In January we spent $350 on groceries for six people. The first $200 was spent at the beginning of the month in our monthly shopping trip to Sam’s Club and Winco. The other $150 was spent in a few mid-month trips, including a trip to a local orchard! As promised, I’m going to show you everything all of the groceries we bought this month.
Sometimes a mid-month trip will involve Sam’s Club or Winco if I am out that way, but most of my mid-month shopping is done at Grocery Outlet. If you’re not familiar with Grocery Outlet, it’s a grocery store that carries foods that are near their “best by” date or that were overstocked at the traditional grocery store.
As I explained in my monthly grocery haul, I shop a little different than most people. I don’t make a meal plan and then make a list. I do make a list, but it’s a list of staples that we are out of or low on. The foods on the list don’t necessarily correspond to a particular meal, but they’re the normal ingredients I use for our typical meals.
I also do a lot of stocking up on what’s on sale or in season so I don’t have to buy everything every month. When I find an awesome deal at Grocery Outlet, I’m not shy about stocking up, though I didn’t do much of that this month, well besides apples.
Usually the impetus for going shopping mid-month is to get milk or bread. Grocery Outlet always has both of those, and they’re a much better price than any of the traditional grocery stores in my area. While I’m there, I look for great deals! If you’re not a careful shopper or have trouble sticking to a budget, this might be dangerous, but for us it works out really well.
There weren’t any crazy load-the-whole-cart-up deals at Grocery Outlet this month, but I was able to get a few good things for some specific purposes. I go into a more detail in the short video below about why I bought certain things and what I plan to do with them.
What we bought (and what it cost)
Boa Vista Orchard = $51
- Apples (120 lb) $45
- Tomatoes $2.50
- Pears $2.50
- Limes (4) $1
Grocery Outlet #1 = $7
- Texas toast $1.69 x 4 = $6.76
Grocery Outlet #2 = $27
- Flour tortillas (35 oz) $2.79 x 3 = $8.37
- Berry applesauce pouches (6) = $2.00
- Wheat bread $1.79 x 4 = $7.16
- Life cereal $1.99 x 2 = $3.98
- Klondike ice cream (4 ct) $1.49 x 2 = $2.98
- Reese’s ice cream bars (4 ct) $1.49
- Cheddar red onion cheese (7 oz) $.97
Grocery Outlet #3 = $41
- Bear Creek soup singles (6 ct) $.99 x 7 = $6.93
- Texas toast $1.69 x 3 = $5.07
- Tortilla chips $1.49
- Gingerbread cookie mix $.50 x 2 = $1.00
- Wheat bread $1.79 x 6 = $10.74
- Hot dogs $1.99 x 2 = $3.98
- Cinnamon rolls $.99 BOGO x 2 = $.99
- Milk $2.59 x 2 = $5.18
- Strawberry yogurt (8 ct) $.97
- Turkey breast lunch meat (28 oz) $4.99 BOGO x 2 = $4.99
We don’t set a separate budget for eating out, so any eating out comes from our grocery budget too. This month we spent about $25 eating out (most of which was for a couple of pizzas on a busy night), which brings the total for mid-month grocery shopping to $150.
Did any of these things surprise you? These mid-month shopping trips look much different than our monthly grocery shopping trips! If you wonder why I bought these items, check out the video where I go into more detail!
If you’re curious what we typically eat during the month, check out January’s monthly grocery haul post and video. And add apples to it. Lots of apples!
Wow! It’s super inspiring to see a family doing it for so little. My GF and I are trying to figure out ways to reduce our expenses on food, but it’s certainly not easy. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for the inspiration! I struggle with settign realistic budget allotmets for food. We are a family of six (kids are 19, 18, 15 and 13 with the youngest two being boys who are getting bigger appetites). For the month of January I spent $650 on ALL consumables (food, paper products, cleaning, pets, etc). Since February is a shorter month, I’d like to get it down to about $450 with buying less processed food, using more coupons, and just changing up my strategy. I am thinking about doing a monthly trip to Sam’s to see if that helps defray some of the costs (my parents have a membership.) Good job and thankf or the inspiration!
Laura, you are doing an amazing job at $650 with 4 teenagers in the home! If we had that many teens I’m sure we’d spend at least double that.
The deal you got with the apples is amazing! The cheapest we’ve been able to find apples from the local orchard is by buying them at Walmart for $0.99 a pound. If we go to the actual orchard to buy them it’s $1.50 a pound and we have to drive 25 minutes.
You do pretty well for living where you do as the cost of food is higher. We have Aldi’s everywhere here so I buy almost 90% of our groceries there monthly. I then make a trip to Trader Joe’s and them Sam’s. I spent $300 for month of Feb for 3 people, but our Sam’s run will last us for quite awhile. I am also starting the Keto lifestyle soon so that has an extra added expense, but well worth the cost.
I LOVE Aldi! We shopped at Aldi in the midwest during law school! Sadly, the nearest one is like 10 hours away or something! Best of luck with Keto!