Well, I’m sticking with this grocery tracking, even as we head into December which, whew, I have no doubt will be a doozie. November, however, was not. It could be because we were gone for a solid week, being fed by our families (thank you, families).

I also made some simpler meals, used pantry and fridge staples (lots of rice and shopped me freezer well for meat), and made meals that stretch further (big pots of chilies and soups). I made our sandwich bread for grilled cheeses to go with soup in my bread machine using this simple King Arthur recipe.

We ate well – see our breakfast, lunches, and dinners here – and I did a good job checking the sales flyers and picking the items I needed accordingly. One experience I had was seeing that Whole Foods had organic whole chickens on sale, marked down from $4.49/lb to $2.99/lb, plus an extra 10% off for Prime members. It was such a good deal I decided to grab two. Well, it wasn’t marked correctly, then a 4.4lb chicken measured as a 6 lb chicken at checkout and I was almost charged double for what it should have cost. This is just a reminder to watch your items being scanned or check your receipt. The employees were wonderful and corrected it immediately, but it would have been easy to miss if I wasn’t paying attention.

Ok, to the breakdown! —

The most significant difference I see in November is that I shopped a lot less at Costco. I attribute this to the fact that I was pretty well stocked on staples and committed to using them up. I’ve heard some of you share that though Costco can save you money on a per ounce basis, that you often spend more when including it regularly. I can see that because I sometimes buy things that I wouldn’t normally because they are a good deal (I’m looking at you, peppermint bark pretzel thins). And while I get more quantity at Costco, I usually get more creative when I made things stretch from the grocery store.

Still, I don’t see me quitting Costco anytime soon. I really like their offerings and bigger sizes of items we use a lot, like salsa, blueberries, butter, diced tomatoes, marinara, olives, and more. But, I will stay more mindful of throwing extras in my cart just because they’re on sale (though I regret nothing about the peppermint bark).

Side note on one of our favorite charitable organizations…

I know November is a big giving month for food banks, but we wait until December to do our big give for Feed NC because I feel like it’s the time of year when everyone gets squeezed the most. However, on our tour they mentioned what a drop off they have in donations come January, so we plan to split our bigger givings between the two months. The girls did a lemonade stand this summer and saved all the proceeds to go to Feed NC. For their giving portion, we check their site to see what the biggest needs are, go shopping, then donate. It’s one of our favorite traditions. I just wanted to share in case anyone local was looking for a impactful organization, I’ve been really impressed by all that Feed NC offers and does for our community.