Welcome to my $100 A Month Grocery Budget For 2 – Week 27 of 52. I took a few weeks off from sharing what we’ve been eating and what groceries we’ve been buying, but I’m back.
Our meals the past few weeks were pretty much the same old things. Beans and rice, soups and freezer meals. Pretty low cost, basic stuff. The plan was to eat down the freezer and canning cupboard as much as possible to make room for all the wonderful garden produce we were hoping to can in late summer.
But then it started raining… and didn’t stop. And while I think the garden is pretty much toast for this year, the HH is still holding out hope.
Other than milk, we hadn’t really bought anything the second half of June so I didn’t bother with a report. Our yearly grocery spending through the end of June was just $716.18 so about an average of $119.36 a month. Not too shabby if you ask me!
Beth’s Farm Market $51.98
But then we stopped by Beth’s Farm Market and bought 8 quarts of strawberries at $6 a quart {when you buy 8, otherwise they were $7.99 a quart!} and some avocados {3 for $1.99}.
We pretty much survived on strawberry rhubarb pie, avocado toast and taco bowls for days.
And then my Mother In Law sent us a couple of boxes of peaches from Pearson Farm. Holy cow those were good. I made a pie with a few of them but we mostly just stood over the kitchen sink and ate them as fast as we could. In hindsight I should have made a batch of our favorite old fashioned peach preserves. Oh well.
Farm fresh peaches, you just can’t beat the flavor!
Hannaford $10.49
We also popped into Hannaford for a few essentials. Eggs were $1.58 a dozen {I guess the bird flu is over?} Milk was $4.64 and 24 ounces of sour cream was $2.69.
Costco $314.42
And then the HH had an appointment down south so I made him a list for Costco. Would you believe he didn’t buy one extra item? I was shocked. He said the place was packed and he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could.
I don’t think I’ve stepped foot in a Costco in over a year. Maybe 2.
We were both a little surprised at how much prices have gone up.
- 25 pounds of King Arthur Flour $18.79! {The last time we bought it we paid $12.99}
- Dave’s Killer Bread $9.49 {I remember it being $5.99 for 2 loaves}
- 6 Pounds of Carrots $6.99!
- 10 pounds of Yukon Gold Potatoes $8.29!
Salad mix was $4.29 {a deal if you ask me} and 3 pounds of Costco Bacon was $10.49 {another great price}. And yes, I did want all those prepared foods and dips.
It’s hot and muggy and wet here and I don’t feel like cooking one bit. Plus, who doesn’t like to open the refrigerator and see a bunch of ready to eat food {that will last for weeks!} sometimes?
* I was surprised though at how much the prices had increased though. 🙁
With all these purchases {and some milk from a few weeks ago} my current grocery store purchases for 2023 comes to $1094.97.
I should probably be freaking out. But I’m not.
Yes, this is a little more than my goal of an average of $100 a month {more like $180 a month right now}. But at least now we have plenty of pickety bits to get us through the summer.
If I wanted to stay on track with my $100 a month grocery budget for 2 this year, that would mean we would only have $106.93 left to spend for the year {about $4.27 a week}. That’s barely enough for a gallon of cheap milk for the next 25 weeks.
Could I do it? Yes. Could the HH? {Spoiler alert: NO}.
Eh. I guess we’ll all see how this pans out. If the garden turns itself around and starts producing, we might have a chance.
I don’t want to say I’m throwing in the towel, but I think we might be a little over our grocery goal this year.
~Mavis
P.S. If you’re trying to save money on groceries this year check out my post on 5 ways to save money on groceries in 2023. There are a lot of great tips in there!
*****
Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries $376.89
- Total Spent on Groceries for July $376.89
- Total Spent on Groceries in June $41.56
- Total Spent on Groceries in May $288.51
- Total Spent on Groceries in April $35.36
- Total Spent on Groceries in March $82.28
- Total Spent on Groceries in February $101.14
- Total Spent on Groceries in January $167.33 {this includes buying groceries on Fair Isle}
- Total Spent on Groceries in 2023 $1093.07 for my $100 a month grocery budget for 2
Lynn says
Thanks for the post. I love these. I think $180 a month is quite an accomplishment with the current grocery prices !!
Dianne says
I agree. Lynn. I would hate to divulge what our 2 person household is spending per month!
