Last week, we spent $490 on our weekly grocery haul. This is maybe a bit higher than normal because Harry is home, so we are buying more stuff (the week before that, we went through nine half-gallons of Fairlife chocolate milk, for example), and we bought some Costco Big Things, which will (hopefully) last awhile. Sadly, we only got 5 dinners out of this haul, but we knew that going in and planned to get take-and-bake pizza and fresh salad stuff (plus more cookie dough bites) from Whole Foods on Friday night.
The meals:
Sunday: Burgers (turkey and beef), fries, salad, and brown butter brown sugar cookies
Monday: Chicken parmesan, green beans, kale caesar salad, garlic bread
Tuesday: Eggs, turkey sausage, protein pancakes, fruit
Wednesday: Ham or salami sandwiches, veggies and dip, assorted fruit, chips, chocolate chip cookies
Thursday: Last call on any leftover anything/ another round of random sandwiches/ whatever you want in the freezer (THURSDAY NIGHTS ARE BUSY)
Here's what we got:
First, a Whole Foods delivery of fave things plus orange juice and yogurt that were cheaper there than the regular store: $62
This stuff! OMG. It's in the frozens-- you gotta get it.
THIS IS THE BEST SALAD KIT EVER
This is currently all Dorothy eats.
Next, a Costco delivery of Big Stuff for $164
Cooper is currently devouring both egg whites and Go Go Squeeze applesauce pouches at a rate that only Costco sizes can sustain. Do you buy your vanilla extract at Costco? It is only $11 for that huge giant bottle. Strawberries, grapes, bananas, and spinach are the only produce weekly staples we consume at a warehouse rate. The kids love pancakes and waffles, and I am trying to make this Kodiak stuff happen becuase if you sub water for milk and one egg, it has a crazy amount of protein. WE SHALL SEE if it catches on. We ate a regular size box in a week, so maybe... I have never tried those toaster grilled cheeses, but both Harry and Jack are ready for another meal around 11pm, so these could be a great option maybe?(I also got bagel dogs at Whole Foods).
The 45 packs of Goldfish should last a couple few weeks? And they inspired m to sort our laundry room grab-on-the-way-out-the-door snacks into goldfish an not goldfish. The not goldfish box is sooooo very random, everything from Airhead Extremes to freeze dried strawberries to beef sticks.
We got pick up for our largest order of the day, but only because we have a child (Jack-- he's the sweetest) who is always up for going to get it. Here's $253 from Metro Market, which is most of the dinner stuff, plus most breakfast and lunch options.
We usually consume like 3 bags of chocolate chips a week, and SO MANY DIFFERENT kinds of bread-- whole grain white for the kids, sourdough for Jack when he wants a sandwich, French for garlic bread, thin-sliced sprouted wheat for me. The kids are obsessed with Jack's-brand frozen cheese pizza and eat them at all hours. Minnie is going through a Danimals and dill pickles moment. There is much cheese. (Which is funny because Ben always hits the wine and cheese store on Thursdays). I buy tomatoes, honey crisp apples, red and green onion, cucumbers, mini sweet peppers, apples, and blueberries every week, plus usually a clamshell of salad greens and whatever hot veggies we plan to make. Coop drinks Naked Juice smoothies on the way to dive practice (eye roll), and we buy at least 3 bags of chocolate covered pretzels a week.
This is why I love to grocery shop online-- my cart is so easy to just re-order.
I think I am not saving money on groceries (lol-- ya think?!) but I am saving SO MUCH TIME. And! Both Costco and Whole Foods order shoppers do an excellent job with produce selection (both of those stores have great options on the shelves all the time. Metro Market is less awesome with produce-- especially berries and grapes-- so I shop accordingly). For me, it is worth the slight mark up at Costco and the tips both places to have my groceries come to me. What about you-- do you still shop online post-panny?
ETA: We ended up with another $100 Whole Foods delivery on Friday to top us off before the weekend:
ONE HUNDRED GROCERY DOLLARS DO NOT STRETCH FAR MY FRIENDS.
