Grocery Spending & Menu Plan | The Four-Store Edition
Normally, I keep my running around to a minimum, but on Monday, my husband's day off, he sent me out by myself to Atlanta Bread Company for a re-grouping/planning session (yay!). Afterwards, I made two quick grocery stops.
I had some coupons to use at Giant, and I spent a total of $6.97. I got a dozen eggs (I had a coupon to get them free), a box of Cream of Wheat, a 5 pound box of Clementines, and 3 pounds of bananas.
I also stopped by Safeway to redeem my flour raincheck (Gold Medal unbleached flour for $1.50/5 lb.). The raincheck was good for 20 bags, but they only had 13 in stock. So, I bought 13 and got my raincheck rewritten for the other 7. The 13 bags of flour cost $19.50.
So, before I even set foot in Aldi and Weis, I'd spent $26.47. None of those groceries are pictured, but I do have a picture of my Aldi/Weis groceries.
At Aldi, I spent $47.80, and at Weis, I spent $54.50.
So, my total for this week is $128.77.
Oh dear.
I was $6 under budget over all for the month, so that means I'm $22.77 over budget. And that means that I need to spend $77.23 or less next week. I think I can do that, and quite obviously, the main reason I was over this week was my flour purchasing, which I don't regret in the slightest.
For breakfast this week, we'll be eating cinnamon oatmeal bread, oatmeal, pancakes, Cream of Wheat, and cereal. Lunches will be homemade whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt or yogurt smoothies, fruit, and leftovers as necessary.
Saturday
- Deep Dish Pizza
- green salad
- root beer
Sunday (we're visiting my husband's grandmother and bringing the meal with us)
- Cream of Crab Soup
- Challah
- salad
Monday
- French Toast (made with challah this time)
- Fried Mush
- OJ
Tuesday
- Hibachi Chicken and Shrimp
- Buttermilk Biscuits (I know...such an authentic side dish for Hibachi)
Wednesday
- Broiled Tilapia fillets
- Cheese Bread
- green salad
Thursday
- Chipped Beef on Toast
- green beans
Friday
- Cornish Hens with Stuffing
- Basic Rolls
- green salad
I made french toast with your Challah recipe a few weeks ago and it was AMAZING!! Have a great week.
lol! That's funny that you did that and I haven't even tried it yet. Cook's Illustrated recommended it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
I keep a large amount of flour too. Sometimes I freeze mine for 48 hours to kill any weevil eggs waiting to hatch. Then I store in food grade buckets, just in case any do hatch. I get icing buckets with lids from groc store bakery. This saves my entire pantry from being attacked. Good find!
I did my once-a-month grocery shopping yesterday. I try to only buy milk & bread in between monthly trips. Well, this month I tried couponing again. I haven't done that in quite some time, but thought I'd give it another go. I went way over budget! I normally attempt to spend $275/month, and usually spend about $300. Yesterday I think I spent at least $350 (haven't totalled it all up yet). I bought all kinds of things I don't normally buy--just so I could use my coupons! All that yummy food that dh and I used to buy--back when I worked, before kids, etc... And once I got started, I was on a roll! I was so tired by the end that I quit keeping track of my total and just put things in the cart because it was on sale and I had a coupon! When I got home, I told dh, "I'm NOT doing this again! I spend too much when I try to do coupons." At least we can enjoy it all and get it out of our system for several months.
Like you and your flour, though, I stocked up on pasta. It was a really good sale, and I needed to do it. It was the frozen prepared foods, though, that pushed us over budget.
Ah yes, that can be a problem with couponing. Often it is cheaper to buy generics and unprocessed foods than it is to purchase items with coupons. I have a post in the works about my thoughts on couponing that I really, really need to get done! lol
I would not consider you over budget for buying the on-sale flour. If you factor in your monthly savings by buying items on sale, you are actually under budget. To me, that is the point of a good sale, be it chicken, milk or whatever.
I have to agree on the couponing. I only clip what I use. I also use a few websites that place coupons on your shopper's card. I don't plan on purchasing those items so it is a nice surprise when an extra 50 cents or more comes off the total.
I have to complain about two things. One, since our move I miss Shoprite. They don't have any here and I used to be able to plan soooo well using the online service they had and the price breaks they always offered. My other kind-of complaint is your flour purchase. Kristen, I could cry because what you spent on on 13 5lb bags I just spent on one yesterday. I would not change my husband being gluten-free for anything, except the price of GF flours. I stopped purchasing bread products because of the price and started making my own. So far it is a pretty satisfying thing baking for him and the girl child, but it was heart-wrenching putting almost 20 dollars down for one 5lb bag yesterday.
