{"id":61202,"date":"2022-06-01T08:42:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/?p=61202"},"modified":"2022-06-01T08:42:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:42:31","slug":"grocery-spending-may-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/grocery-spending-may-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery Spending: May 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Now May here is what I&#8217;m talking about! What a difference from the last few months. Too bad in this unscientific research I can&#8217;t quite pinpoint the <em>most <\/em>contributing factor as to why are grocery total for the month was so much lower, but there are a few very clear contributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But first, let&#8217;s take a look at the numbers and distribution for the month. As a reminder from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/grocery-spending-january-2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the January post<\/a>, this counts for food and drinks only (no household needs), does not factor in eating out though we typically only do so about once a week, and we don&#8217;t subscribe to any particular diet though I do typically focus on whole foods and choose organic when available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"633\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-1024x633.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-1024x633.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-640x396.png 640w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-768x475.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-655x405.png 655w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Costco: $475.20<\/li><li>Publix: $227.67<\/li><li>Food Lion: $143.18<\/li><li>Lowe&#8217;s Foods: $49.22<\/li><li>Sprouts: $46.26<\/li><li><strong>GRAND TOTAL: $941.53<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s the first month of the year I kept our total under $1000. There were several things I noticed through the month that were contributing factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/grocery-spending-april-2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bought a half cow in April<\/a> so our deep freezer is stocked with hundred of pounds of meat. While I try not to have us eat red meat everyday of the week, I can&#8217;t deny the convenience of having quality animal protein ready to go and already paid for. When we had friends over, we already had pre-formed burgers ready to grab and grill- no store trip needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I visited the grocery store more often, making the traditionally more price savvy stores that are closer to where I live easiest to access, and therefore I shopped more often at those. That&#8217;s why there is no Whole Foods on this list, because it is furthest from me. While I know I can shop Whole Foods in a budget-friendly way and I do appreciate their quality, I can&#8217;t deny that I spend a little more when I visit because I get starry eyed at all the fun extra options if I&#8217;m not really careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest thing I did in May that felt like it made a sincere difference is that I didn&#8217;t meal plan. At least not in the way I usually do, planning out a week&#8217;s worth of dinner <em>recipes <\/em>at a time. I knew our schedule was a bit insane so I decided to wing it- take note of what I had, grab some produce, and figure out how to use it all up before heading back to the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While traditionally I would tell you this would lead to more spending without a plan, it actually led to less money spent on groceries. However, as a caveat, it also led to more simple and quick meals. For example we had tortilla wraps several nights where I just pulled out everything from the fridge and you could choose what to wrap up. We had several spaghetti and meatball nights. We had broccoli multiple times in a week instead of switching up the dinner veggie because I bought the Costco-sized bag. We had some nights where I made popcorn and we snacked on whatever was around (mostly when David was out of town because he does better with a heartier meal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-640x960.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-600x900.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-300x450.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May-655x983.jpg 655w, https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/grocery-spending-May.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This worked really well for May when we were wrapping up some activities, trying out for others, and just out of the house more than usual. However, I missed having more varied meals, as it&#8217;s something I enjoy making (usually) for my family. Still, there are some undeniable tips I can continue to follow  moving forward:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Check the sales flyer at local stores- I still only buy things I usually would; I don&#8217;t buy stuff just because it&#8217;s on sale but it&#8217;s nice to be notified on good deals for pantry staples or favorite produce).<\/li><li>Get Costco produce- we eat so much of it and it&#8217;s the best bang for my buck at the moment.<\/li><li>Balance out my meal plans between meals that are fun and different to cook, with quick and easy meals that use fridge and pantry items. We usually do an &#8220;eat the fridge&#8221; night each week anyway, so maybe adding in another night or two of more simple meals. Maybe BLTs with summer tomatoes?!<\/li><li>Relax a little bit on my high health standards. This one is really hard for me. I feel like when I know what is the better choice for health, I can&#8217;t <em>not <\/em>do it. However, in my current stage of life right now I&#8217;m feeding four mouths, including two very hungry kids (swim team is kicking their hunger up to a new level), that are busy and on the go and I need to cut myself some slack that I&#8217;m doing the best I can and that adding a bag of Chex Mix to our boat snack spread won&#8217;t kill them. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ok, that wraps up May! Onto June, which will be interesting as well since we&#8217;ll be traveling a lot of it but otherwise will be less busy activity-wise. Plus I want the girls to have some fun in the kitchen so I&#8217;ll be buying items to let them cook things they&#8217;re interested in. I look forward to totaling our 6 months and averaging them at the end of the month to get a more clear picture of our monthly average. I&#8217;m still enjoying this challenge so much!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now May here is what I&#8217;m talking about! What a difference from the last few months. Too bad in this unscientific research&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":61205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2338,2240],"tags":[259],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61206,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61202\/revisions\/61206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}