Carol says
Your July is looking like my June. A Walmart pickup order and a camping trip put me WAY over budget. I’m having a little better luck with my garden than you are but I lost all of my started tomato seedlings and had to buy some at the garden center. Now it’s just me against the weeds and I am woefully outnumbered. At least we are out of the smoke for a few days.
Beth says
Mavis,
Glad to see you got plenty of supplies for pickety bits..and I for one say give yourself grace on the grocery budget. It’s great to have a goal but life is too short to deprive yourself. It would be different if you had to make it work for financial reasons. You provide all of your blog readers with tasty healthy recipes and how to save money on groceries. The price of groceries has gone up so much over the past couple of years that I think sticking to $100 per month might not be reasonable. I’m so sorry about your garden- if I could send you some Boise heat and sun I’d do it. I wouldn’t mind a few cool rainy days.
I’m terribly sleep deprived so hopefully I make sense-my 9 month old German Shepherd puppy swallowed a penny he found on the floor yesterday morning which set off a very stressful and expensive ($2300- so glad pet insurance will reimburse me for 80%) day. We picked him up from the emergency vet hospital at 10:30 pm and then my daughter and I slept in the living room on couches in order to keep a close eye on him…not much sleeping went on. To say yesterday was stressful doesn’t begin to describe it but I’m so grateful we got him home…skilled medical workers are a blessing. I’m grateful my little frat boy is going to be back to his usual naughty self. What an adventure he is- so different than my well behaved 5 year old female German Shepherd.
Enjoy your fun food!
Diane says
Sorry about your puppy! Did they have to do surgery? I would’ve thought a penny is something that would pass through and come out the other end. Or is the copper too toxic?
Beth says
Diane,
As it turns out the zinc is what is poisonous- and since the early 80s Pennie’s are more zinc than copper. Also the copper is what adheres to the stomach wall- we got Meeko to the emergency vet hospital within 1 hour and they induced vomiting (apparently that is the first step if you can get your pet there within 2 hours. Unfortunately the penny didn’t come out when he vomited. Next step was an X-ray which is when they figured out that the penny was adhere to the wall of his stomach. They sedated him and used a scope which was thankfully successful. If that hadn’t worked, they would have made an incision and removed it which would have made his aftercare much more difficult. Keeping him from running and jumping would be horrendous. As it is, he can eat and drink and play normally- they did give us a prescription for omeprazole which is to help reduce the irritation to the lining of his stomach from all their poking around to get the penny.
Mavis Butterfield says
Glad your doggy is ok. They really are a big part of the family.
Judi Y. says
I’m so sorry!!!!!
Jamie says
I have a family of 5 with 3 teenagers and getting groceries is so painful. We shop Costco and it’s so hard when you see how much everything has increased….. now the “sales” bring things back to what a price used to be pre-sale. Yes, bacon & eggs have come back down, thank goodness!!
Mavis Butterfield says
What more do you need besides bacon & eggs? So the HH says. 😉
Jamie says
It helps for sure!!
Rosemary says
Our Costco has 4 lbs of bacon for 10.99. Curious why your Costco only has 3 lbs. During the pandemic it went as high as 20.99 for the same 4 lbs. Wonder what caused the price to drop . . . but I am glad that it did!
We went over budget by 93.00 in June. I hope we do better this month.
We have had a lot of rain (it is raining pretty heavily right now, and we have no power – thankful for the generator) but the water seems to drain quickly. So quickly, that in a day or two after the rain, I will need to water the garden again. I guess no area is perfect. If only there was a way that you could drain all that water off your garden and into the harbor . . .
Elle says
Consider that inflation is 28.31% since 2015. That would give you $1539.60 for the year.
I can’t recall what year you started the $100/month challenge.
Happy Monday!
Kippy says
Agree
lisa says
Wow. That puts in perspective. That really makes your spending remarkably frugal, Mavis.
Meg S says
I’m so glad you’re back to doing this! Don’t give up! Nature can be crazy sometimes, who knows what the garden will do, and keep shopping the sales and using all of your tips and tricks.
Margo says
Don’t throw in the towel, but maybe modify it? I think a $200 dollar a month would be a great challenge. Pricing being what it is, $100 a month is very restrictive. We are normally a 2 person household on 2 medically restrictive diets. Takes a lot of creativity sometimes, but I enjoy the challenge. Cooking in my kitchen or playing in the garden are my happy spaces!
Dawn says
I just bought eggs at ALDI in NH the other day, .98/dozen, I was so excited my boyfriend thought maybe I hit the lottery.
