I’m not sure if it was the busier month with trips and getting the flu or just sheer exhaustion from cringing at grocery prices, but I almost gave up tracking this month. However, I made a commitment to track it for the full year, so I’m going to see it through. Trying to balance how I want to feed my family for health, how to feed my family for our busy schedule, and staying mindful of costs of food feels like a full time job at time.
Admittedly I’ve not done a great job meal planning in October. The hardest part was the week I had the flu and wasn’t functioning, but even the week after I had a very odd appetite where the idea of cooking dinner made me nauseated. So strange! I’m grateful that I’m finally coming out of that and feel the drive and energy to get back into the kitchen.
Here’s the breakdown of October’s grocery spending:
| Publix | $132.37 |
| Butcher Box | $173.40 |
| Costco | $656.73 |
| Food Lion | $39.76 |
| Whole Foods | $220.43 |
| Lowe’s Foods | $71.34 |
| TOTAL | $1,294.03 |
Costco once again came away as the big spending category. I think a few non food items might have gotten lumped into that category this month since I was less careful about dividing out food and home items. Still, Costco claims a lot of our monthly spending.
Items I often get at Costco: olives, apples, berries, pimento cheese, Pretzel thins, canned tomato products, coffee, salsa, tortillas, Spindrifts, frozen chicken breakfast sausage links, butter, eggs, sour cream, Caesar salad kits, cucumbers.
One grocery observation this month that I found fascinating: Organic bell peppers, the exact same brand, the kind wrapped in plastic which I don’t love, but you know the ones I am talking about, right? They are HALF as much at Food Lion than they are at Publix. No sale involved; just the exact same pepper at less than half the price. Organic green bell peppers were $0.99 and organic red bell peppers were $2.39- it’s easily close to $5.00 for one organic red bell pepper at Publix.
Also, did you see that Aldi and Walmart are offering Thanksgiving staples at 2019 pricing? So neat, right?! They are basically removing inflation from Thanksgiving staples. I thought that was a smart and thoughtful move on their part.
That’s all I have on the grocery front for today. No big plan to change what I’m doing, but hope to get back to making more staples at home. I know tortillas are supposedly easy to make, and I heard you can make and freeze the dough into balls for easy access, so maybe I’ll try that out this month and report back.
Are you focusing on grocery spending? Any tips in particular helping you? Or are you just buying what your family needs?
Kelli says
I’m definitely paying attention to our spending on food. I have sacrificed some of our quality this year because of price. I’m usually spending $230-$290 a week on food and that’s why skimping on some things. I can’t stand the Idaho grocery tax because it’s a big part of my bill! I keep praying it’ll go away soon! So many people are struggling here and that hurts so many families.
I’ve seen the price thing you’re talking about too with grapes and strawberries. It’s usually produce that I notice it. An extreme case was $10.99 for organic strawberries vs $5.99
Brittany Dixon says
$10.99 for strawberries- WOW that’s so high! I’m not familiar with the Idaho grocery tax. Going to have to google that. Crazy how it differs by state so much.
Alyssa says
I love seeing this. And what a neat thing Walmart and Aldi are doing! Costco gets quite a bit of my money as well these days, though I am careful about what I buy there. Some of it really isn’t a savings once you look at it on a per ounce or unit basis compared to Target or Walmart. And as I really try to minimize my food waste, I am trying to be a lot more realistic about what I can actually make it through in a week!
When you’re done, are you going to do a wrap up post? It would be kind of interesting to see a trend line as you’ve tracked through what I feel like have been a very volatile grocery pricing time. I tried to go back and find the last couple, but my computer is having issues waking up this morning 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
I’m definitely going to have to do a wrap up post. Maybe a line graph of spending over the months, who got most of my money, etc. I’d really wish I had done this through a few other years so I could compare that. I remember tracking grocery spending a few years back and spending about $500 a month instead of $1500! Though several factors have changed since then (kids ages, they way we eat, etc).
Joanna says
I’m right there with you with similar spending at Costco! Went on Sat in between soccer games so my hubby was there to see the $600 something total lol. I bought a few non food items but it’s all groceries we do eat. Costco prices have gone up slightly, I’ve noticed lots of things I buy are about a $1 more. I give you so much credit for keeping track! I did for Sept and just couldn’t do it for Oct, it was depressing me! I love that Aldi and Walmart are doing that. I buy what we need/love to eat, I throw in a soup because we love it and it’s less expensive. Continue to watch prices, buy in bulk when you can when favorites are on sale. 🤦🏼♀️
Joanna says
I was just scrolling on FB and coincidentally saw this video from Do It On A Dime. She’s at Aldi and sharing her finds. She also lives in Charlotte, so maybe we’ll bump into her looking for deals lol
https://youtu.be/cuMBtTOpO4Q
Brittany Dixon says
I always love to see what people’s favs at grocery stores are; how fun!
Brittany Dixon says
We sound like the same person- ha! Soups, watch prices (because I agree with you, I’ve seen Costco going up, too!), and buy in bulk when I can and it makes sense. 🙂
Alex says
I just found this grocery spending series of you and have gone back to read the previous months. I am JUST now starting to track monthly grocery expenditure for our family of 4 since the prices have sky rockets and I left my job. I need to really try and cut back. Just curious if you’ve been tracking toiletries and household paper products? TP, paper towels, food storage bags, trash bags etc. I get those products with my groceries and so have been including them in the totals. Any idea what you spend on these items separately? Thank you!!
Brittany Dixon says
I did not choose to include those items in the totals just to keep it focused on food and drinks only. I don’t currently track our spending for household goods but we buy most of it at costco (tp, papertowels, garbage bags, dish washer soap, etc). I wish I had a clear answer to share with you on those, but it would just be a stab in the dark.