You know when you send your husband to the store to buy 1 thing and he comes home with 3? It will kill your grocery budget every single time. I should know this by now, right?
Costco $17.67
I was craving a baked potato with BACON so I asked the HH if he wouldn’t mind running to Costco for potatoes {they are HUGE!}. He came back with the potatoes, 2 gallons of milk and a box of lemon bars. He knows I LOVE lemon bars and it was a totally sweet gesture… but because of those bars I am now over budget for the month. 🙁 Sadness. Now if I want to stay remotely on track for the year I am going to have to resist the urge to buy anything for the rest of the month.
By the way… those lemons bars…freakin’ delicious! 😉
Harbor Greens Market $10.64
We ran errands together {or really, the HH chauffeured me around town because I don’t like driving} and one of our stops was Harbor Greens. Until about 2 weeks ago, Harbor Greens was the only grocery store on that particular side of town. The QFC store had closed last year as well as the Old Safeway/Haggen store.
Then, on the exact same day, Safeway re-opened and Main and Vine opened up. It’s gotta be hurting Harbor Greens right now something big. Hopefully when all the hype dies down Harbor Greens will be back to normal. Luckily one thing Harbor Greens has that the other stores don’t have is a massive plant and garden section in the spring, summer and fall months. So hopefully, that will lure peeps back to shopping there.
Fred Meyer $ 7.38
Eggs $1.50 per dozen and sugary cereal for the boys that will stay hidden in my secret hiding place until I leave next month for the east coast, $1.69 a box.
Here are some of the foods we ate last week {minus the snacks}:
Monday
Breakfast – Eggs, bacon and toast
Lunch – I have no idea
Dinner – Leftover Pot Roast Stew
Tuesday
Breakfast – Banana, steel cut oats
Lunch – 4 slices Shirley’s cinnamon raisin bread
Dinner – Domino’s Pizza Deal
Wednesday
Breakfast – Cinnamon raisin toast, banana, orange juice
Lunch – Breaded chicken and sweet potato fries
Dinner – Chicken Soup and homemade biscuits
Thursday
Breakfast – Steel cut oats, smoothie
Lunch – Panera chicken cobb salad and bread {My gift cards are now depleted} 🙁
Dinner – Smoothie
Friday
Breakfast – Eggs and sausage
Lunch – Egg salad sandwhich with homegrown sprouts
Dinner – Pasta and no knead crusty bread
Saturday
Breakfast – Steel cut oats with strawberries and blueberries
Lunch – Soup: Clam chowder for the HH, tomato soup for me
Dinner – Baked potato with butter, sour cream and bacon {+movie snacks}
Sunday
Breakfast – Big Breakfast sausage, eggs, and toast
Linner – Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches
All and all, not a bad week. Now, if I can just stay out of the stores this week I think I’ll be okay.
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $35.69
Total Spent in February $102.89 {Noooo!}
Total Spent in Janaury $105.36
Freebies we’ve been gifted or were earned in 2016: $200
- $100 gift card to Whole Foods {Christmas gift from my parents}
- $100 gift card to Trader Joe’s {Christmas gift from my parents}
- 22 packets of vegetable seeds
Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.
Jenny says
Husbands…I tell ya! I gave mine one last chance to go to Costco without me and he failed, came home with a freaking sound bar and crazy food! He is banned for life!
Mavis Butterfield says
Go Jenny!
Beth says
I was at Costco yesterday and saw those lemon bars- I was tempted but resisted! I spent a lot more than your husband did- but I purchased meat- Tuscan pork tenderloin and flank steak for our anniversary dinner tonight (it’s cheaper to eat steak at home as you know!) and we have enough meat for several meals of course- even so the $128 I spent there was more than your entire month’s budget! I just decided to put all my grocery receipts into a spreadsheet-breaking them down by food, pet supplies, household, and health and beauty categories- our spend this month was crazy high! I decided to do a written menu in the same spreadsheet- I am doing 1 page per week and I think this will save me some time also as I can copy dinners over to other weeks. My biggest challenge is the picky teenage daughter that wants grilled chicken and broccoli at every meal- you never have any wonderful leftovers for lunch the next day which isn’t thrifty at all. Oh well-it’s a process right?
Deborah from FL says
What a sweet hubby u have! 🙂 (Too bad you can’t shift those lemon bars to the date budget somehow…)
Weird question: what’s the deal with the volumes of those Costco milks? Do they normally come that varied? or has someone been into one before the photo op? Strange what I fixate on at times. Lol
Mavis Butterfield says
Ha! No, my son got to the milk before I snapped a picture.
Erica says
Hey Mavis. I just finished my first Whole 30 and I can’t help but wonder if you would be able to stay on budget and be Whole 30 compliant. Have you ever heard of it or thought of giving it a try? I’d love your thoughts, because I want to keep eating this way, but my grocery spending has doubled.
Mavis says
Erica, I am familiar. I think it would be tough for me to stay on budget with the Whole30, because we keep our costs low based on our very low animal protein consumption. We also eat a lot of beans in soups, etc. Plus, we usually snack on cookies. 🙂
It’s a great program, though, so if you can keep it up financially, I say go for it!