HollyG says
We’re really lucky to have an outlet for Dave’s Killer Bread just across the street from the outlet for Bob’s Red Mill. We can get DKB for as low as $1.75 a loaf and Bob’s had a special deal a few days ago – 50lb of Whole Wheat Flour for $14.00.
I hope you weather improves, ours is hot and dry this summer. Good for the garden, but not for the wildfires.
Sue R. says
Is the outlet for Bob’s Red Mill in Portland? I’d like to stop there sometime. Thanks.
Lana says
We are a household of 2 and we average $225-250 by shopping sales and the salvage grocery store. We had two of our boys families home over Memorial Day weekend and I did not care what I had to spend because we have them here so rarely. I think the grocery price increases have shown us just how much ‘food is life’. It is important to our well being and happiness sometimes so be kind to your self.
Cindy Brick says
Well, gee whillikers… you’ve been so careful that you could go up more a month — and have nothing to apologize about. (Not that I think you are…) My own HH is usually clueless about whether I budget or not in the grocery department. But even he has noticed prices have gone up around here in the Denver area: eggs are down, true, but milk and meat are both up — meat about 25%. (Chicken, too. I don’t follow turkey much.)
What’s left of the garden is obscured by the veil of grasshoppers that rise when you walk through the grass. I am sick of grasshoppers. Now the big ones are trying to get inside. the fifth-wheel. (Because their time has come, and they know it??) It is easy to be tired and crabby about this.
At least the veggies and fruit on sale — if your’e careful — can be priced okay. I just bought 2 lb of strawberries for $2.49, and a bag of 8 tomatoes (seconds) at King Soopers for a buck. I try to put half in the freezer for later, and eat half.
SueD says
I’m rather envious you get 25lb bags of KAF. The two Costcos I shop at over here only get the 12lb bags. We stocked up when prices started going up, so paid 6.49 or 6.99. T got as high as 12.99, but has slowly come down to 8.99.
I know the different regions will carry different products, but didn’t think it would also apply to quantity.
Sue S. says
Wow that’s a high price for Dave’s Killer Bread. I usually get it for close to $6.00 and use a coupon from the Stop and Shop magazine but I’m boycotting Stop and Shop in favor of Trader Joe’s. It’s a double whammy here on the Cape as I’m sure it is in other vacay spots but the prices have increased to an unfair degree and then the prices increase even more because of the tourist factor. So discouraging. Keep the faith Mavis.
Mavis Butterfield says
That price is for two loaves. 🙂
Holley says
Mavis, just be grateful that you don’t HAVE to be on a $100 a month budget for food out of necessity. I’m so heartbroken almost daily to see questions being asked in a couple of groups I’m in on Facebook by people who literally cannot afford to buy food for their family! It makes me sick!!! Today I went to Sam’s. It was the first time I’ve seen almost everything that you could buy before the pandemic and the prices were lower! I’m holding on to the hope that things are starting to go back down!
Judy says
Hi Mavis, those prices are closer to what we pay in Canada. Except for the eggs. I’m just grateful that we can afford to pay these prices.
Mel says
I’d be tempted to flip the challenge. See what you spend on groceries when the garden isn’t producing. Then you’ll have an idea how much the garden specifically is saving you food-wise.
C says
Crazy to me to be this cheap and pre-occupied about food when you don’t have to. We’ll spend $500 in a day making the rounds at our favorite (luxury) grocery stores. But we enjoy really high quality food and meats and cheeses, and we live to eat…not eat to live. Life’s too short for that.
LaToya says
I’m glad these posts are back; I thought they were gone forever.
I’m having some shock with recent price increases too. But, we have a pantry + 3 freezers full of food, we just need to plan better and eat from there.
(I clicked to buy some of those peaches – produce is hit and miss around here … local things great, but peaches isn’t one of them – and they are sold out. I signed up for their email list, so maybe will get notified when they have more.)
Terry says
Thank you for posting this again! It helps me in so many ways! I have to say the only groceries I have really bought have been bread and lactose-free 2% milk since the middle of May. My son has moved home, and he and my brother are eating the freezer meals I have prepared. I have been fighting an almost constant case of pancreatitis, so I am restricted to soft-boiled eggs, dry toast, and milk until everything calms down. Thankfully, there’s a family at church that bring about 15 dozen eggs every week for the church to enjoy. I have had the pleasure of taking fresh basil and dill to church, as mine are abundant this year.