I do buy my vanilla at Costco, and remember when it was like $38 a bottle? I am thrilled it's back to manageable prices. I also always pick up some vanilla at the duty free when we go to Mexico. I get vanilla, Rob gets tequila. Mexican vanilla tastes different from the Madagascar stuff in Costco but both are good, I think. So much food in your house! Our over/ under at Costco used to be $300 (pre-pandemic) but now it's more like $600. Everything is so expensive now!
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how much even a few things at the grocery store can cost.
ReplyDeleteI literally stop every time I tap the credit card machine to give thanks for the fact I can afford whatever the bill ends up costing. It is staggering to think of the impact on so many people right now. I can't even imagine having to skip meals because I can't afford food, but yet that is clearly an increasing reality. I especially think about it in context of my kids. Like...there is just always food (good food, lots of it!) whenever they want or need something. And yet, for the most part, I don't think about it as I move through my day.
Anyhoo...big tangent. Yes, food prices are ridiculous.
Feeding a big family is so expensive! You spend more in a week than we do in an entire month! But our Kids eat so little since they are pretty small. We don’t do grocery delivery since Phil is super picky about produce, but he does all of the grocery shopping so that’s our compromise. I handed that task over to him when I had our first child because I didn’t want to be away from Paul on the weekends. Now I think he has the better end of the deal at times because grocery shopping is more peaceful than managing the chaos of two young kids that always wanna mess with each other!
ReplyDeleteI have gotten used to my TJ's cart topping $300. I try really hard to make that our only trip most weeks and usually we can do it (maybe ONE Publix run for like, more milk or bananas or something). Was this a week with everyone at home ? (ie, is it a bit lower other weeks)? I am the only one who hates Costco. I honestly can't even stand the thought of going there - it's so cold and big and i can never actually find anything I want to actually GET a large amount of.
ReplyDeleteI almost never shopped online even during the pandemic - I find it too stressful on my ADHD brain. I did once, and it was fine! Good even! And yet! I've encouraged Eve to order groceries when she's slammed with school and lab work and rehearsal and she's only done it once too. We are weird.
ReplyDeleteThere are people on my community giving group who periodically ask for help feeding their kids, and it is heart-wrenching. I always get a bag of stuff to drop, but that's only one week - it's so messed up and I feel so helpless.
I normally go into the store, but occasionally I will do a grocery pick up. My youngest enjoys going shopping, so we do that knete day a week. Most weeks it is Costco, but sometimes we go to Walmart or Kroger. Those are our big grocery store options.
ReplyDeleteI just can't justify paying for shipping and tipping. With groceries already being expensive, it is hard. Plus, I have time during the week to do it, as we aren't nearly as busy as you are. I only work part time (from home), and my kids don't have nearly as many activities.
We do get vanilla and so much else from Costco! There are only a few things I can't get at Costco that we use regularly, which is why we go there most weeks. The others I get at Walmart or Kroger. As for veggies, we do a lot of frozen. We can get through many of the other Costco fresh fruits and veggies within reason - or at least enough of them to make the purchase worthwhile. The biggest challenge is that my kids change preferences! One week they can go through the cucumbers in 48 hours. Other weeks, they don't even touch then!
Oh dear, the cost of food nowadays is sky high. We’re on Long island where the cost of living and food prices have increased astronomically since 2020. We’re a family of 4 plus a dog (I add her in because well we have to feed her and her food is $$).
ReplyDeleteWe shop Whole Foods mostly and I order from an online farm meats, eggs, etc. Our weekly Whole Foods is $175-200. Our online farm order too on a weekly basis is around $150.
Our dog’s food is pricy, she’s a large breed and eats a lot lol and we choose to not feed her kibble. So she eats freeze dried and/or homemade food. This adds up to about $175 depending on the prices of her food.
