Costco $175.76
Towards the end of January, I had this itch to start filling our pantry, and I haven’t really stopped. And since we’re underspending in every other category besides food in our budget this year, I’m totally okay with it. The way I see it, having a good sized food storage is a good thing.
This has been a really weird year food wise {and for about 482 other reasons, but today I’m just here to talk about food}. So far this year we’ve spent a whopping $2953.78 on groceries and take home bakery treats. I haven’t spent this much on food 6 1/2 months into the year in I don’t know how long, 9 or 10 years maybe?
I think if we absolutely had to, at this point we’d be good with not leaving the house to buy food for a solid 9 months. And that feels good. I keep telling the HH it’s a trial run for living on an island… but he just rolls his eyes. 😉
Monday:
- Breakfast: Toast with Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
- Lunch: Mrs. HB’s Favorite Quinoa Salad
- Afternoon Cuppa & Tea Cookies
- Dinner: Chocolate Dipped Cone
Tuesday:
- Breakfast: Toast with Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
- Lunch: Heirloom Bean Soup
- Afternoon Cuppa & Half a Hershey Bar
- Dinner: Weenie and Fritos
Wednesday:
- Breakfast: Toast with Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
- Lunch: Heirloom Bean Soup
- Afternoon Cuppa & Half a Hershey Bar
- Dinner: Pickety Bits
Thursday:
- Breakfast: Carrots and Hummus
- Lunch: Tuna Salad
- Afternoon Cuppa & 1/2 a Chocolate Bar
- Dinner: Ice Cream Sunday
Friday:
- Breakfast: 1/2 Burnt Bagel with Cream Cheese
- Afternoon Cuppa & 1 Brownie
- Linner: Nachos
Saturday:
- Breakfast: 2 Hard Boiled Eggs, 1 Apple
- Lunch: Beans and Rice
- Afternoon Cuppa & Rice Krispie Treat
- Dinner: Black Beans and Rice {Anyone want the recipe?}
Sunday:
- Breakfast: Rice Krispie Treat, Dried Apricots, Tomatoes
- Lunch: Turkey-Bacon-Pickle-Onion-Tomato Sandwich
- Afternoon Cuppa & Rice Krispie Treat
- Dinner: Nada. Too Full From Lunch
Have a great Monday everyone, stay cool.
~Mavis
P.S. How is your food storage doing these days? Do you feel like you’ve been stocking up more than normal too? Curious minds want to know.
Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries, Bakery Treats We Brought Home $175.76
- Total Spent of Groceries and Bakery Treats We Brought Home in July $210.16
- Total Spent of Groceries and Bakery Treats We brought Home in June $194.12
- Total Spent in May on Groceries and Bakery Treats $256.47
- Total Spent in April on Groceries and Bakery Treats $1083.55 WOWZA
- Total Spent in March on Groceries and Bakery Treats $446.03 {includes a $50 gift card}
- Total Spent in February on Groceries and Bakery Treats $416.98 {the fridge and freezer are packed!}
- Total Spent in January on Groceries and Bakery Treats $346.47
- Total Spent on Groceries and Bakery Treats in 2020 $2953.78
You can go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories
Cathy lynch says
Seattle area, 2 months ago , after the toilet paper you couldn’t find flour , sugar , no small mixers because everyone was making banana bread. Still can’t find acrylic paint, as crafts are gone off the shelf for things to do with kids. Mushroom soup is hard to find. (My husband loves tuna and noodles ) and that’s the soup that’s off the shelf first.
Patti says
Mushroom soup is pretty easy to make. Just look up “cream soup” recipes and add fresh mushrooms. I actually had a cream soup base that I would freeze cubes of and then could make any soup needed. It came out of a cookbook about making mixes.
