July 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

July 4. Dollar Tree for graham crackers to make s'mores. $1 It's not a big box, but about 9 oz, I believe, plenty enough for s'mores for all of us. As I can't find graham crackers for under $2 a lb in the larger boxes in regular stores, this is a good deal.

July 9. Coming home from a day at the farmer's market (and no, I didn't buy anything at the market, but enjoyed the atmosphere, had samples and got some good ideas), we stopped at WinCo, mostly for the bulk bin items. I bought a pound of milk chocolate chips (for making candy this week), at $3.11/lb, about 2 pounds of raisins, at $1.79/lb, about a half pound of chopped dates (to add to overnight oatmeal), at $2.14/lb, a half pound of instant milk powder, at $4.19/lb (breakfast shakes and peanut butter balls), about a half-pound of soy beans, at 85 cents/lb, a pound of raw, whole almonds at $5.99/lb (for making candy and non-dairy milk), 1/10 of a pound of unsweetened coconut (for adding to homemade soy milk, adds flavor and fats), at $3.15/lb. I also bought another 72-ct package of corn tortillas for $2.18, and 9 bananas at 48 cents/lb. I received a 6 cent credit for bringing my own bag. Total spent -- $20.69

July 9. Next stop on the highway coming home, I ran into Cash & Carry, primarily for all-purpose flour (50-lbs for $11.68), but also bought a 2-gallon box of 2% milk for $4.40, 10 lbs of carrots for $3.89, a 3-pack of celery for $1.67, a gallon of mustard for $4.19, and 12 oz of onion powder for $3.71. Spent $29.54

July 13. Dollar Tree for ketchup. I am making some sloppy joe filling for a church supper, and I was given very specific instructions for making it (no modifications to the recipe). So, while I might ordinarily make my own ketchup substitution, I couldn't for this night. Fortunately, it only cost me $1, which I think I can handle in my budget. Spent $1

Total spent for the month, so far -- $52.23. I'm doing okay for the month. We're almost halfway through and I've spent under 30% of the budget. Cheddar cheese is on sale again at Cash & Carry, so I may pick up a few 5-lb bags, later this week or next. And I need milk, always.

July 15. Fred Meyer, mostly to get milk, on sale, and pick up my 3 Friday freebies from the last couple of weeks. What I bought -- 5 half-gallons of whole milk, 99 cents each, 1 half-gallon orange juice, 99 cents, 5 bananas, marked down, 49 cents/lb, 1 lb of organic mushrooms, marked down, $2.39, 1 package of hot dogs, 89 cents, and the freebies, 1 2-liter of cola, 1 46 oz bottle of cranberry, cherry and blueberry juice, 1 Gatorade snack bar. I spent $10.11

July 21. Cash & Carry for the sharp cheddar on sale, $8.98 for a 5-lb bag, I buy 3 bags, plus 15 bananas, at 42 cents/lb. Spent $29.91

July 22.  Fred Meyer, for the coffee on sale. I find 1 can of Folgers 1/2 decaf, 1/2 regular for $4.29 on clearance, and buy 2 cans FM brand reg, a 1 can decaf, at $4.99 each. I also find organic mushrooms on markdown for $2.30/lb, and I get my freebie, a can of Mt Dew Kickstart. Spent $21.65

Total spent so far -- $113.90

July 29. This should be my last grocery shopping of the month. Went to Fred Meyer for 5 half-gals of whole milk and 1 half-gal of orange juice, all 99 cents each with coupon. Also stop by produce markdown section, and buy 2 8-oz packages of mushrooms (99cents each), and 6 red-tape bananas, at 49 cents/lb. Next I head to the meat marked down section, and buy a 14 oz package of chicken Italian sausage (5 links), reduced from $4.99 to $2.49. And finally, I go to the clearance rack in the back and find almond paste for filling pastries, 8-oz containers for $2.69, I buy 2 and will save these for a special almond-filled pastry. I also got my Friday freebie of a 17 oz bottle of peach sparkling iced tea. Spent $16.76

Total spent for the month of July -- $130.66

Coming in to the month of July I had a surplus of $239.89. Add that to my budget of $190, and I have $429.89 available to spend on food this month. I underspent by $299.23. That will be my surplus going into August, which when added to the monthly allotment of $190, will give me $489.23 that I could spend, if I find good enough deals to want to stock up.

