End of October already; whew! I’m checking in with another look at my grocery spending for the month. October was a month at home. We didn’t travel and we only ate out a couple times- off the top of my head we ate out for lunch twice (Jimmy John’s and Blue Star Grill) and dinner twice (Mexican and take out Indian).
We’ve always been the type to eat more often at home for both budget and health reasons, but in the past few years we’ve become even more “at home eaters.” One reason I speculate is because often what we eat at home just tastes better than a lot of restaurants. I can adjust it to our tastes and preferences and there are easy ways for everyone to tailor it to their own likings with dips or sauces.
Another reason we eat at home more is because eating at home simply makes our dollar stretch further. The girls and I ate lunch out the other day. I had a buffalo chicken wrap, Hailey had an adult burger, and Kaitlyn ate from the kid menu. We all had water. Our total with tip was $47. For LUNCH. It’s a good lunch at a place that serves quality food that I’m grateful for, but in contrast, if I were to have spent that $47 at a grocery store, it would have fed us lunch for a week.
Eating at home is definitely more work and my kitchen is almost always in a state of having dishes drying on the counter, but I’m trying to make it work for me better by embracing some of the counter clutter and taking shortcuts. Eating at home doesn’t have to mean pasta made from scratch, so I’m buying frozen meatballs and using the heck out of my rice cooker and other convenience gadgets.
I’m doing some minor food prep on Sundays. Usually I boil eggs, juice some wellness shots for the first half of the week, and prep a lunch protein. It’s not much but does help a bit, especially since as a family we are currently focused on getting enough protein. See my go-to sources for protein here.
And that about sums up October! November will be an at home month, too, except for Thanksgiving where we will be with family. I’m looking to keep meals simple and healthy; I’ll continue sharing them each night on IG stories! And now, a look at the breakdown:
| Whole Foods | $578.34 |
| Publix | $137.70 |
| Costco | $454.76 |
| Food Lion | $15.44 |
| TOTAL | $1,186.24 |
Laura says
Totally agree! We pretty much only eat out at this point when traveling or special occasions. Even if it means grabbing some convenience meal trays at Costco (this weekend- mac and cheese and chicken pot pie) it is still way cheaper than eating out. I usually get home weekdays around 4- 4:30 pm and then typically one of the boys has practice around 5:30 or 6 so weeknight dinners have to be made quick, but I often try to include a fresh salad. Money saved from eating in = more money for travel! 🙂
Sarah says
We similarly only eat out for parent date nights (like a few times a year-wish it was more frequent-babysitter is the limiting factor), traveling, or spending time with my parents. We will very occasionally take the kids out so they can practice being in a restaurant but I almost always feel like it’s an unnecessary expense and I could have made equivalently good or better food at home. Whenever we do go out for a date night, we make it somewhere good and something I don’t know how to cook! We do go out for coffee and cookies sometimes to fill a Saturday with an activity but even that we have been limiting since lattes seem to have gone up into the $7-8 range in the last two years! Just cannot justify it…similar to the commenter below, I have started buying convenience food I didn’t before, like Mac and cheese, frozen pizza, and chicken nuggets and that’s my “punt meal” or what I do when we need to mix it up!
Brittany Dixon says
So funny you mention that parent date nights are only to places where you don’t/can’t cook the food at home. I think one reason we get only get Indian for takeout if we are going to pick up food is because they flavors are SO good and hard to replicate at home. I feel you, and just can’t get behind spending money on something I could easily make myself.
Sarah says
Yes! Sushi is a go to for us as well. I just don’t even know where to begin with making that at home (with a comparable taste anyway). Same with Thai or a place that does really great wood fired fish. I can make it “ok” but a restaurant is so much better.
katie says
honestly seeing you use premade meatballs always makes me feel a bit better. sure homemade are good, but its nice to skip that step.
Kath says
I really thought you were going to report like $400 for the month (sweating emoji haha). I’m actually really relieved to see we’re about the same for our family of 4!
Brittany Dixon says
Oh goodness no, haha! Those were the days though. Now everyone eats like a full grown man and prices- phew! 😉