It is end of October and I am ready to get my grocery list ready. We don’t do grocery shopping without planning it ahead of time. I shop groceries to replenish my stock. I have my mini grocery store at home to help me cook meals and only shop when my supply is low.

I got the ads in the mail and went through them. One store has dry cereals for sale at $0.99/12 oz. bag.

I have 7 unopened boxes in my pantry. Because I don’t have a big budget to work with this month, I am not going to stock up in cereals a lot like I have done in the past. If I need cereals, I would purchase it. The regular price for the cereal I purchase for the kids is $1.22 in average. My husband likes some types that cost more. I told him to purchase the ones he would eat in sale and I could purchase the kids’ cereals when needed. The saving is not much for me to spend most of my budget on cereals. I am waiting to purchase butter and cheese on sale. I need to have money on hand when the sale happens.

To do my grocery list, I went through my pantry very quickly.

Staples and vegetables that go on sale, I only buy them when they are on sale and stock up. For instance, I have about 30 lbs. of potatoes in the basement. I would not make meals that involve potatoes if I don’t have them. When they go on sale for $0.99/5 lbs. bag, I purchase as much as I can afford and keep in my basement.

Some of my stables don’t go on sale. These I purchase them monthly. My list at the end of this month would be about these staples I pay regular price for. On a weekly basis, I check the store ads to see if there is a staple or vegetable I use that is on sale to stock up on. The garden season is over. Therefore, I don’t except to see a lot of vegetables on sale low price enough to stock up on. Butter and cheese should go on sale this fall. I stocked up on them last fall. Fruit especially apple would continue to go on sale this fall. That is the right time for me to stock up on apple to have enough on hand for winter.

I checked prices for my staples in two grocery stores (Aldi and Walmart) and know where to purchase what. I set a spreadsheet where I list my staples and their unit cost. This helps me to adjust the quantity to purchase every month and spend below my budget. I know how much we are going to spend before we even go in the stores.

Grocery List for November:

5lbs. unbleached flour: (Walmart): $1.22

In my pantry I have 3 bags of flour. I put 8 bags on list.

1lb. Unsalted Roasted Peanut: (Walmart): $1.84

I put 6 boxes down to purchase. Peanut is a good source of protein. I used to purchase the raw unshelled peanut to boil or roast myself. The price at Walmart is $1.99 for 1lb. bag. The roasted unsalted peanut in box without shell cost $1.84/lb. Therefore, I started to purchase the latter. It is good snack to have on hand. I like to add some in my whole grain porridge along with chopped apple for breakfast. Some of my kids like it too in their porridge. The same roasted peanut used to cost $1.89 at Aldi a year ago. Now it is over $2.

300 bags-Snack zip bag: (Walmart): $6

I like to have the snack bags on hand to serve snack to school with the kids. I serve them in bowls too but days I don’t want them to have bowls to wash, I serve them in bags. My school aged kids are 6 and 8 years old. I taught them how to wash their dishes by hand. I don’t use dish washer even though I have one. So they wash their lunch thermos containers, water bottles, and snack bowls after school. I checked them when I am back from work and put them away to air dry before the next day. But on field trip day or at least once a week when they go to religious study after school, I serve them in disposable bags to spare them from washing anything when they are back. My kids take lunch and snack to school instead of purchasing school meals. That saves us about $600 a year.

 

Corn meal: (Walmart)

I have 3 on hand. I used them a lot in summer when eggs were on sale for corn bread. In winter when I have butter, I make biscuit more than corn bread. For that reason, I won’t add it to list this month. I have enough on hand.

Extra virgin olive oil (Walmart)

I have a little left from 101 FL oz. I purchased a month ago. In fact I purchased two of them and used one for soap. The second one was used for eating. I have peanut oil I purchased last month for frying during a birthday celebration. Between both oils I have enough oils to go through November. I have some fat I saved from baking meat to use if I need to fry on Thanksgiving and am out of peanut oil.

Rice: 25 Lbs. (Sam’s Club): $9.48

I have one bag unopened and one bag that we are using. I like to have rice on hand. I would purchase 1 bag.

That is all the staples I need to replenish.

I set aside $15 for milk. We purchase milk weekly or every two weeks. I only serve milk for breakfast or use it in my dinner meals including chocolate milk pudding, cornmeal, pancake, biscuit, and hamburger gravy.

I set aside $10 for French steak bread that we purchase on sale. Sometimes they can be double marked down. I keep them in the freezer for sandwiches.

11-15oz. Cereals on sale (Hy-Vee) $0.99/each

I would purchase up to $10 worth.

On hand, I have over 50 lbs. wheat berries that I use to make whole grain porridge for the kids in the morning. I eat it as well. I have over 50 lbs. of pinto bean, 5-64 oz. ketchup bottles, salt, and sugar. I have 2 bags-36 rolls of toilet papers. I have a lot of apples in the fridge and 4 dozens of eggs. I have a lot of vegetables in my chest freezers. I have meat (pork roast, pork steak, pork chops, brats, ground beef, and few chicken quarters in my meat chest freezer. I purchased my meat on sale over summer and early this fall to fill my freezer. I only need to stock up on flour, rice, and put $25 on the side for milk and bread. This month, we might have to purchase winter gloves for the kids as well as winter boots. It would come out of the food budget. We would take out $375 for groceries but would put $125 on an envelope and try to spend within $250 including $150 for food and non-food, $50 for fruit, and $50 for meat. Anything I didn’t spend out of the $250 would be put aside for that category. I save meat money until meat is on sale to stock up. Therefore, I don’t buy meat unless it is on sale.

It is the time to think about what I need to purchase for any holiday in November. I don’t think I need to purchase anything. I have food in my pantry and freezers to make good meals. I don’t buy turkey for Thanksgiving. I have fruit in my freezer to make pie. If cream cheese is on sale, I would purchase few and put in my freezer for cream cheese cake and creamy potato soup. I need to purchase as little as possible to have enough of food money left in case butter, cheese, and cream cheese go on sale in November. Therefore, I plan to spend $71.28 in regular groceries this month.

Food Cost: $71.28

8-5lbs Flour: $9.76

6-Roasted Unsalted Peanut: $11.04

Snack zip bag: $6

Cereal: $10

1-25 lbs. Rice: $9.48

Milk budget: $15

Bread budget: $10

That is how I do my grocery list. I use ads to stock up on vegetables I don’t grow, fruit, and meat and stock up on my staples to have more than one month worth of food at home. I cook from scratch which allows me to narrow my staples to only few. With flour on hand for instance, I make sourdough bread, cookies, pie crust, pancake, biscuit, and use it in gravies, corn bread, and pudding. With cans of tomato puree on hand, I make homemade ketchup although I have ketchup in the pantry. I make stew, pizza sauce, and tomato based soup. With potato, I make potato soup, bake potato, roasted potato, hamburger potato, potato wedges, and boiled potato. With rice, I make rice and gravy, rice and bean, fried rice, stir fry rice, and jambalaya. I use bean to make soup to just list few.