This Month's 2024 Extreme Budget Grocery Spending – November

 

This month I began with a completely empty crisper drawer as I had used up every last bit of my fresh produce.  The potato bin on the bottom shelf was still pretty full. In the bread drawer I had four corn tortillas, six flour tortillas and a few bread heals I was saving to use in my Thanksgiving Day stuffing.  I had a little bit of heavy cream, half a gallon of milk, a container of sour cream, a block of cream cheese and a two pound bag of grated Monterey Jack so I was doing pretty well with dairy.  The condiments are thinning down, but I still have plenty.  Based off of what I already had on hand and with the upcoming holiday in mind I made my shopping list.

 

A good sale on butter was on my “wish list” and I lucked out with just that at my neighborhood Fred Meyer store with a digital coupon offer for $2.49 a pound.  I also had another “Best Customer” digital coupon for 70¢ OFF on a pound of butter which I could stack.  But to make it even better I also redeemed some rewards points I had earned riding the bus and logging my trips for a $10 Kroger gift card.  By the time all was said and done I came home with five pounds of butter for only $1.75!

 

I got this last month for $1.99!

Another digital coupon during that same shopping trip netted me a two pound block of sharp cheddar for $4.99.  With that block of cheese plus the bargain on Monterey Jack I got in October I have plenty of cheese on hand to finish out the year and well into January, I imagine.

 

My next trip was to Winco to pick up the bulk of what I had on my shopping list.  Primarily I wanted to restock the crisper drawer and pick up some more tortillas as well as re-supply the cream for my daily coffee treat I like to make each day.  Sadly, I was also out of eggs so I needed to buy some this time around.  The price of eggs right now is horrendous (groan).

 

Mid month I made my way back to Fred Meyer because a sale on eighteen count eggs for $3.29 made it worth it to me.  I also was able to stack a couple digital coupons to pick up another package of cheese for only $1.29.  I also picked up another bottle of salad dressing (FREE digital coupon offer) which I was able to donate the next day.  After using up all of my milk to make yogurt I stopped into Albertson’s on my way home to get another half gallon.  It was on sale for $3.99.  Fred Meyer was out of organic whole milk that day.

 

While still at Fred Meyer I also picked up canned pumpkin and evaporated milk for my LTFS.  I was low on pumpkin and only had one can of evaporated milk so it was on my list to replace.  I waited for the holiday pricing on both of those items and it worked out well.

 

My next shopping trip was to Costco for some pre-Christmas shopping and to pick up two rotisserie chickens which is what I served in lieu of a turkey this year.  I had originally thought I would only need one chicken but because my guest list more than doubled (Yay!) as time went on I grabbed two instead.  Unfortunately, this threw me over budget just a touch, but I’m good with it.  I will roll the deficit amount over to December and begin again, just with a little bit less this time.  No problem!

 

Final totals came in at $0 for nonfood items.  I was in the red $2.97 this time as my total spent on food this month was $56.55.  I had a rollover amount from the previous month of $3.58 but it wasn’t enough to cover the extra chicken I felt I needed to buy for Thanksgiving along with everything else I bought.  That is okay!  I will be starting out December with a budget of $47.03 and that will be plenty to finish out 2024 strong.  I’m determined to make this challenge a roaring success and I’m pretty darn sure I can do it.