We’re spending about $1500 on groceries per moth and this total doesn’t even factor in eating out which happens more often than I’d like to adm. Gosh, I need to start going to Trader Joe’s more often (they have better prices on produce and certain other products than Whole Foods).
My love of online grocery shopping long predates the pandemic. I have so many other things I would teacher do on the weekend. Produce is annoying at times, but I am okay with that in this stage of life. (Also, I used to live in SoCal - I am still dismayed nearly 30 years later at the produce I can buy in the midwest compared to what I could get there. So I feel like it’s semi pointless to be snobby about produce that’s nothing exciting to start with, lol.)
ReplyDeleteI don't buy vanilla extract at Costco because I make my own like I'm some sort of pioneer lady. *sigh* All the vanilla extract has "natural flavors" and who even knows what that means? So, in order to guarantee it's gluten-free, I add vanilla beans (usually I do buy those if I see them at Costco) to vodka and call it good. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteJust throwing this out there for anyone wanting to support families in need of food. My local school has a food bank that supports a small number of families in need. It works so well as super easy to drop off donations on the school run and families in need know and trust the school staff and can easily ask for help. It is run by a few school staff and parent volunteers.
ReplyDeleteI mostly shop online and pickup. It saves so much time and our local grocery store doesn't charge too much extra. I'd probably spend that extra in impulse buying anyway. I do a once a month shopping at Lidl and shop for expensive meat myself but otherwise, grocery pickup is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI've only have groceries dropped off a couple of times, and never a full load - usually a few things that I need while I'm babysitting or when I can't figure out when I'm gonna get there. I make a list, but I'm best at buying things that I see in the store as a reminder. I do buy vanilla at Costco. I also only do two stores the local grocery store for our weekly stuff and Costco for our every other week stuff. Costco lately has been like $600 and we don't even have everyone home usually. It's nuts. The Jewel (local store) is usually $100 for a quick run and grab fruit, milk, and meat - but usually it's closer to $300 when I shop. I've been sending a college kid or Coach for weeks (glorious) and that means we've only gotten about 10-20 items on a run. Let's face it, not everyone in my family can do what I do.
ReplyDeleteMy life is so different from yours...I work from home, I only have one (adult) child, we don't have busy evenings. I hate meal planning and kind of like going to the grocery store, so I go pretty much every day. I maybe had groceries delivered to our house once, but it would have been when Safeway first started the service and they had a freebie where there were no charges. I have more time than money, so can't justify paying someone. A couple of times when someone in our house had COVID, I have ordered online, and then picked it up in the parking lot, which is free and saves a bunch of time.
ReplyDeleteWe like bagged Caesar salads, and I am going to try that one, thanks for the rec!
I spent $160 at Costco today, and bought zero dinner ingredients. Oatmeal, Kleenex, paper towels, toothpaste, dish soap, Splenda, contact lens solution, allergy meds. Our Costco sells the local French bread that we love, but you have to buy 2 loafs of bread, and we won't go through that much ever. We need to coordinate with neighbors or something, but we never do. We spend a LOT on food considering there are only 3 of us. If I had done dry January, that would have saved some money for sure.
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ReplyDeleteHuh! There's another "Jenny" commenting here. Anyway- no, $100 will not go far with a family that large- especially with all those active kids. I mean- they need their calories! Our grocery bill always goes down when my son leaves, but of course we're then paying for his groceries at school, so... I assume Harry has a meal plan this year.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy grocery shopping but online shopping is so convenient. I also think I save money, even with tips and delivery fees, because I will always impulse buy something in person (especially at places like Whole Foods, with all of their fun weird stuff they don’t have at Star Market/Stop and shop type places).
ReplyDeleteJust looked up grocieries in Monarch app, just for kicks... last year, we spent about 6K on groceries (not including the eating out). Last month (Dec) was 1,200, and this month, $595 so far.
ReplyDeleteOnline pickup is great they do change a 3.95 fee but no big deal, paying for the convenience. I much prefer to do an online pick up than shlep to the store.
Thank you for the perspective, I very much appreciate your Money Monday posts.