This Month's 2025 Grocery Spending – December & YE Totals

 

This year my grocery budget was exactly enough to meet my needs as well as the needs of others.  I had made plans to expand my LTFS and I hit that goal without any trouble whatsoever.  Also, throughout the entire year I was able to share and make food donations, which is always something I try to do and will continue doing next year.

 

Within the first half of the year my deep freezer was so full I could barely get the door closed and the freezer on top of my refrigerator was stuffed as well.  By the end of May I was looking to rein things in and by midsummer I was embarking on a pantry challenge in July and August in order to get some things used up.  In September I vowed not to make any meat purchases no matter how good of a deal it was and focused on restocking the deep freezer with frozen produce instead.  In October and November I shopped for the holidays and restocked a handful of pantry items in the LTFS as well as some meat for the freezer.

This month I kept my shopping fairly minimal with some fresh produce, fresh meat and dairy purchases.  I picked up a few pantry items to replace things I had used as well as vinegar, baking cocoa, lard and coconut oil to add to the LTFS.  Also, this month I donated food and non food items to the senior center.

 

I began the month by literally cherry picking the ads to fill in the gaps which included adding two jars of mayonnaise on sale for $2.99 each.  I haven’t seen that price in a while but as I opened my last jar of mayo I was hopeful of a decent sale and was thrilled to see it happen this month.  I also picked up two five pound bags of potatoes on sale for 99¢ each.  A three pound bag of mandarins for $2.99 also made it into my cart.  Another FREE offer on salad dressing allowed me to add that to my donations.

 

Later in the month I was able to pick up some meat at Winco to fill in a few gaps I had made in the deep freezer.  I was running low on chicken and pork chops.  A pork loin at $1.98 a pound was sliced into chops, vacuum sealed and added back into the deep freezer.  I vacuum sealed two of the five chicken breasts for the deep freezer too.

 

I am thrilled to report that I am so very blessed to have a full pantry and full freezers.  As far as nonfood items go I feel really good about that area too.  At the end of summer I did come up with a list of things I wasn’t going to buy anymore this year and I stuck to it.  By doing that I was able to focus my nonfood budget on things like laundry supplies, facial tissues and a couple cans of Comet cleanser and a few other supplies.  It was a short list that restocked the shelf in the linen closet quite nicely.  

I used this coupon

on this package of markdown meat

This month, since I had the extra money in my budget, I restocked the vacuum sealer bags I like to use and added three more boxes of canning lids to replace what I used last month to can several pint jars of meat and some delicious cranberry sauce.

 

No BFF contributions this month

This is how the numbers look for my food and nonfood dollars this year.  I’m really pleased with the totals and with the extra budgeted money I did not spend this year.  I even had some money left over - $52.90.  I’ve decided to add that money to next year’s Fun & Leisure budget to be used for some camping trips I have planned.  It is enough to fund two extra trips if I want.

 

I'm rather pleased with this 😁

After much thought about how I want to improve my grocery and nonfood budget as well as my shopping strategies in the coming year I think I have come up with a solid plan.  Stay tuned for that post coming up in the New Year.  It’s going to be a good one!  You might even be a little surprised.  I’m already getting excited about it!