Yesterday I went to the grocery store, since there were a few items I needed to stock up on- I’d completely emptied out my stores. But the thing is, I’ve been back at tracking my grocery shopping to the cent this past month, and yesterday was the last day of the month I was tracking, so I wasn’t in the mood to add a big bill to our thankfully relatively low monthly bill… and on top of that, we were well stocked on most stuff, had enough vegetables and nearly enough produce, and I knew that if I bought more produce I’d likely end up having things spoil on me…
In short, I knew that while I needed to replace things already (there’s only so many times I can borrow yeast from my next door neighbor), I had no need to do a big shop, but knowing myself, I get tempted by all the sale items, etc…
So, I told Mike that I’d go shopping, and I’d set myself a limit- only spend 28 dollars at the store. He gives me a look and says “Do you think that is even possible?” I thought it over, and adjusted it- I’d send 57 dollars and no more. That, I felt was doable.
I went to two different stores. The first store I wanted to only buy cinnamon sticks and dried mint… but… they were out of mint, and I saw quinoa was on sale. I like quinoa- its a nice change of pace from our staple rice, buckwheat, and corn here… but it is a fortune! It generally goes for $5.20-$6.50 per pound here, and the store was selling it for $3.89 per pound… so I bought 4.4 lbs, in addition to my cinnamon sticks.
Total- $17.88.
Only $39.12 left of the 57 dollars I’d been planning on spending…
At the next store, the first place I went was to the reduced rack, hoping I’d be able to find bananas there, but no such luck. Bananas are a staple in our house at the moment, as they’re one of the few foods that my 9 month old daughter, Rose, eats well consistently, and she needs a lot of food… and we also use them for smoothies. So despite them not being an amazing price, I bought 4 lbs of bananas for 61 cents a pound.
I was guestimating the prices of the produce, because they purposely have no scale in the produce section of the grocery store because they don’t want you to weigh your produce- they want you to overbuy… Its frustrating.
I even asked a worker there if he could guess how much my produce weighed, and he gave such precise weight guestimates… down to the last ounce… so I was sure he knew what he was talking about.
I found apples and star fruit (never seen it before there!) on the reduced rack for 39 cents a pound, so the worker there guessed that each of the containers of fruit I got were 2.75 lbs (they were 4.5 lbs) so doing the math in my head I assumed that I was spending much less on fruit than I was… so I kinda overestimated the amount I had left to spend.
As I went along with the shop, I subtracted how many dollars the item I’m putting in my cart cost, so that I’d know how much I had left, and wouldn’t put in too much stuff.
I got 2 lbs of potato starch, which I use to make my gluten free flour mixes, as well as some yeast- found a new company that had much more yeast for a much lower price!
And then I spotted tuna fish- which wasn’t on my list… but tuna typically costs here $1.42 or more per can! I saw tuna being sold in 4 packs for $2.82- only 70 cents a can! So I got two 4 packs.
I bought 1 liter of milk, since yesterday morning my friend gave me some milk kefir grains (my last ones died) and I wanted to start making milk kefir again, so I needed some milk for that.
I also bought 3 packages of gluten free sliced bread for $1.40 each- they typically go for $5.71 per loaf here.
I needed tomato paste- so I took 3 cans, which weren’t such a great price… but fortunately at the register it showed that they were 34 cents less than their labeled price (and no, there was no sale written anywhere on the shelf)…
I also bought a container of all natural peanut butter- one of the things on my list- we were all out and it’s a staple in our house…
By this point, I wasn’t sure if I reached 57 dollars or not, but I wanted black tea- we were nearly out and I use it for making kombucha- and white vinegar- for cleaning… so I put them in my cart and decided to see how accurate my shop was, and decided if my shop total was low enough, I’d get them…
Well, I did reach 57 dollars… but decided to get the tea and vinegar anyhow, because it wasn’t too much extra.
My total shop was $60.60. Not bad.
Yes, I went a bit over, but not much.
Still proud of my self control…
Lets see how long I can go before my next shopping trip… Because my fridge is full and my stockpile is full, and other than dried mint, I think we’re completely stocked up…
When you go shopping, how do you decide how much to spend? Do you just buy what you need and spend whatever it is? Do you have a budgeted amount for groceries and take that much in cash with you? Do you add things up as you go through your shop, or do you put things back at the register if you spent more than you wanted to? If you bought what I bought, how much do you think such a shop would cost you?
