My, my, July… you surprised me. By my standards, I rocked the grocery spending this month! I was especially surprised because we were home for the entire month (minus two nights in South Carolina at Mema and Grandpa’s house).
- Target: $33.43
- Whole Foods: $52.74
- Food Lion: $79.89
- Publix: $130.49
- Butcher Box: $206.04
- Costco: $450.29
- GRAND TOTAL: $952.88
I expect Butcher Box delivery months to be higher because it’s when I stock up on chicken, pork, member specials, etc, so the fact that I’m still below $1,000 for the month even with a freezer stock up feels like a win to me. How did I do it? I noticed a few things…
First, I meal planned and stuck to my list. Second, I shopped my freezer really well and added in a few meatless or meat-light meals. See the meals we ate this month in this post. And lastly, I sacrificed a bit on quality, like buying the Costco giant bags of shredded cheddar jack instead of grass fed cheddar blocks and shredding it myself.
I cringe a little when writing things like “sacrificing on quality by not buying grass-fed cheddar” because I worry about how food snobby it could come across. But that stuff is a priority for me, especially as I learn more about our food supply and its effect on our health (glyphosate, poor quality living conditions for animals, seed oils, etc).
I hope talking about this comes across as intended- an honest account of my struggle between wanting to buy only the very best to feed my family and my acknowledgement of my need for convenience and quantity at times.
This month I did a good job of using what I had in my freezer and pantry, which helped keep cost low. My Butcher Box was delivered at the end of the month, which means I have a stocked meat selection for August. However, my pantry is pretty sparse so I imagine it will be a pricy restock when I get back from our trip. I plan on going to Aldi for some of those staples like salsa and tortilla chips.
It’s been fun for me to hear your experiences, as I know a few of you have joined in on this grocery spending tracking, too. Thank you for sharing! I know budgeting isn’t a novel concept, but being super focused on it and holding myself accountable by posting it here has been a great exercise for me in discipline and self refection. Remember you can find all my finance related/grocery tracking posts here.
Alyssa says
I love seeing these posts. We focus on similar things like the quality of meats, not only the taste, but the way they are raised, so i love hearing as well about the areas you make swaps.
Kelli says
That is so good! I’ve been stocking up for our pantry every week by adding cans of tomatoes, beans, etc when I see them on sale. It all adds up here so much. I’m spending about $200-$300 week on groceries now. We eat break lunch and dinner at home usually 7/week so we do eat all our food at home. Going out just isn’t in the budget. I feel like the grocery tax here really gets me off track. I’m paying about $20/week in tax. It sucks! I’ve also had to let some quality items go because it’s just too expensive right now which I really don’t like doing either.