Are you happy with the amount of money you spend on groceries? I always had mixed feelings because on one hand I wanted to make sure our family ate good healthy meals. But I also felt that too much went to waste. Meal planning helped but feeding a family can add up. And the kids had no interest in limiting the amount or variety provided. I'm mean, why would they? Free food. But at least I could rest assured that as our kids grew up and moved out our food budget would start to feel excessive. I didn’t take inflation into account.
As empty nesters, our food budget has actually gone up and up. So, tired of spending $1300-1400 a month on groceries, Marty came up with a bold idea – let’s get everything we need for a month of groceries in one trip. I became the devil's advocate: 1. We live in a tiny cottage – where will we put it all? 2. Perishables won’t last a month. 3. I’ve tried it before and it didn’t work.
But making the hour-long trip to Costco in Honolulu every week was getting old and it seemed foolish to keep spending that much money. Yes, Hawaii is pricey, but we rarely go out to eat and don’t buy convenience foods, so where was the money going?
Have you ever noticed how the more often you go to the grocery store the more money you spend? When we make our weekly trips to Costco we easily spend $200-$300 and any "add ons" (dried mangos, anyone?) are multiplied by the number of visits. Then on top of that are the little runs to the local Foodland, where I never just get bananas. I seem to always remember at least $50 worth of other "necessities." That's where the money is going.
So mid-January we went for it. We decided what we wanted to eat, guessed at how much we needed for a month, and made a list. It was a little tricky. He likes his granola, smoothies and turkey sandwiches. I like avocados, hamburgers and fruit. But we don’t need a lot of variety and don’t mind having our menus on repeat.
It took about two hours at Costco and I was surprised because we only needed one cart. Our list included butter, eggs, cheese, milk, granola, avocados, sliced turkey, ground beef, chicken tenders, apples, grapefruit, oranges, grapes, peppers, onions, bread and frozen fruit, honey and maple syrup. We packed our fridge and freezer full. We have no above-sink cupboards but we rearranged our below-the-sink storage space to accommodate the non-perishables.
Two weeks into it and I’m feeling like we might be on to something. Yes, we still have 2 weeks to go, but we also still have most of the food. We have not needed to buy anything, but to celebrate Marty’s birthday I “splurged” and got some strawberries and bacon so I could fancy up his birthday French Toast. Normally those splurges are on top of my budget.
Final total for the month? Right around $650.
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