Gwenn says
We are also in food storage mode, in part because it’s summer and canning season and in part…..cause it “feel right” to have a full larder. We’ve been storing dry goods (oats, beans, rice, farro, flour, sugar, etc) in either vacuum sealed bags or jars (many with food safe O2 absorbing packets) in the old “coal room” of our 1916 Craftsman bungalow, it’s the perfect root cellar. We’ve also bulk bought pasture-raised beef/pork from a local farmer for our freezer….I gotta tell you the quality and taste is so much better than store bought stuff. This fall we’ll drive “up north” to buy potatoes, carrots and other root veggies direct from the farmers and store them in the root cellar. As usual, I’m ready for fall/winter.
Toni Wood says
I have been uneasy for years about our economy and just world events in general so had a very deep pantry when the pandemic lockdown came. We’re still good after all this time but I am restocking for the coming winter. You just never know what is coming.
Melissa says
We’ve also increased our food storage and grocery budget. I planned to keep carefully stocking up for winter since I think things will be bad then. However, we’re in AZ which is currently skyrocketing with cases, so I’m very glad I don’t have to go to the store right now. I haven’t been to the store since 6/29,and don’t plan to go back anytime soon. We’ll likely plow through our storage now, so hopefully, eventually, our numbers will go down so I can restock before winter.
Maxine says
Not so much stocking the pantry as stretching everything we’ve got for as many weeks between grocery store runs as possible, although some stuff weave stocked up on when we see it -flour, sugar, etc. Six weeks seems to be it for us, while still getting milk, eggs, bread delivered from a dairy farm here. Our grass fed beef bulk farmer sold out so fast we didn’t get an order, so we’ll be looking for an alternative after being loyal customers for over a decade. But the garden is the best ever, even sharing with the deer, chipmunks, woodchucks, and birds. I don’t can unfortunately but we got about 30lbs of potatoes this past week and the tomatoes just started. Great blueberry crop, beans, peas, squash, zucchini, and herbs (which I’ve grown for years and just started using on homemade pizzas and stuffed peppers.) Having fun in the garden. May even get corn from the raised bed! (Fingers crossed!)
Joann says
I don’t know if you’re interested but you tubeHas great ideas for canning many different things. From pressure canning to cold packing and water bath canning,
If you’re interested to help preserve some of your produce. Just a thought. I’m having a lot of fun myself putting away the harvest this year with many ideas. Good luck
Kris says
Melissa – I am in the same boat here in Eastern Oregon. Cases are high so we age going through my pantry staples NOW plus what I have grown thanks to Miss Mavis and Miss Lucy. I too hope it will be safe to shop soon again and get my pantry stocked up for winter (and beyond). Good Luck.
JulieP says
I’m in storage mode here in UK. Like others it’s garden time so all of that will be canned or frozen plus we are exiting Europe on 31 December, that coupled with our current Covid situation means there will definitely be shortages, of everything! It’s been grim but will get worse so a Brexit pantry will be filled as we speak.
Bobbi says
I work for a school district and I noticed there was this little clause in my contract for this next year about being furloughed and having pay cut as they deem necessary (frightening when you just bought a new house). So, we continued to stock up on food items to store in mylar bags in case of a substantial income drop. I also have purchased seeds for cold season growing and next year summer. Also spending more time working with the kids on food waste and eating up all the leftovers 🙂
Kirsten says
Yes on the black beans and rice recipe please
Thank you Mavis
Elle says
Another yes for your recipe. I like trying new ways to eat beans n’ rice!
Linda says
Yes would love rice and bean recipe
Deborah says
I’m stocking up on things that were scarce before. Toilet tissue, paper towels, and flour. OK! So I have about 20 pounds of flour, but keeping it in the fridge or freezer. The freezers are full. The pantry is overflowing, but we can eat. I’m also preparing for a container garden. I have 7 (10 gallon) buckets so far. I’ll be getting more before too long. My friend is moving and doesn’t need them. I have smaller pots for herbs and such.
Deborah says
Forgot to say we are getting seeds for next planting season here in Texas. Mostly veggies, but some flowers, too. Now to start on getting herb seeds.
Kathy G says
I made a list of items I missed when they were unavailable or I wasn’t going to the store. As things ease up alittle I am stocking up to be prepared for the next wave.
