This Month's 2025 Grocery Spending – January

 

I was pretty happy to have a little more wiggle room in the grocery budget this month.  Knowing my budget was going to double for 2025 I’d been working on my shopping list for quite some time, but don’t worry, I didn’t go crazy or anything.  It was just nice to be able to have a few extras here and there.

 

Fortunately for me quite a few items on my list appeared in sales ads the latter half of December so I went ahead and did a little bit of grocery shopping ahead of time so I could take advantage of those low prices.  In addition to those items I was also able to restock the butter I had used for cooking and baking during the holidays which made be pretty happy too.

 

My 2 freebie items - the salad dressing was donated

By the time January rolled around the refrigerator was in pretty good shape.  I started out with a fair bit of dairy and fresh produce as well as plenty of condiments (still working to pare that down a bit) so not a bad start.  The freezer compartment in the refrigerator was moderately stocked with open and full bags of frozen berries and vegetables, some packages of rotisserie chicken and cheese.

 

The cute little upright freezer in my garage however, is fully stocked along with the shelves in my LTFS.  I still had plenty of really good home canned options to choose from.  This allowed me to focus more of my budget on filling gaps in my pantry and LTFS as well as expanding my overall inventory.

 

I spent the first two weeks of January using up items I already had on hand and had squirreled away in my fridge and freezer so there was no need to go to the grocery store during that time.  Instead I decided to go through and take an inventory of my deep freezer, refrigerator and pantry to determine anything I might be low on and make a list based off of that.  I went to Cash & Carry for the first time in a very long time to pick up cream for my coffee, a can of whipped cream and some frozen vegetables all on special as well as some fresh produce.

 

A couple of times I popped into Trader Joes on the way home from work and picked up a few produce items to add to my salads.  I must admit, now that I have the larger grocery budget, I really do enjoy having the luxury of purchasing something just because it sounds good.

 

My final food expenses came in at $89.92 for the month with a rollover amount of $11.08.  Total non food expenses was $10.97 for a pair of toilet brushes to replace the well worn ones I had in the bathrooms and a four pack of facial tissues on sale.  I think I’m off to a pretty good start. 😀