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Thread: Grocery Spending in December

  1. #1
    Senior Member SiouzQ.'s Avatar
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    Grocery Spending in December

    I save all our household receipts and go through them at the end of the month out of sheer curiosity - it looks like we spent approximately $626 to feed the two of us in the month of December. That doesn't count what K. spends at our local little stores so its probably more like $675.

    I track my own spending by using Quicken but K. doesn't do anything like that. We keep separate accounts because I still like to know what goes out, especially with grocery prices seemingly getting higher by the week. If it was just me on my own I know I would spend much less but it comes out to around $315 each. We are coming from a bizzarre partnership - frugal me and spendthrift him. I spend money a little easier now and he thinks about his spending more than he used to so I guess we are a good match.

    Since I have more time than money right now and I do the main weekly shopping, I do the planning and list-making, use my coupons and keep a mental price list in my head for different items. Walmart has much better prices on many things than Smith's (Krogers) but the produce at Walmart sucks and the produce at the Smith's I go to has excellent produce so it just depends on if I need to pick up prescriptions at Walmart I'll get the items that I know are cheaper there. Then some weeks it is a Smith's trip (like today) and I decided to just buckle in and restock a bunch of stuff before the prices go up even further. I spent $88 but got many things that are backstock in the pantry that we will need in a few weeks anyway.

    What are you spending on feeding yourselves these days?

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    I'm like you--I'm the tracker/budgeter and DH is the spendthrift. My food spending is higher than yours, but it's actually hard to truly analyze because DH smokes and sometimes he forgets his receipts so I have to guess whether or not his smokes are included. He also has this thing about needing PowerAde. He gets cramps at night if he's dehydrated, and he gets upset if there isn't enough Powerade on hand. I try to tell him that water is a great way to hydrate but he's one of those that won't drink water, even with the built in filter we have. So that raises our grocery bill. In November our food bill was $830 and December it was $701.

    But I also have a "Splurge Food" category, which is for things like pizza take-out, and that runs about $200 a month.
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    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    December might not be a typical month for a lot of people, I don’t know, because there’s excessive spending on holiday meals and baking goods and impulse buys doe fsmily gstherings.

    But that said, I went through my credit card bills for December and that coupled with what I estimate DH spends on his weekly trips to buy gallons of milk and bananas, came up to $532.00

    This $532 does NOT include:

    1. any beef purchases (we bought a side of beef 2 years ago.)
    2. Any pet supplies at all
    3. laundry soap
    4. Most toiletries (but does includes hand soaps, some toothpastes)


    It DOES includes

    1. any alcohol purchased at the grocery store or elsewhere, but I don’t remember buying any alcohol this month
    2. paper products such as paper towels ( use very very very few) toilet paper

    In December, we were still eating from the garden these items: onions, potatoes, beets, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, winter squash.

    I think this was a fairly low month for us and other months are probably higher by $50 - $100

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    Senior Member SiouzQ.'s Avatar
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    K. will only drink flavored carbonated water. And Izzy Fizzies. Izzie Fizzies are about $15.99 per case at Costco and Bubly is about $4.18 an 8 pack. Today I took three bags (10 lbs.) of aluminum cans to the metal recycler and got $7.50 back. I haven't gotten up the guts to add up just how much fizzy water is costing us. I personally only drink regular filtered water that I get at a water dispensing station in Santa Fe, as the water from our well is not drinkable. $1.35 for 3 gallons, and we go through at least 12 gallons a week of that.

    The amount of money we spend on hydrating ourselves is probably a lot. On the flipside, at least we don't have a water utility bill. Another plus is that K. doesn't drink alcohol, and I have cut way back to maybe two or three beers a month now, so there is a significant savings from that.

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    Senior Member Tradd's Avatar
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    I include paper goods and toiletries in my food budget. I did a bit of stocking up for the winter and had a $200 delivery order from Walmart, but that also included laundry and dishwasher pods. Thr only extra things I bought for the holidays were some Brie, crackers, chips/dip, and soda. So maybe $40 extra. My usual is about $325ish.

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    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    sioux,

    Yes, the hydration may account for a lot of your bill. DH slurps down iced tea almost daily, but he mixes it from powder, and that isn't expensive. I drink tap water.

    But your food bill isnt all that high overall, is it?

    Our main grocery store in my little town is under new management and I love them. They seem to be cheaper to me. They claim they’re charging customers what they pay +10%, they add the 10% at the cash register.

  7. #7
    Senior Member SiouzQ.'s Avatar
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    I actually don't think it is exhorbinately high but I wish it was lower. About every other month we spend a bunch of money at Costco buying bulk meat and December was one of those months. A few months ago we had spent barely $400 because it was an off month. I don't track groceries to the penny by any means. I just realized that the catfood and other cat supples were probably included on those receipts. Any household non-food supplies generally go under a different catagory but again, I'm not really going line by line on each receipt. It is more a generalization.

    IL, I'm glad you have a local grocery store to shop at. The little store in our village is mainly for quick items that we've forgot and need something to complete dinner prep. It's a bit pricey but I don't mind because the people here need to keep them afloat. They mostly sell junkfood and sodas but do have pantry staples and some other things that you want a local place to carry, otherwise one would have to drive 20 miles.

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    Grocery shopping has become like a part-time job what with having to load coupons, check ads for best prices and travel to different stores for items. We usually shop together. I haven't done December yet but I would say we average around $475 a month for two of us. That does not include pets, coffee or alcohol as I track those separately. We have almost completely cut out processed food like cereal, crackers, chips etc. Too carby and too expensive. Way more produce these days. I hate buying non-organic produce but the price differential between that and non-organic can be huge. Today, conventional celery was .99 vs $3.50 for organic. Chicken and fish mostly. Bags of nuts from Costco and basics from Trader Joe's. The only local grocery is Mountain Mama's where we buy bulk spices and grains. Not a fan of Kroger's (Smith's, King Soopers) but get some things there. Looks like Costco gets most of our dollars.

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    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    I do not try to economize in any way in groceries as I once did. I remember there were years where I would not buy red raspberries, they represented my luxury item Now I buy them whenever I want.

    Our grocery store is rather paired down to basics, although the new owners stock things the old owners did not stock such as: ricotta cheese. Several kinds of pesto in a jar.


    I can not, for instance, by rolls of puff pastry at this store, that’s too much of a luxury item.

    so it is kind of cool that the store itself is basic and keeps our grocery bills in check.

  10. #10
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SiouzQ. View Post
    K. will only drink flavored carbonated water. And Izzy Fizzies. Izzie Fizzies are about $15.99 per case at Costco and Bubly is about $4.18 an 8 pack. Today I took three bags (10 lbs.) of aluminum cans to the metal recycler and got $7.50 back. I haven't gotten up the guts to add up just how much fizzy water is costing us. I personally only drink regular filtered water that I get at a water dispensing station in Santa Fe, as the water from our well is not drinkable. $1.35 for 3 gallons, and we go through at least 12 gallons a week of that.

    The amount of money we spend on hydrating ourselves is probably a lot. On the flipside, at least we don't have a water utility bill. Another plus is that K. doesn't drink alcohol, and I have cut way back to maybe two or three beers a month now, so there is a significant savings from that.
    I agree that I shouldn't complain about the small potatoes of Powerade when we have both cut alcohol out. It still seems like a "luxury" to me, though, to buy any drink that costs $2 a can/bottle. I buy the Powerade on sale in the supermarkets off the island but if we have to buy it in one of our small grocery stores, it's 2/$5, which I think is a lot when water is nothing except the cost of the water filter every 6 months.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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