I mailed yeast to 3 different people in April as I had a Costco size bag in my freezer. Like you, I was able to barter items or split large quantities with family members and we may continue to shop like that for the foreseeable future.
Deb says
The increase in Covid cases in other states caused me to feel that I should be stocking up more than usual – planning for an increase in our state. We have noticed that when we order and pick up groceries, some meats and paper products are out of stock again. So, we suspect everyone is increasing their stock up buying.
Margo says
A few years ago my hubby repurposed a coat closet into a food storage area for me. After hurricane Sandy hit the east coast we realized that a 72 hr emergency supply really needed to be much longer. I keep a good 3 week supply of food on hand and in an emergency could probably stretch that if needed. I also have a stocked small chest freezer for meat. Since I had depleted much of my ready storage right before things went crazy, I did a lot of shopping to bring it back up to a fully stocked mode, so yeah, budget went right out the window, but I’m ok with that. Better to be stocked up and ready to aid family and neighbors if needed. Also giving to food shelters, and feel blessed to be able to give into that and not currently need.
Diana says
If everyone thought that way the world would be a much better place Margo¿,
Elise in the SF Bay Area says
Here in Northern California, we’re in a conundrum. Food and paper products plentiful at the stores again (except for dried beans, but even flour and sugar are back, although the flour mostly in 25lb bags, but when you use it like I do, it’s not a problem). I didn’t notice the meat shortage that other people around the country did/are noticing.
BUT we have wildfire season approaching, with accompanying planned power shutdowns. After being without power for about 2.5 days last October (a VERY short time compared to most in the region because we are on the same power grid as our town’s fire and police station), I vowed to not use the upright garage freezer anymore. And then THIS happened in March. Sigh.
I plugged the freezer back in (only a few weeks after our family of 4 had finally eaten EVERYTHING in it that survived the outage, which was almost all of the full freezer) and bought pork shoulders (17 lb) and BIG bags of frozen veggies (15 lb total) and stuck them in there to give me peace of mind. But now we’re 10 weeks from October… So I’ve switched to “eat it” mode, generally. We also have a great new garden (with hybrid fruit trees that give about 2-10 lb of fruit per graft) that has been giving us enough fruit to snack on for several weeks now. It’s amazing how (without planning it this way) the fruits are all going one at a time one after the other, a steady moderate supply:
May 1.3 lb cherries (3 grafts spread over 2 weeks), 0.5 lb raspberries
June 0.5 lb raspberries, 1 lb strawberries, 2 lb blueberries, 2.25 lb peaches (early graft)
and so far in July 0.25 lb strawberries and blueberries, 3.5 lb of peaches (later graft)
And there are about 5-7 lb peaches on the tree ready this week. There are also grapes and 2 more blueberry bushes that will be ready this month, and the grapes will extend into next month
I’ve done some meat canning, thinking that would be a good alternative to the freezer long-terms, and it’s fine for survival, but not a great every-day alternative for us, The freezer is better for every-day (except fall/ fire season, obviously). Right now I have about 20-25 meals of protein and 20 meals of veggies in the freezer, (down from 30-35 of protein when I decided to eat it down)
So I’m on a mission, just like last fall/winter, to empty the freezer in the next 10 weeks. Will not be a problem since I know what I have and it’s all food that we eat, nothing weird 😉
Patti says
Maybe you could start to freeze water in containers in your freezer. That way if it goes out, you have “ice” mixed in among the food to keep it longer. I try to do that here during hurricane season.
Conni says
Also in CA (Santa Cruz mountains) so I can relate. Are you able to purchase a generator? We upgraded to a whole house generator last month because the time my husband spent last fall over DAYS of forced outages, alternating our small (very dependable Honda) generator among freezers and fridges was all consuming. A small generator may allow you to keep your freezer stores during these uncertain times. My husband found that just three hours/day per freezer of generator power did the job.
Antje says
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one having ice cream for dinner once in a while.
