One Down, Three to Go

 

As I have been doing for the last several years, I am again tracking our groceries: food and common household items (dish soap, toilet paper, for example). The First Quarter results are in.

For the first three months of 2023, we spent $532.57 on food and household items, for a monthly average of $177.35. $30.25 was spent on household items: less than 1% of the overall expenses. The rest was spent on food. (Note: "food" means items we buy at a store and eat at home; it does not count "eating out," which in our case we rarely did before the pandemic and now limit to only takeout on very rare occasions.) 

We finished 2022 averaging $240.62 a month on that front. As I noted when I totaled up that year, there was the, ahem, surprising discovery about how much food I had squirreled away in the freezer, especially the refrigerator's freezer. I had vowed to concentrate more on eating down what I had put away, and our January grocery bill reflected that: of the $73.88 spent, $66.98 was spent on food. (And I had a $30.00 credit with Kroger, so our out-of-pocket cost for the month was only $43.88.) February held a major stock up at Aldi: that month finished at almost $272.00, of which about $257.00 was food. 

And March? March came in at almost $187.00, all but $8.30 of which was food. I will note that there were two opportunities we truly had to take advantage of: butter at $2.49 at Aldi (we bought 12 pounds in two separate trips, $29.88 total) and spiral-sliced hams at 99¢/pound at Meijer (two hams: $24.95). If those sales had not taken place and we had not purchased those items, March would have been closer to $157.00.

Last year's hams

Unlike last year, we did NOT purchase and stuff our freezer with six hams, tempting though that was.  Well, let me call myself out: it was more than tempting. With both the butter (still on sale through next Tuesday night) and the hams (sale ends tonight unless Meijer or another store picks it up with Easter coming up), I found myself struggling internally with whether we should buy more "just because." Just because what? Because it's a good sale? (Yes.) Because I think about food insecurity a lot? (A. Lot.) Because...whatever. In the end, we talked it over and I managed to quell my internal qualms and stressors. I can truly look at what we purchased and say "that is enough." And mean it. 

When I examined our 2022 expenditures, I hoped that we could average $200.00 a month in 2023. We hit that mark for the first quarter. 

Onward to the next!