September wrap-up, spent $718 for the month {Feeding My Family}

And that’s a wrap! If you’ve been following the Feeding My Family series this month, you’ll know I’ve been sharing all my grocery trips and the meals I made from the food I purchased. During the month of September we spent $718.45 for groceries.

Week of September 2 Grocery trip – $160.57
Franz Outlet Bread – $24
CSA – Farm share box (weekly) – $32.66
Chef Store trip – $43.22
Week of September 9 Grocery trip – $99.63
CSA – Farm share box (weekly) – $32.66
Amazon Subscribe & Save delivery – $49.31
Spud’s mini grocery trip – $9.46
Week of September 16 Grocery trip – $66.22
CSA – Farm share box (weekly) – $32.66
Week of September 23 Grocery Trip, $0.99 stock-up sale – $53.41
Week of September 23 Produce Grocery Trip – $17.78
CSA – Farm share box (weekly) – $32.66
Safeway trip, September 26 – $26.66
Trader Joe’s September 28 – $40.92
GROCERY TOTAL FOR THE MONTH =$718.45

I hope this month you’ve seen how I have turned the grocery store deals into real meals. I plan to continue the Feeding My Family series into October – but without the nitty gritty details of every grocery trip. I will continue to share strategies with you and sales that I think are worth checking out. I’d love to hear from you what you find most helpful.

Let’s talk about October. You want to save money on groceries? The FIRST STEP is to start tracking your grocery store purchases – if you haven’t already. Track every grocery trip – just food – not toiletries. Keep your receipts in an envelope or track it in Notepad on your phone. However you can track it – that’s the first step toward saving. Once you know what you’re working with – you can work to cut back!

Also track your dining out expenses. People who boast about having a small grocery budget, but spend hundreds eating out – anyone can do that. Ultimately you’ll save the most when you cook more at home and use eating out as a special treat or occasion – instead of the result of poor planning.

We ate out twice this month – once for my birthday the first week of September and then again last weekend. We spent $176 dining out this month (that includes mimosas for my birthday meal). We typically try to spend under $200/month eating out – so we did good this month, even with our splurge for my birthday.

Have you checked out the USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food Reports? The USDA regularly rolls out thrifty, low-cost, moderate cost and liberal food cost reports based on national average food prices. I have two kids – ages 13 (female) and 16 (male). . . so it estimates the thrifty cost of our monthly budget should be $1069.60.

We ended up spending $718.45 is be our final grocery bill for the month. This comes out to $23.94 a day for a family of four (essentially four adults because we have teenagers).

$23.84 a day to feed my family, three meals a day.
That comes out to about $7.98/meal or $1.99 a person/serving.

I feel like we ate a lot of wholesome, home-cooked meals for this price. Very little processed food. This is always my goal.

$130.46 of our total was for our CSA farm-share, which ends in October, so we won’t have that additional cost in October – and will likely just buy more produce at grocery store (or Farmer’s Market).

Let’s talk about the burden of cooking, shopping and cleaning. This is not quantified in the “cost” of feeding my family. To save money on food and meals, means fewer convenience foods, eating out less and a lot of cooking and prep. I work from home and juggle the ownership and management of three businesses – it’s a lot, I work long days but usually try to start early (by 6 am) so I can log off in the afternoon for food prep and cooking. I enjoy cooking, I know not everyone does. I often make big batches of food so we have leftovers and I don’t have to spend EVERY NIGHT in the kitchen. I use my crockpot, instant pot and oven whenever I can.

I also have HELP. My expectation is that if I am shopping, prepping, cooking – that my family is responsible for dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. Everyone pitches in. My teenagers or husband load/unload the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, haul in groceries. My husband works full time and is coaching high school football in the evenings/weekends, so he has long days at work – but he still comes home and pitches in. My daughter has been shadowing me in the kitchen since she was a young kid – and can whip up many types of dinners when I have work or I too much on my plate. And my son – he just turned 16 – and he’s cooking more, too! It’s a skill he needs to learn, too – so he can continue healthy habits, shopping and cooking into adulthood.

No matter who cooks or cleans – we try to go to bed with the dishwasher running and the kitchen cleaned up before the next day. What I’m trying to emphasize here is – feeding my family is a family effort – everyone pitches in and that helps us save money in the long run.  

If you are finding you don’t have enough time to cook meals – see about delegating to a spouse/partner or kids. Use the crockpot, freezer meals, Instant pot, whatever can help you spread out the time needed daily.

My kids (ages 13 and 16) are responsible for all their own laundry and everyone pitches in for house chores – this means I ultimately have more bandwidth to cook meals. This saves our family a lot of money – which we collectively spend on things like travel. Everyone knows that when we save on food – we can splurge in other areas – whether it’s a weekend getaway, a summer vacation or even something simple like concert or sporting event tickets – great opportunities for family bonding. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the idea of cooking more (but are currently spending more eating out) – sit down with your family and talk about the benefits that could come from everyone pitching in.

Remember, every bit counts. Maybe you’re discouraged by your grocery spending this month – set a goal to lower – even if just by 10% – in October. We all have different seasons in our lives – fall is busy for us with football, fall sports and Black Friday season. . . so maybe our grocery budget is higher in October/November than in January – that’s okay, too!

Moving forward I’ll be sharing online deals, grocery savings and strategies for saving money.

PLEASE READ . . . Feeding My Family Series “Fine Print” – This series is meant as a guide to help you turn deals into meals. Every family has its own budget, dietary needs, diet choices and preferences. Manager markdowns vary by store, day and time – there is no guarantee that you’ll find similar markdowns at your local store, but it gives you an idea of what to look for. I will not tolerate any shaming or derogatory comments about my purchases or those of other people sharing their savings. Take the tips that will work for you and if something doesn’t align with your family needs – keep scrolling, without comment. If you have recipes or money saving tips, please share!

Read more Feeding My Family posts here.