First Grocery Shop for September

I am starting the fiscal month of September today. I had been considering lowering the household budget down from $300 to $200 because I am no longer shopping for 3 people, but after spending $150 already today, I believe I will keep my budget the same. Besides, we are still providing bread, milk, condiments and the like for the whole household. I have not been shopping for groceries very much over the last month so my list was pretty long of items that we were low on or completely out of. I decided to visit one grocery store (Freshco) and the Bulk Barn. I still have not been to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy my $50 gift card for the month. 

Produce cost  $12.84

Potatoes cost me $3.99 which I hated to pay for, but we were completely out. That expense was made up by the celery  at  only 69 cents, the green onions at 49 cents and the English cucumber and iceberg  lettuce at 79 cents each.  I see some green salads in our future. I bought another 4 coloured peppers for $1.99  When they are cheap at that price, I will slice them up for the freezer. We needed yellow cooking onions for $1.99 and I bought 6 Tangelos Minneola oranges for $2.  The liter of apple juice was 97 cents. 

Pantry items cost $19.88

During the past month we used up all of our pantry stores of peanut butter, coffee and sugar. I need to find sales to build up my supplies again. The sugar was regular price of $1.97 each. The coffee was only $4 and the peanut butter was on sale for $3.99 a kg jar. The pasta was sale priced for 97 cents and the cereal was $2.99 (Rice Krispie squares anyone?)

Proteins cost $35.72

I have lots of beef and pork in the freezer, but I ran out of chicken. Because whole chicken was $1.97/lb. I bought two. I bought another huge pork loin because it was $1.44/lb. I cut it up into 6 thick chops and two smaller roasts. The Schneider steakettes and the Oktoberfest sausage were $2 a pkg.  I bought two of each. The steakettes make lovely large hamburgers. I bought two tins of  flaked tuna for 97 cents a tin. My price for meat is generally $2/lb., but it gets harder and harder to find those prices anymore. I splurged on the package of store sliced lunch meat (extra lean Montreal smoked meat) for $3/pkg. 

Dairy was  $10.88

Becel margarine was $1 off at $4.99 and milk costs us $4.27 for 4 liters.                                                                                                           

Bread cost  $6.61

The loaves were $1.94 each and whole wheat tortillas (10 pack) was $2.79                                                                                     

Sundries cost us  $23.94

The vinegar is a sundry because I will use it to make cleaners and weed killer and I will use in my washer as a fabric softener. This is not a food item. I don't need to buy kittie treats, but I like to. I can buy a generic litter, but this was on sale and I wanted to test it. And it goes without saying that I could wash my dishes by hand and save a LOT of money.  

I paid FULL price for vinegar, milk, sugar, potatoes, onions, apple juice and smoked meat. Everything else was sale priced.   My total receipt came to $114.31 with tax.  My total discounts and savings were $63.92  

We stopped at the Bulk Barn on the way home and I spent a further $40.15. Wednesday is Senior's Day, so that price includes a 10% off the original price.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I am usually kind of surprised how "little" it looks for the price

until I empty it all into their respective containers. Then I always think that I got a bargain, which of course, I have.  In the back row from the left, I have oatmeal  (I bought too much for the container, but I will use it up quickly), dried red kidney beans, salt, whole wheat flour and Sultana raisins in front of that, brown sugar and sliced almonds.  In the smaller jars in front from the left, I have ground black pepper, minced dried onion, granulated garlic and garlic powder. This time when I was in the store, I made notes on each of the tags which included the unit price for 100 gms. Now I will be able to start a price book to see how these prices compare with grocery store prices when these items go on sale. Just because I buy them in bulk, does not necessarily mean they are the cheapest price. The black sticky substance in the container in the top picture is Blackstrap molasses, which my Sweetie wanted to buy to help him build up his hemoglobin. He also bought some Jujubes. I don't know what purpose they will serve. *laugh*