What I bought:

Produce

2 pounds raisins
1/2 pound chopped dates
35 bananas
10 lbs carrots
3 pack of celery
12 oz onion powder
1 gallon orange juice
2 lbs organic mushrooms
1 lb whole mushrooms
46 oz bottle of cranberry, blueberry, cherry juice (Freebie)

Meat
1 8-count package of hotdogs
14 oz chicken Italian sausage link (5 links)

Pantry

1 pound milk chocolate chips
1/2 pound soybeans
1 pound raw almonds
1/10 pound unsweetened coconut
72-ct package corn tortillas
50 pounds all-purpose flour
1 gallon yellow mustard
1 bottle ketchup
2 liter of cola (Freebie)
1 Gatorade Fuel bar (Freebie)
4 large cans coffee/decaf (25 to 29 oz each)
1 can Mt Dew Kickstart (Freebie)
1 bottle sparkling peach ICE tea (Freebie)
16 oz of almond paste for baking

Dairy

1/2 pound instant milk powder
2 gallons 2% milk
10 half-gallons whole milk
15 lbs sharp cheddar cheese



Mid-month, we were given enough sandwiches and produce to last through 2 family dinners. Also, several of us attended 2 church dinners, eliminating the need to provide for those meals. Our garden continues to provide most of our produce. Every morning, I slip outside to pick an apple from the tree to have with my breakfast, and my daughters take salads and fruit from our garden in their lunches each weekday. My son still gets all his weekday lunches provided at work, gratis.

I didn't find any stellar deals on meat this past month. It's just as well, as I've got the extra freezer unplugged for the summer, and we're still using up meat from prior purchases.

In going through my supplies, I've noted that we're running low on butter. I'm down to about 9  1/2 lbs. of butter. At our regular usage, this amount will last us until the end of September. Awesome butter sales aren't found, much, until around Thanksgiving (in November for U.S.). That leaves me with about 6 to 7 weeks either without butter or having to pay a lot more for it. So, I'm having to do some sneaky things, like keeping the butter in the fridge, all of the time. And not putting the whole stick into the butter dish at one time, but only half. When it's kept out, in a dish on the counter, we seem to go through the butter much faster.  So, I just keep popping it back into the fridge, and that slows the consumption down. And by limiting how much goes into the dish at a time, it seems to nudge people into using just a little less. I know it works for me. I'm also going to return to making our own soft butter (that post, with instructions, here). Utilizing these strategies, I should be able to stretch out our butter supplies an extra month. Also, this week, Fred Meyer has butter on sale, with coupon, for $2.50/lb, limit 2. $2.50/ lb is not an awesome price. However, this week is the week with the Senior Discount shopping day on Tuesday. So, I'll take my coupon on Tuesday, and buy my 2 lbs of butter at $2.25 per pound. That will help. And I'll keep a watch on prices around town for deals on butter.



One thing to keep in mind, if your family spends a whole lot more on groceries, than mine: all 3 of my kids have their own earned money, if they want packaged snacky foods, they buy them. So, I'm not spending any money on those things. I save a lot by practically never buying prepared snacks like chips, packaged cookies or breakfast/snack bars, boxed cereal, and sugary drinks (other than a couple of bottles of juice per month). Instead, we snack on fresh fruit, raw veggies, popcorn, nuts and seeds, raisins, toast/bread, peanut butter, muffins and homemade cookies. And I've shared with you our available beverages -- iced herb tea, homemade lemonade, orange juice, smoothies, milk, black tea/coffee (hot and iced) and water. The bonus is, snacking/eating the way that our family does, is so much healthier for us.

