After Three

The 3rd quarter of the year ends today and, knowing that we are not buying groceries until later this week, I am running the numbers on what we spent and thinking ahead to the final three months of the year. After I posted our 2nd quarter numbers back in early July, I noted that I was hoping to hold to $200/month, but wasn't sure we would be able, given the economy. 

It is always nice to be surprised. Positively, I mean.

For the months of July, August, and September, we spent a total of $595.18, which comes to an average of $198.39 a month. Of that amount, only $18.92 was spent on household items such as aluminum foil. The rest was all food. All. Food. 

[NOTE: The main reason our household expenses is so low is that we pay nothing (as in $0.00) or next to nothing for dish soap and laundry detergent by using cash "rewards" I get from CVS. My father's meds are filled there, credited to my Rewards account, so I get those household items when CVS runs a sale.]

In September, we did two "replenish the pantry" shoppings, one at Aldi and one at our local Walmart. I had comparison-shopped online first, and so had a specific list of items that Walmart had lower prices on than Aldi, anywhere from 10 cents or more (up to about 20 cents). Warren and I compared impressions afterwards. We agreed that Walmart is more stressful, packing is way harder using our own bags, and there was less selection; our local WM is small and does not have a full-fledged grocery store. I think, looking ahead to October, we will do our larger stock up shopping at Aldi: better selection on many items. Not to say I won't check prices, but for what we are likely to be buying this month, it will be Aldi with some fill-ins from Kroger (a butter sale this weekend!) and Walmart.

For 2025, with 9 months behind us, our average monthly grocery spending comes to $195.58. If we can hold our monthly spending to about $200.00/month through year's end, we will come in for 2025 at an overall $200/month average. Given these times, I will gladly take it. 

I recently did a freezer inventory to see where we stand for the winter. I will be sharing that in another post, but let me just say that it was encouraging. Especially looking at that $200/month goal.

Onward!