Diana says
Definitely in food storage mode. Freezers are full, canning in full swing, canned/dried goods stored. We’ll be ok if it gets bad…
E in Upstate NY says
Have always been in full stock pantry mode. Then my hubby became terminally ill and needed a special diet. So the time required to prepare certain dishes and me being the only one who should eat it, there was very little consumed. Segway to a few years latter when moving out of our home, it was hard to convince friends and family that flour securely sealed in a food container was still viable after 4 years. Lots of items were just tossed. I took care of the canned goodies, just dumping them on the compost heap [no meat] and passing the now empty jars to my younger son who does can. To now, I’m ill and all food is prepared by my son and or his long time partner since I’m living with them. They however have always lived on a tiny budget, so stocking up isn’t much in their world. It took a lot of convincing to get them to go along with a CSA this year [I’m paying for it.]
Sorry for the vent, but this particular topic is one of many sore points.
SandyF says
Awe-sending a hug to E in Upstate NY.
I am in Southern CA-where we were just shut down again, a “modified stay at home” order for the second time since we are in a monitored county. Surge in COVID19 is bad here.
We did a Costco meat run last week, and my gardens full of tomatoes, so, there will be plenty of tomato sauce.
Made tomato jam yesterday and a tomato tart is in the oven now.
We are in scary times here in CA-it is getting rough…send some Maine fresh air our way-we need it…
Patti says
Maybe you could start to freeze water in containers in your freezer. That way if it goes out, you have “ice” mixed in among the food to keep it longer. I try to do that here during hurricane season.
Melissa says
Definitely stocking back up. Bought lots of pasta, rice, and canned tomato sauce and our garden is in full swing. I’ve always done food storage but this has been an eye opener. We now buy 25 lbs of flour at a time and we will always have a full complement of alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and ammonia going forward. We buy toilet paper and paper towels at Costco so we weathered that part of the storm well and were able to share some toilet paper. I sewed about 150 masks to donate and had to buy black market elastic at a very marked up price so I will always keep a big spool of elastic going forward.
Marcia says
I started filling up the pantry in March, and really never stopped. My husband came home from a business trip in early March (before COVID) and said “why’d you buy so much at Costco?” I was putting food in the closets. Well, we’ve continued to do that, and now he just rolls with it.
We’ve got 2 boys, one is a teen. They eat SO much. SO much. We are back to trying to shop every 2 weeks (but usually only make it 8-10 days before we run out of milk and eggs). I’m having a hard time finding GF pasta, but otherwise, we are pretty stocked.
Gwenn says
If you have an Aldi’s near you they often have GF pasta (and lots of other GF items) that aren’t crazy expensive.
wendy says
I am definately stocking up. My sister and i call it squirrelling and our hubbys said we are just nuts lol. My husband now sees why i do stock up. He never believed there would be shortages and the govermnent would help out if there was. I have already spent $3500 Canadian so far on groceries and that is just for the two of us. We currently have approxamitely 3 months of food stored probably longer. We didnt get a garden put in this year as the garden centres were mobbed and sold out of everything early but my sister has a huge garden and will share. In exchange i help weed and am teaching her how to use a pressure canner and we bought a steam canner to share.
Kristin says
Stocking up is how I always shop…I buy in bulk normally and cook from scratch so I always have big bags of flour, beans, and other staples. I grew a bigger garden this year and hope to can and freeze from it. I’ve also tried to full fill in gaps in my food storage. I don’t have a great system for an emergency water supply, though.
Veronica says
Parenting alone for 5 weeks and not being able to take 4 small kids grocery shopping, we’ve been eating through our food storage and what our garden is producing. Now that my husband is back and out of 2 weeks of quarantine in our master suite, I’ve been able to go to the grocery store again. I try to buy only what’s on sale or under our price point, and enough of it to last 2-3 weeks. The bulk foods (flour, rice, wheat, etc) I buy in 50 lb bags for our family of six and that lasts about 2-3 months.
rj says
ALWAYS enjoy when you share your recipes!