There are times when one of my kids would like some of the packaged stuff. And they're all free to buy what they want, with their own money, or they can try to replicate the item they crave, with a homemade version. Last weekend, one daughter really wanted a milk shake, and was lamenting the fact that she didn't have lots of spare money (most of both daughters's earnings goes towards tuition). She said that if she did have more money, she'd go buy a milkshake at McDonalds (was this a hint for me to buy a shake for her? Oh well, hint not taken!). I told her how I used to make myself milkshakes/frosties with milk, chocolate syrup and ice cubes, in the blender. She tried it and was thrilled to have made a shake for herself, for free. Same daughter had a pot-luck to attend at work, on Friday. She was asking what she could bring that wasn't dessert, as there were already lots of sign-ups for dessert. She didn't want to use her own money to buy something. So she came up with a batch of scratch biscuits. And then, the other day, she really wanted a couple of cookies. Not enough to bake a whole batch, just a couple. She found a recipe online that made 1 large cookie. So that's what she did. She's learning! I'm proud of her for finding and trying ways to make a substitute for an item she wants.

It's been important to me, to not only teach my kids how to cook for themselves, but also to learn how to accept a substitute for something they might want. Sometimes, our career choices are less than lucrative, but profoundly fulfilling in other ways. I want my children to be able to live free of the pressure to have everything that everyone else has. Most of us won't get to have everything we want, and accepting substitutes is a big help towards living with that reality.


Whelp, that's it for grocery shopping in July.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the end of July

Friday

Chicken, vegetable and noodle skillet dinner
Fruit salad -- apples from our tree, blueberries from our garden and a banana in a dressing of plum liquid from stewed plums and homemade strawberry jam

Saturday

Homemade mushroom and black olive pizza
Fresh blackberries
Celery sticks

Sunday

Chicken soup, made with the leftover chicken and stock from Friday
Crackers and toast
Bananas

Monday

Vegetarian enchiladas, filled with rice, black beans, beet greens, garlic, onions and seasonings, topped with cheese/olives
Snow peas and carrots from our garden, raw, with homemade dip
Apple jello, made with old green kool-aid from pantry, lemon juice, gelatin, sugar, and added chopped apples from garden (apples that had been knocked off trees by squirrels. I cut off the bruises and chopped)
Blackberry cobbler

Tuesday

Leftover enchiladas
Leftover apple jello
Tossed salad
Leftover cobbler

Wednesday

Dinner at church, we had a taco bar and cookies

Thursday

Kale frittata topped with marinara sauce
Brown rice
Fresh apples, from our tree
Hot fudge pudding cake, topped with blackberry sauce (wild blackberries picked on our property)

Again, this week, I planned for an easy night, with making twice the amount of enchiladas that I normally make. Doing so gave me time to work on my knitting!

As I was watering the garden yesterday, I realized that we can get quite a lot for our meals, just here on our property, for the next 6 weeks. This should free up some of my grocery budget for stock-up items at Cash & Carry. For this month, I'm still below my budget. Of course, I still have some shopping to do later today. We'll see how I do by the end of the weekend.

On Wednesday, I worked in our church's kitchen helping to prepare the taco bar for about 100 members. I was working with 5 other ladies. It was interesting listening to them talk about some of the meals and foods they like to prepare. And it really drove home the truth that some folks cook frugally while others cook expensively. How we spend our money is an individual choice. As you all know, for me, I choose to cook frugally so that there is more money in other areas of our budget.

I hope your week went well, and you were able to keep cool. What were your favorite meals this past week? If you have a garden, what are you able to harvest right now? I'm still a few weeks away from tomatoes, but maybe we'll get green beans in a week.

Have a great weekend!

Planning for the most difficult purchase of this life

So, while I'm not exactly ancient, in years, it's time that I put aside the nonsense of living as if I'm immortal. That was fine when I was young, but planning for that most difficult expense is simply the mature thing to do, now.

Yes, I'm talking about planning our (husband and myself) funeral/burial expenses.

I won't go into what a frugal person should choose -- a pine box vs cremation, or plots with a view (who are we kidding -- whose view?) or remains scattered at sea (a lovely touch is to bring rose petals, and drop those along with the remains). But where I am in the planning process, right now, is getting used to the idea, and determining our wishes, on this.

My dad passed away in 2002. My brother, sister and I had to hastily make arrangements within a few days time. His passing came on very short notice -- diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the month and gone by the third week of that same month. We didn't have a chance to talk about what he wanted, with him. We loved our father, so, of course, we wanted the very best of everything for his burial and memorial service. Isn't that how this plays out in most families? You want the best, so you spare no expense.

