Each month, I share an update on exactly how much my family spent on groceries, plus what we harvested from the garden, complete with pictures!
We had a hard freeze toward the beginning of October, which wiped out what was left of the garden. Honestly, the bugs had gotten to the garden by that point anyway, so it wasn’t a huge loss. In September, I had been enjoying not spending extra time in the kitchen canning and freezing, but now I’m starting to miss the fresh produce, as I expected I would. Time to start thinking about next year’s garden!
I was slightly under my target grocery spending goal in October. My 16 year old son is constantly hungry…for boxed, bagged food. As I said last month, I try to balance the teen cravings with healthy purchases, but it can be hard. And those boxed, bagged foods tend to cost a bit more. Aldi seems to be the cheapest on crackers, so I stock up on those there.
I try to save time by limiting how many stores I stop at each week. But that means I do miss out on some of the rock bottom prices at different stores. In November, I plan to lift the limit on the number of stores I shop at to see if this lowers the grocery spending. (I try to shop at just 2 stores each week, but sometimes go over.) At the same time, I don’t want to spend a ton of time shopping, so I’ll track my shopping time as well.
October Grocery Spending
So, what exactly did I spend on groceries in October? October’s groceries came in at a grand total of…$299.49. My goal is $300/month, so I was just under my goal this month.
Check out this post and this one too for more details on how I shop. If you are wondering exactly what I include in my grocery category, I list it out here.
As I’ve mentioned before, Hy-Vee offers fuel saver rewards on some of the products purchased. This month we didn’t earn any fuel rewards.
So, here you are, grocery voyeurs – the photos of the actual food purchased, stores I shopped, money spent and food grown! Enjoy!
What I bought
Not Pictured:
Dollar Store ($1.00) Bread
Fresh Thyme Farmers Market ($13.30) 1 lb carrots, 1.5 lb pears, 3.4 lb broccoli, celery, 2 lb honey crisp apples, raspberries, 2.3 lb grapes, 1.2 lb bananas
A purchase I cannot remember (but on my spreadsheet) ($2.13)
What I grew
How much did you spend on groceries in October?
Do you need to start a grocery price book? Check out this post, which includes a free printable to get you started today!
I was $3 under my budget. My weakness is the bagged and boxed foods myself. I got a lot of apples last month because they were on sale for a good price.
Awesome, Steven! Do you shop at Aldi? I really want to come in more under budget, but haven’t been able to make it happen lately. Apples are great this time of year. The lowest I’ve seen them is $0.88/lb though. I typically see them for less than $0.70/lb here at least once each fall – that’s when I load up. Just haven’t seen it happen this year.
Amanda, reading your monthly spending updates is like eating a box of donuts. I really enjoy it, but then I feel terrible about myself afterwards! 🙂
Great job on your groceries again! We definitely spent upwards of $1,200 and we have the same sized family as you. Maybe we need to move to the mid-west!
Have a great weekend!
I had a donut last weekend and it made me feel like crap. I don’t want you to feel that way about my grocery updates, Jon! 🙂
Living in the Midwest has it’s perks. It would be interesting to compare apples to apples – literally. Like how much items cost in some areas of the country versus others. It’s probably been done before, I’ve just never ran across it.
Thanks, Jon. You have a wonderful weekend as well!
1) I am reading about how you shop for groceries n$300 for 4 people is seriously impressive! We shop for 3 and We go over our budget of $400 just about every single month so I need all the help I can get 🙂 2) Thank goodness for Aldi.
Thanks, Amber! Aldi is a great place to get groceries, plus they have a ton of natural foods available now. Keep at it – you’ll find your groove!
Under $300 is pretty impressive! I am not looking forward to those teenage years though, if for nothing else, the appetite!
Thanks! I really enjoy the teenage years (for the most part), but the appetite is hard to satisfy, that’s for sure!
Awesome job staying under budget this month. We were able to stay about $20 under budget this month 🙂 All that Aldi shopping is really paying off for us!!!
Hurray for Aldi! Congrats to you for staying under budget too! I just scraped by… 🙂
Truly impressive, Amanda! We are a ways off, at around $700/mth, and shop almost exclusively at Costco/Walmart for our family of five. I know what you mean about your 16 year old eating everything in site, I’ve got one of those too 🙂
Thanks, MMM! I shop at Costco for some things too. I don’t have a Walmart close, but it would be interesting to experiment one month to see if making a trip there would save me more. Yeah, those 16 year olds sure can eat! 🙂
Still some nice harvests! Those beets and carrots look great. We still didn’t get too bad of a frost out here. I still have some carrots in the ground, they get sweeter after some frost.
Thanks, Mr. CK! A couple of those bowls were everything that survived the frost. It wasn’t bad for October here. Sometimes we get snow, so I’m not complaining. The carrots were pretty good, but I should have planted another round of carrots in August to harvest in November – next year!
I need to give Aldi a shot as well. We keep our monthly budget in decent order around $300-$350, but we only have a 2.5 year old. But our grocery store does give $10 off a $50 gas card when buying over $50 of groceries which we take advantage of basically every trip.
Hey GS! I’d definitely give Aldi a try, but I think $300-$350 is great! We take advantage of gas savings on certain items at Hy Vee too.
You’ve got a pretty good garden haul for so late in the year!! My oldest teen is craving the boxed bagged stuff too – must be a teen thing. Aldi does have terrific prices for that stuff. You should check out their bread: our Aldi sells it for 85 cents per loaf. Also, do you have a Trader Joe’s there? They have some healthier boxed bagged stuff that isn’t terribly expensive. $300 is terrific for your family of four- great work!
Thanks, Laurie. Yes, the garden harvest was decent. Lots of potatoes (I think I must have forgotten to take pics of the potatoes, because I think we dug over 40 lbs.). I typically buy bread at Aldi – buns are 85 cents here too, but I was able to get bread this past week for 69 cents a loaf! We do have a TJ’s close. Thanks for the suggestion – I do think I’ll swing by there and check it out!
I love this! I do not budget groceries closely enough. And I moved awhile ago and no longer get the gas rewards that I had been racking up. I miss those gas points terribly. But even without a budget, I have been working really hard at making meals in the crockpot and having leftovers for the freezer and/or meals all week. I’m so glad to have “met” you today!
Thanks so much, Dawn Rae! I’m glad to have met you too! The slow cooker is a great tool for preparing large dishes with leftovers. I try to plan leftovers with almost every meal so we have them to send for lunches throughout the week. I also double meals sometimes to keep in the freezer on days I know I won’t have time to cook.