I did not track items/costs in order to make a list of the things we stocked up on in May. It was a busy month, and it just didn't happen. I can tell you that we took advantage of sale prices to stock up on pork shoulder roasts, chicken, ground beef, dry beans, lentils, potatoes, coffee, coconut oil, ketchup and mayonnaise. I also started purchasing at the bread outlet, so we have several items in the freezer from there as well. Right at the end of the month I purchased some shredded cheese, most of which is in the freezer for future meals. We ended the month with approximately $5 remaining in the grocery budget, so we began June with about $185. That will cover food and pantry stock-ups for the three of us.
We continue to get some produce from our garden. I've picked radishes and asparagus, and early this month I picked some kale, spinach and chard. Much of the garden is just sprouting, typical of our growing season. I can begin picking greens for salads now, which will be really nice for the next couple months. We are also getting ample eggs from our hens.
 |
| from-scratch blueberry muffins |
I am doing less baking since I started shopping at the bread outlet. If a sale presents itself I would like to fill my flour bucket (unbleached, all-purpose), but I have plenty of wheat I can grind for whole wheat items. We used the last of the chocolate chips, but those are not typically on sale this time of year. Mostly, I expect deals on things like canned beans (mainly baked beans and pork and beans), condiments you'd associate with cookouts, pickles and meats that do well on the grill. With that in mind, I'll stock up on those items if we have a need. We have a good amount of variety in our pantry right now, and I don't know of anything that we are out of that we tend to stock (other than those chocolate chips!).
One source of summer recreation for our family is fishing. Generally, we eat what we catch, primarily pan-trout. We have been twice this season, but we haven't had any luck just yet....time will tell if it's a good fishing year.
What are your plans for June stock-ups?
I started May only needing boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I did stock up on those in between being out of town so that was taken care of. When we returned home on the last day of the month I made a run to Aldi and restocked all the perishables for $39. We did end the month with funds leftover and I transferred them to the car repair budget for the transmission work. The only thing that is a need in June is a bulk pack of yeast from Sam's so it seems the rest of the month will be perishables and deals. Some funds will go to taking meals to a friend's family each week. They have four teen aged boys so that will take some planning and sale shopping for meat. She will be heading up a seven week day camp for 50 at risk inner city 11-15 year olds. She has a real gift for working with those kids where as I would not even know how to talk to them. I thought that the best way I could help would be some meals since I am sure she will be 'done' by the time she gets home each day. So anyhow-I have my thinking cap on. I will also need a 30 pack of foil pans from Sam's while I am there so that she does not have to worry about returning dishes. My gift is feeding people. :) I have also thought about just making this month an Aldi month and not even trying to chase the deals unless bread flour pops up somewhere. We will see.
ReplyDeleteI'll be out of the country with my 2 youngest kids for most of the month of June and part of July so I stocked up the pantry and the freezer for my husband with good deals from several stores so as to avoid his running to Publix (the closest grocery store but the most expensive unless you use stack coupons and sales, something that I know he won't do on his own!) every 5 minutes. So my May grocery expenses were much higher than they've been, although we were just above my official budget by just a couple of dollars. However, we ate out a lot in May, I think we spent over $300 on eating out. YIKES! That did include our anniversary dinner ($75) and the meals for when I took my daughter to Tallahassee for 2 days, but still.
ReplyDeleteI stocked up on eggs ($1.29 a dozen on sale but I saw that Aldi's has already raised their price to $1.99/dozen this week), lunchmeats (Aldi and 50% clearance at Save A Lot), bone-in chicken breasts @ $0.99/lb, ground beef @ $2.79 and $2.99/lb, pork loin @ $2.29/lb. I also stocked up on cereal for my son this past month since I was able to get more than a dozen boxes of Lucky Charms for free. I also bought him a lot of canned food (tuna @ $0.65/can at Aldi, veggies @ $0.49 to $0.65 a can at Aldi, soups @ $1.00 a can at Publix & CVS) and crunchy peanut butter ($1.69 a small jar @ Aldi). If I had more room in my freezer I'd freeze him some bread since Aldi has it for $0.85/loaf whereas Publix charges at least $1.50/loaf, but my freezer is full. I'm hoping that he'll keep the receipts whenever he does some shopping so I can try to cobble up a report when I come back, and also so my budget for the year is somewhat accurate, but he has a knack for forgetting receipts in his truck, in his pockets, etc. so I'm not holding my breath.
On my end, the kids and I will be smooching from family for the whole month, but since we'll be playing tourists a lot and no trip to France is complete without sampling a lot of food from various regions that we'll visit, I expect we'll have a lot of "eating out" expenses again - plus I want to help my family with groceries since they don't have a lot of money and 3 extra people (including 2 teens!) is going to be a strain for sure. Food is much more expensive there too. Oh well, hubby got a raise yesterday and also scored a bonus that was higher than we had hoped so I will feel less guilty about eating delicious French foods while he eats his canned soups, LOL!