Yes, I would be in trouble if I had to go gluten-free! Can you make your own flour blends at all?
It is possible but I haven't had the budget to experiment. I'm sure the time will come soon but I want to be prepared. I know I will need a few different types of flours and a container or two for storage. (I would prefer containers that fit in my "baking supplies" cabinet. !Picky Picky!)
You might have a bit of trouble at first but I am sure like our house you'd adjust and it would take no time at all. On average I am baking 2 to 4 loaves of bread a week and I made sticky buns this morning. Our budget for groceries is $120 a week and I almost always stay between the $100 to $120 mark even with "specialty" foods.
I am totally with you on the flour, I think we have nearly 20 bags in the freezer right now! I keep unbleached white on hand for piecrusts, french bread, cookies, etc and then thanks to you I now make our own wheat bread, and so I have a bunch of whole wheat flour in there too! Our commissary had it for $1.50 a bag for a long while and I stocked up! Actually, I should check and see about getting more.....although the husband is already teasing me that we have enough to last us until Christmas next year!
That's the one problem with stocking up: It completely skews the budget. Look at it this way: All but $9.27 of the amount you went over-budget was for flour for future use. So perhaps you should consider yourself just $9.27 over your budget. Then, each time you open a bag of flour, deduct $1.50 from your food budget.
That's probably too much retro-fitting for a budget-conscious gal like yourself. Frankly, it'd be too much for me. But I give myself a little leniency when I go over the limit because I'm stocking up.
Well, I THINK I can make it up next week, and then things will be all neat and tidy. lol I use a cash envelope, so I only have a little under $80 left in the envelope for next week.
Does your budget include toiletries, feminine care products and the like?
Yep-it includes food, beverages, toiletries, feminine products, and cleaning products. 🙂
The flours that I use most often in my GF baking are rice, almond, potato and tapioca. I am sure that if you had a grinder (and knew how to use it, lol) that the rice and almond wouldn't be too hard. But tapioca and potato.... would take some serious thought.
I do have some potato, rice, and usually tapioca (We're out right now.) on hand but when making 2 to 4 loaves of bread a week it is easier to have a GF AP flour on hand. We used to do without bread all together but lunches for a 6 year old get old and hard after a while. It is very nice to throw some type of protein between bread.
The GF AP flour I am using is Tom Sawyer. It is a really good blend and comes in 5lb bags unlike Red Mill or similar. The new mission is figuring out if I can get the Tom Sawyer cheaper another way or what blends and type of flours give a good result for my dollar.
Any suggestions welcome...
Logically, you should distribute the cost of all that flour over the months it takes you to use it. If that's 6 months' worth of flour then take away $3 from each month's budget for the next 6 months.
Clearly logic has its limits. :->
Then I thought about the budgeting problem seriously and decided that if I budgeted for food and bought some things in bulk, I'd "tax" my weekly budget and put that amount in a separate bulk purchase account. (Which I'd need this week, as my favorite snack food was on sale (first time in two years) and so was my favorite cereal. I bought 4 month's worth!)
I can't go to the store until next week, because I shop for two weeks now. I actually was mad at myself, because I went to Sams Club and mistakenly bought an extra box of gallon sized freezer bags! That was like $11 of my grocery money for the 2 weeks! I'm going to see if I can return it.
Don't worry about overspending a little. You always buy such good food for your family.
Just out of curiosity - do you always buy single rolls of TP? I've found the price cheaper in multipacks. And, how much do your bananas cost per pound? All the stores in my area in FL charge $.49, my sister in IN pays $.59 and DIL in CT pays $.39. Seems like a wide price range and we like bananas.
Here in OH our bananas are .49/lb.
Just about out of whole wheat flour in my home, too. I hardly had enough to make bread this week and my daughter was very clear that I was not to make white bread. Thankfully, a co-worker was making a trip to Portland, Oregon this weekend and was planning a trip to Bob's Red Mill. She offered to pick me up some flour, too!!
This is really my first time tracking food purchases and shooting for a goal of $150 a month as my food budget for a family of 1 adult and 1 teenager. I have about $30 left for the month. My goal for next month is to shop with cash only.
Challah on a Sunday?! Oy Vey!
-Katy