May Money Review

So after the debacle of April, our May grocery and household spending settled down.

A lot.

A whole lot.

How much? We spent $128.09 on groceries (food) and $16.56 on household items, most of which was laundry detergent (a special at CVS; with our Bonus Bucks, we bought enough detergent for dirt cheap to see us into 2020 easily). Grand total? $144.65.

That brings our monthly average for 2019 down to $168.63. Now we're talking!

Our eating out costs, which I track but do not set a bar for, came to $75.88. $44.00 of that was two delicious meals in Mansfield during the last concert weekend for the Mansfield Symphony. I had to go to dress rehearsal (to help with transporting instruments/vehicles), so instead of just one meal over that weekend, we had two. We ate at a new diner downtown the first night and liked it so much we went back the next night for an even better meal.

I saved our grocery receipts from May and may peruse them later (not tonight—I'm under a tight deadline on too many fronts) but my guess is the overwhelming bulk of food purchases were fresh items such as milk, orange juice, fruit, carrots, and lettuce. Just a hunch.

Speaking of lettuce, the lettuce seeds are up in our good enough garden. They need to be thinned, but again, tight deadlines!

June's grocery bills are likely to be equally rock bottom, not because we are so stunningly frugal (although, admittedly, we are), but because we will be on the road for a chunk of the month: a conference here, a conference there, and a trip to the Emerald City (i.e., Mayo Clinic). I expect our eating out costs to rise precipitously as a result.

I will note, however, looking to that bottom line, we are starting the road trip to the first conference with a packed lunch. Because, let's face it: every little bit helps!