Monthly Grocery Budget.

[MeepBeep]

Where are you?  I'll start driving to your state to buy my milk.

Illinois... Being a big farming state does have some advantages...

 

[donrae]

My cheap milk at Wallys is $2.99 a gallon, that's for whole milk. I know some of the drug stores have it a big cheaper, but I'm already at the Wal-mart and it's not worth saving fifty cents to make another stop IMO.

 

[donrae]

Trying to catch up...

Wal-Mart 14.97
Safeway 7.99
Rays 21.93
Wal-Mart 20.96
Rays 40.63
safeway 9.98
Wal mart 24.56
rays 30.96
cash and carry 41.90
Albertsons 19.48

now at 731.39. Sounds like an awful lot. Not even halfway through the month....

 

[DuckLady]

Hey, can I join in here? I am forever trying to cut back on spending in various areas.

 

[donrae]

Absolutely! This is my information gathering month. next month I'll be looking to cut back, I'm sure. but I needed to have a baseline first. It's kind of eye-opening, let me tell you!

 

[DuckLady]

We have been using YNAB (You Need a Budget) for our budgeting. I just ran a report and we have spent average $525 a month on groceries in the last 6 months. We still have most of that in the freezer/pantry,though. We go to Costco once every couple of months and do a big shop, then supplement fresh fruits and veggies until our pantry gets low. That number includes non foods like TP, laundry soap, cat and duck fud and supplies, etc, so I need to start breaking that down.

This will be a good reminder to be more detailed in inputting numbers into my budget. We are going shopping tomorrow afternoon for long overdue fresh fruits and veggies as well as finishing up Christmas food shopping. It will just be us two, so nothing fancy. We live a minimum 2 hour round trip to a real grocery store. There are a couple local mom and pop shops, but they are very limited on (questionably) fresh stuff at high prices. Though I got some grapes there that were huge and sweet for $4 a pound.

I just considered that my treat for the week.

I try to use the crockpot about 3 times a week, have leftovers 2 or 3 times and cook once or twice or have a fridge cleaning night once.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Hey donrea is it ok if i join in. I have a budget for everything but some times need others to hold me to it lol my husband doesnt pay attention to what i spend.

 

[donrae]

Everyone's welcome far as I'm concerned

.

I've been spending "normally" and doing some re-stocking this month. next month I may try to see how low I can go, just to get an idea. It's surprising to me how much we've already spent. I feel I'm in the grocery store too much, and I'm needing to go again today. It's a balance with fresh veggies and fruits. Seems like if I buy a lot, they wind up going bad before they get used. But if I don't buy so much at a time, I'm in the store more often, and that usually means spending more each time

. for a while I was really good about cutting up the veggies right after I got home, it made them easier to use for dinner and snacking. Maybe I need to get back to that to be more efficient on what we eat. I don't really throw away much food, and what I do discard always goes to an animal so it's not really wasted IMO.

 

[N F C]

I'm with you on food going back to the animals Rachel...as long as someone gets some good out of it, it's not wasted.

 

[donrae]

Yeah, normally I say my hens turn my discarded food into beautiful eggs. But not right now, bunch of shameless freeloaders