This Month's Grocery Spending 2023 - March

 

The pantry and freezer challenge continues and I'm making some amazing progress using up items that have been hanging around my home for a while.  I want all the dates on my frozen foods to be within the past year and I'm almost there.  In the past four months I've been able to eat primarily all of my meals using items I already had on hand supplementing with some small purchases of dairy and fresh or frozen produce.  I've also pulled quite a bit out of the freezer and canned it so it I now have more shelf stable options available to me for a longer period of time.  Additionally, I've filled up some bags of extra items I had to donate to a food pantry.

 

I focused mostly on fresh produce

In February I didn't need to shop for anything as what I had purchased in January turned out to be more than enough to last me through until the first of March.  I was ready for some fresh produce, in particular a salad.  I really wanted some salads to eat so I went to the grocery store and picked up fresh veggies as well as cream, milk and sour cream to supplement what I still had at home.  Mid month I went ahead and shopped again for more fresh produce and another half gallon of milk.  And that was all I really needed.  My total spent in March was $34.51.

 

I picked up a couple cans of Sprayway window cleaner at Wal-Mart as well as another bottle of Fabuloso which was a mistake on my part because I already had a spare one in the linen closet.  Oops!  It will get used, but I should've have checked first.  Those were my only two nonfood purchases I made spending less than $8.

 

There weren't many great sales last month, but I did find a few items at a great price like asparagus for 98¢ a pound and a sale on mandarin oranges which made for a very nice change of pace.  For St. Patrick's Day cabbage was on sale for 69¢ a pound so I picked up a nice sized head.  I prepared many, many delicious and healthy meals with lots of meal prepping.  Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables as snacks and side dishes too.  And of course!  Cream for my coffee.  How did you do last month?  What were your best buys?  Are you still doing a pantry challenge?