Tracy says
I’m so grateful for a full sized extra freezer, my vacuum Food Saver, and along with a big garden, enough to live on until Christmas, if I had to. Back up generator, too. I’m in southern N.Y. and all my doctors say we’re going to get hit again this fall. Have gotten all of my non emergency medical appointments scheduled and a teeth cleaning on the calendar, too. All before flu season starts in September!
Nancy says
I stocked up prior to the pandemic and just restock as I see good prices. I grew up this way and think it is normal.
Linda Practical Parsimony says
Just t after Christmas, I started restocking food lost last year. Sometimes, there were things i could not find, but mostly the meat and tp are all back with blank places in grocery shelves just for some brands of tp. My friend with whom i live temporarily finally allowed me to put a freezer in his house, paid for with my stimulus. It is being filled with food. I am freezing vegetables and fruits, too. We stock up on canned goods regularly, even if we only buy a little. I have always stocked up, but know i need more for this covid situation.
Marjorie says
We have been stocking up since March when we bought 1 1/2 pigs and a 1/4 beef from the local butcher before prices went crazy. We have tripled our garden size to prepare for the upcoming winter. I’m looking forward to trying different canning recipes this summer. Any chance we get we buy extra rice, pasta and canned or dried beans we snatch them up, Crazy year.
Heather says
I always love to get your recipes, Mavis!
Nicky says
Do you have any tips on organising a pantry so that things aren’t going out of date. I have tried to put longer dates at the back of my pantry but my fear is that a lot of things will go to waste unless I am careful. I am stocking up, but I need to actually eat what I have otherwise it is such a waste and potentially taking food from people who actually need it.
Susan says
I always “shop from my pantry” before meal planning so I can plan meals around what I already have. Then I purchase whatever ingredients I need to supplement. It saves money. If I don’t regularly go through the pantry I’ll forget what I have in there. Mine is organized by category, not expiration date but this works for me.
Patty P says
Just as the shutdown in NY was happening, we sent off our two hogs to be butchered (it was scheduled, just happened to fall that way), and a neighboring dairy farm had a cull cow that we bought hamburger from. My husband had harvested two deer last year, so we already had all of that meat, plus some leftover bacon and sausage from our hogs from last year. We tried to buy our meat chicken chicks at the beginning of all of this, and they are finally arriving TOMORROW….seems like everyone wanted in on that train. We have dairy goats, and unfortunately I didn’t foresee a pandemic, so I didn’t plan for them to have their kids till May/June timeframe. We don’t consume their milk until their kids are weaned…and we just had our first kid weaned about two weeks ago, so we are finally back into goat milk (instead of trying to have to get it from the store all of the time). We also have been getting our dozen + eggs a day from the layer hens, so I am able to have enough eggs for us and for friends and family too.
I generally buy all of my flour and sugar in bulk. We do need to try to find some more rice and dried beans. I’ve made a bunch of jam with strawberries, rhubarb, and black caps. I’m waiting for my beans to be ready to can those. I have dried kale and parsley so far. I have frozen a few batches of peas. I also tried canning meat for the first time…we, too, are worried about our freezers if we were to have a power outage. A power outage in winter isn’t a huge deal, but it’s a pretty big deal in the summer and fall, so we are looking into a generator that we can run the freezers off of in an emergency. We will be getting next season’s pigs soon, and I think, based on feedback from family, we may be doubling what we normally get because others are concerned about not having meat too.
My garden is really rocking and I’m thinking about putting some fall crops in (putting my beets in raised beds, since the bunnies seem to be able to get into my fenced in ground garden….and they LOVE the beets). Oh, and the 3.25 inches of rain we finally got the other day has made our sweet corn jump right up! Can’t wait to preserve it all for this winter.
I think we should be set if we have to be…we might have to live without foods we “like” to have on hand…like bananas, but we have plenty of pears, apples, and peaches coming on the trees that we should have plenty of applesauce, and canned pears and peaches. It’s a lot of work, but so worth it when you have all of that hard work to fall back on in a situation like this.