Heather says
Erica,
Have you ever tried Bountiful Baskets? It is a food cooperative. Check it out and see if it might help the budget on veggies and fruit. http://www.bountifulbaskets.org
I use it in conjunction with Zaycon Foods.
Good Luck!
Helen in Meridian. says
Return the milk to Costco. Don’t be ashamed. You will be on your hard fought for budget that way.
Mavis Butterfield says
Monkey Boy already opened it Helen. 🙁
Lynn says
Does all your shampoos, soaps and toilet paper etc. come out of a different budget, and if so, how much do you spend on all that stuff every month? Thanks!
Lynn
Mavis Butterfield says
I have not bought any tp, shampoo or soap this year {or products of the like}. Since we don’t eat toiletries, I do not include them in our grocery budget. I tend to stock up when those types of products are on sale, and if I had to guess I’d say we spend $75 – $100 a year on those things. I’ll try and keep track this year.
christina says
I’m wondering if you keep at $100 a month because you’ve stocked up on meat cheese etc? Then when you use them up do you plan a different budget. I saw Zaycon on your recent post, and decided to buy the chicken breasts. I hope we like them, but the price difference for natural chicken I usually buy (smart chicken) is 6.99 a pound vs this natural chicken at $1.69 made me want to try. We don’t eat a lot of meat, but I do like a stock in the freezer.
Mavis Butterfield says
Although we do get Zaycon credits, we still buy meat occasionally. I don’t have a separate budget but I feel like we really do stretch the meat we use and probably do not use as much as most people would at dinner time.
Helen in Meridian. says
White tennis shoes were a requirements to be able to sit in the Pep Club Section at games, along with our school sweater, white peter pan blouse, navy skirt and white gloves. We used to polish our tennies with white shoe polish to keep them clean. Times have changed.
Tamara says
Polishing the keds. . .oh, yes, I remember. And, the saddle oxfords. Did you have to iron your “Physical Education” uniform? Each Monday was inspection; we wore them three days during the week and took them home each Friday to wash. Points off our grade if they were not clean and pressed on Monday. Jeans and keds were for weekends and afternoons; only dresses and skirts could be worn to school. I was in the tenth grade before girls were allowed to wear slacks to school and ONLY when the temps were below 35 degrees (North Carolina).
Jeanie says
Your sprouts always look so lush. I have a sprouter but mine never quite come out well. Either they rot or are very pale and stringy. Will you write a sprout post? I have tried using your method previously posted but just can’t get them right. I am sprouting alfalfa sprouts.
Mavis Butterfield says
Hi Jeanie, I wrote about how to sprout seeds here –> http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/grow-your-own-sprouts-the-health-benefits/ I don’t do anything special other than add water a couple of times a day, honest. I’m not sure why your sprouts aren’t working for you.
Jeanie says
I just read through your tutorial again and I wonder if it was because I haven’t bleached my seeds. Might try that.
Lauralli says
What are the biscuits you keep showing? They don’t look like plain biscuits. I can’t find a recipe for them listed on your site. Please share!
Mavis Butterfield says
These ones –> http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/savory-biscuits-with-sun-dried-tomatoes-and-herbs/ instead of rolling them out I just used a cookie scoop and dropped them on a silpat. 🙂
Lauralli says
Thanks for the reply! I don’t know why I couldn’t seem to find them myself! Any suggestions for substitution on the goat cheese? Have you ever used any other cheese? Not my favorite and expensive.
Pauline says
No, Mavis, you are not over-budget for february… The lemon bars were not groceries, they were a GIFT from your sweetie. Tuck that little item into some other category 😉
Jill Hamilton says
Love the blog and super suggestions, Mavis. I shop once a month at Aldi for our family of six although just four here right now (college). The kids know if they eat all the treats in the first week, that’s pretty much it. Although there are exceptions, I try to keep our budget at less than $250/month. Do you have an Aldi nearby? And what do you think of the once a month shopping? (I love it and try to bypass the weird looks!
Mavis Butterfield says
I actually think once a month shopping is pretty awesome and I could totally do it. We don’t have an Adli and I have never been in one either. I’ll have to research it for the next trip I make because I’ve heard great things about the store.
Lisa Millar says
I try not to take my husband into the supermarket… he totally whim shops and usually not for the cheap stuff either! 🙂
Those eggs are insanely cheap compared to what we can buy here… even the cage eggs (Which I will never ever buy again since having chickens) are around the $5 mark and free range up around the $7 mark.
Glad we have our own eggs – and we sell the extras for $4/doz.
Even with all we eat out of the freezer and garden I still haven’t gotten down to $100/month
I might have to look up some comparisons of food prices between the US and Australia to see if I am chasing rainbows!
Elizabeth Vega says
My husband is the my secret weapon for grocery-store savings, because he follows the list exactly! The best thing I can do for our budget is to send him and stay out of the stores myself, because I will always find some “good deal” to stock up on!