This Month's 2025 Grocery Spending – August

 

I began the month of August midway through a two month pantry challenge and fairly well stocked with dairy products, a little slim on the fresh produce, but not too bad.  I still had plenty to work, most of a head of cabbage, a little bit of spinach, a third of an onion, a bag of carrots and a few stalks of celery.  In the summer when it is hot I find a greater need for fresh salad vegetables to have with my meals otherwise I just want to eat ice cream for dinner.

 

On the way home from work I stopped at Winco and picked up a container of the spring greens salad mix, another bag of spinach and a container of grape tomatoes.  I use the spinach for salads as well as in my smoothies so I knew that partial bag I already had would not last very long.  While I was there I decided to also get another carton of milk rather than need to come back within a week to get one.

 

However, a week later I stopped back into Winco again for a package of twenty five tortillas, which happened to be on sale for $2.48, and two onions for 89¢ so I could meal prep some freezer burritos.  As I was going to check out I couldn’t help but notice that prices on several items I typically buy had jumped up in price again just in the last week (sigh).  I managed to get out of there using up some of the change I had in my wallet and headed for home while trying not to feel discourage at this persistent rise in pricing.

 

One thing I have noticed in the past two months is that I wasn’t perusing the weekly grocery store ads on a regular basis because I really didn’t need much and only intended to buy what I needed to make my meals.  No need to hunt for bargains, download digital coupons and offers, or make shopping trip itinerary plans was a nice reprieve.  Although I enjoy it, sometimes it is nice to take a break from all that research and strategizing.  I also find that purchasing and eating only REAL Food makes a huge difference as well in not only the time I spend preparing to go to the grocery store, but how much it positively affects my budget.

 

With that being said, I noticed I was getting low on cheese so toward the end of the month I did go online to see if there were any good deals on cheese and as it turned out Fred Meyer had cheese on sale for $2.99 a pound so I stopped in one day and picked up two of their sixteen ounce blocks to grate, bag and add to the freezer.  I also picked up some fresh fruit because it just sound so yummy.  Even on a pantry challenge you can enjoy some goodies. 😉

 

Running low again on fresh stuff!

After using the milk I had picked up to make two batches of homemade yogurt as well as my smoothies I ran out toward the end of the month.  I was also running low on cream for my coffee as well as fresh greens so back to the stores I went.  I picked up my milk and fresh produce at Fred Meyer and then cream at Cash & Carry.

 

That's better!

Digital coupons saved me a ton on these items!

My biggest shopping focus this month was to restock the linen closet with some household products I was running low on.  After watching for a good sale and loading some digital coupons I was ready.  I only had a few Swiffer dusters left so I wanted to get another box of those.  I was on my last can of Comet cleanser and down to a handful of dishwasher tabs so I also had that on the list.  A large canister of Lysol wipes was also on sale so I decided to get those too.  I have decided to be a little kinder to myself and allow some convenience items so I bought these to use whenever I want to quickly wipe down the toilets.  The only thing left on my restock list was laundry supplies which I wouldn’t need to get until the end of the year so plenty of time to watch for a bargain.

 

This alone will last me well over a year

Well, I only had to wait a week and a bargain presented itself in the form of a buy one get one free sale on liquid laundry detergent and a digital coupon for a large bottle of Shout stain spray so I jumped on it and with that my 2025 Non Food Restock list was all checked off.  Reorganizing and restocking my linen closet was oddly cathartic as I realized I have everything I need to finish out the year and well into the next year.  I think I have enough laundry detergent and dishwasher tabs to last me well past 2026 and I am very comfortable with that.  My total spent this month on these things came in at $40.56.  I’m very comfortable with that too!

 

I did a good sized meal prep

Friends blessed me with home grown tomatoes & lemon cucumbers

Now that I’m done with my pantry challenge and will be going back to regular shopping I will be regularly perusing the ads again and taking advantage of any sales, markdowns and digital offers that I can in order to continue to keep my spending as low as possible and stay within my budget.  I’m pretty happy with how my pantry challenge turned out because I was able to use up a lot of things I already had on hand, do some meal prepping which has netted me quite a few meals still in my freezer and save some money in the process.

 

My total dollars spent on food this month came in at a whopping $45.21.  Going into next month I have $109.57 to rollover and add to my September budget for a grand total of $209.57 to get started.  I’m very excited about that!