By talking about this now, and doing local research, I can let my children (they're all adults, so not talking to school-age kids about my end of life) know just what matters to me and how I want to be remembered. I'll tell you, this isn't something you can marathon your way through. I've had to do research, in small bits at a time, to prepare my mind for all of these details. But it's best to do this now, and not let the unspoken continue until the time for planning is too late.

Things that I've thought about . . .

. . . that I wish to be buried and not cremated
. . . but I do not want a viewing or embalming (which means I don't want someone putting makeup on my face for burial), and I'll wear my own clothing, thank you
. . . that I want a wooden casket and not a metal one (my box does not have to last forever)
. . . simple flowers, I don't need a large elaborate spray of flowers
. . . that I do want to be buried near our family home, so my kids can visit as they need, in the early years
. . . that I want a weekday burial service
. . . and a weekend memorial in our church (more friends and family could attend if they wish to)
. . . some music that was meaningful to me
. . . a small home reception, in the family home, perhaps using a grocery delivery service to provide deli catering trays
. . . that I'd like to help write my own obituary, now, with the possibility for updates by my children, later. I'll keep my obit with a copy of our trust documents.

And that's about as far as I've gotten on this.


What I learned in doing my research, besides caskets coming in a large range of price points . . .

. . . that there is such as thing as a cardboard casket -- who knew? And families will decorate these caskets to reflect the life of the passed family member.
. . . a large spray of flowers for the casket can cost a couple hundred dollars -- yikes! that is so not my style. I am honestly fine if my kids go to the grocery store the evening before the burial, and pick up a few bouquets to lay neatly, on the top of the casket, themselves.
. . . you can pay up to $10,000 for a plot in some memorial parks (and yes, that seems to be the industry name for cemeteries, these days -- memorial park sounds much lovelier), and a family garden (with room for several family members, a bench and maybe a small tree) goes for $150,000 in a swanky memorial park that I'm familiar with. But our local memorial park has comparatively reasonable rates of one to two thousand per plot.
. . . that Saturday burials often come with a surcharge
. . . that you can buy burial clothing through the mortuary. Um, just weird, to me. Something from my closet will do.
. . . that you can rent a casket. That sounds laughable, right? But seriously, if you plan to be cremated, you can rent a casket, for a viewing, prior to cremation, if that's your wish.
. . . and that there may be lower-priced caskets whose models are NOT on display. You need to ask about these, specifically.
. . . embalming is not necessarily required. It's pricey. You can spend close to $1000, for embalming and body prep work. The alternative is refrigeration. Minimal cost, average seems to be about $50/day.
. . . that there are lists, online, of popular music used at memorial services, and you can even find lists of the music played for the services of a few famous people (like JFK, Princess Diana). Ditto for poems and sayings/quotes.
. . . that there seems to be a charge for every single detail from death to final rest. Transportation of the body, death certificate copies, storage of the body before burial, a sealed casket (presumably to keep the elements out -- and, but why? I ask).


What I learned from my experience with my siblings, when our dad passed . . .

. . . there were so many decisions, large and small, to be made in such a short span of time.
. . . we each had our own ideas of what we thought should be done. Fortunately, the 3 of us are very good at compromise. But if we had known what my dad would have wanted, we could have saved a lot of time and energy.
. . . it was very easy to get swept away in the spending, with a thought process like "well, it's Dad's money after all, might as well go for the very best". And while the 3 of us get along very well, we have different spending/saving personalities.
. . . that while the funeral director is required to provide a list of all of the services with a breakdown of fees, we weren't in the right frame of mind right then, to take our time going over that list and find alternatives or do without some line items.


There's a huge benefit to beginning these talks now, while I'm still in good health. This difficult conversation is not charged with emotion the way it would be if I were seriously ill. And financially, planning for this right now, and talking about this with my children, will allow me time to budget and set aside money to specifically cover this expense, so my kids won't feel the financial burden when I pass.

This isn't morose. It's loving, to want to take care of my kids one last time in my life. Okay, someone hand me a tissue, please.