic and European dairy reports.)

In the comment's section, the other day, the price of butter at the supermarket came up. What are your supermarket prices like on butter, these days? The regular price is upwards of $3 per pound in my area, at the regular grocery stores. I've been buying most of my butter at Cash & Carry, in bulk, 30-lb cases of butter prints. ("Butter print" is the term describing pounds of butter that are wrapped, all in one 1-lb block, in a single sheet of printed waxed paper.) I do get a more favorable price per pound than the standard supermarket price, with exception to loss-leader sales.

Anyway, I was reading a bunch of dairy reports and forecasts yesterday, trying to get a handle on what the future price of butter might be this coming fall and winter.

So, the rise in prices in late 2014 was due in large part to increasing exports of US butter. It made more financial sense for dairy producers to sell US butter overseas, where they could get a better price. This increased income for farmers meant that they could pay down debt, increase herd size and pay for expensive feed. And as we all know, this meant a reduced supply for US consumers, and a higher price for us as a consequence.

From what I've read, production will increase in the immediate future and down the road into 2016, with increased herd size. It's also been projected that exported butter will drop down as the international market becomes saturated. (If producers can't get their favorable high price internationally, due to saturation of the market, selling domestically will again increase.) So, as the domestic supply of butter increases, albeit in small bits at a time, butter prices (which have already pulled back in the wholesale market since the end of last year), will ultimately drop a bit more at our local supermarkets.


So what all this boils down to is this -- it's my thinking that butter prices will be better this year, over last year, for the November/December holidays. Don't sue me if I'm wrong! LOL! But this is just my hunch.

You could still see butter as a loss-leader in one of your stores, as summer draws to a close. With dropping wholesale prices on all dairy in recent months (price of cheese and liquid milk has come down in my area -- yours, too?), retailers would not take too big of a hit if they put butter as a loss-leader near the end of summer, very beginning of fall. (This season change corresponds with consumer changes in cooking and baking, as we move away from easy barbeque cookery and back to the warm air of a kitchen wafting with baking and cooking aromas.) So, with this reasoning, I looked back through my grocery journals, and found that butter was on sale for $2/lb at Fred Meyer (limit w/coupon), the week of September 16, last year.

Your best price on butter will almost always be a loss-leader item, probably with purchase limits (unless you have a wholesaler in which to shop, as I do, or an Aldi's). To maximize what you are allowed to buy, within the limits, remember that each time you shop at a store in the week something is advertised, you are a "new" customer. You are allowed to buy the limited item, again, in that same week, unless the wording of the ad says something to the effect of "limit 1 per family/household" -- very, very rare, though. (If a store with an advertised item has a limit and I want more, I make a point to stop in as often as I can, bringing as many family members as I can with me.) In our family, I send each adult family member through the line with the limited amount. I wouldn't do this with young kids, as that doesn't "feel" right to me. But with my adult kids, it's plausible that they're at the age they could be living on their own, doing their own shopping and cooking. It's just that in our family, we allow our adult kids to live at home, in exchange for some rent. So, if you find butter as a loss-leader, maximize your purchase, enough to get you through till mid-November (US), or possibly early October (for Canada), and/or December, when the holiday baking sales will feature butter as loss-leaders, at least once in the season.

Right now (July and August) we're in a marketing lull with regards to butter as a loss-leader at supermarkets. The items you typically see in summer on loss-leader are things like hot dogs and other BBQ supplies.

Those are my thoughts on butter prices for the next several months. Does anyone have any other insights into prices on butter in the near future?



What you can do right now, to get you through to a good sale on butter:

• use vegetable oil in baking/cooking, in place of butter
• use fat alternatives, like pureed pumpkin, applesauce, bananas, in place of butter in baking
• save meat fat, to use in cooking, in place of butter/oil
• clarify pork fats, like bacon fat, to use in place of solid shortening in pie crusts and blended with butter in flavorful cookies (like peanut butter cookies) *more on clarifying bacon fat at the bottom of post
• make your own soft butter for table use, using 3 parts butter to 1 part vegetable oil

Clarifying bacon fat to use in baking

I have done this a couple of times. It's an age-old method for removing the smokey flavors from bacon fat. I've never done this with other fats, but I assume it would as well.

Pour melted bacon fat into a saucepan. Add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Once cooled, chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes, until the fat hardens on top of the liquid. Drain off the dirty water. Add 2 cups of clean water, and repeat the simmering for 5 minutes. Do this 3 or 4 times. The water will become clearer  and the fat will be milder in flavor, with each boiling.

After the final simmering, chilling and draining, remove the bacon fat to a container to save in the fridge until use in baking. 

I used this in pie pastry (in place of lard/shortening) and cookies (blended half and half with butter). We thought it was acceptable enough. It is time-consuming, but is something you can do in the kitchen while other prep work is going on. And it will spare you some money spent on butter. I originally did this as a "pioneer" lesson while homeschooling my kids. It was one of those "let's see if this really works" sort of lessons. Fun times!



Not to rub salt into your wound, but boy am I ever glad I decided to buy that case of 30-lbs of butter this past winter when butter prices dropped to about $1.67/lb at Cash & Carry. I was on the fence whether to just buy enough for a couple of months or to go for it and buy the case. But I based my decision on this -- December at Cash & Carry saw their "holiday" sale on butter priced at about $1.84/lb. So, in January, when the price was almost 20 cents less than what had been already a "good" price, that swayed me. Cash & Carry's sale prices are for the most part steady, staying the same price point for several seasons. Except, every once in a while they have a stupendously low price for an item. (Last fall, we bought several #10 cans of pureed pumpkin for a pittance on one of these extremely rare sales.)