2 Under Budget Months of Grocery Shopping

It’s been a busy couple months in our house, which is why it’s time for a two month grocery update from March and April!

March was our typical busy month with all 4 of our kids celebrating birthdays. We know have a 1, 3, 5 and 7 year old! I still can’t believe how quickly that has happened. We left on April 1st and made the long drive from Indiana to my parents house in San Antonio to celebrate Easter and spend Spring Break with them.

I hadn’t been “home” for Easter since my senior year of high school back in 2000. As a pastor’s daughter, this is a big deal to me. Yes, Easter worship looked a little different this year but it was SO good to bring my family to Crown of Life for Easter. We even made it through one hymn on the patio at the SonRise service before the rain sent us inside.

We spent the rest of Spring Break enjoying the warm weather of Texas, taking walks, making a day trip to the beach, and stopping in Kansas for my cousin’s wedding on our way home. We drove 3400 miles in 10 days, and once again, the kids did great! This was Caleb’s first major road trip and he did great too. He started walking shortly after we got home, probably because he wasn’t in the car anymore. Ha.

When we came back in April, it was time to hit the ground running with custom book sales, launching a new book, and settling into the final weeks of school (only 2 more left now!).

My grocery trips were the typical. I shopped the sales. Restocked our freezer with $1.99/lb hamburger from Meijer. Bought 7 boxes of applesauce pouches for our road trip. And of course, stocked up on cheese whenever it went on sale 4 for $6 at Kroger.

Here’s a look at the past two months of grocery shopping totals.

March Grocery Shopping Totals

• 3/2 Walmart Pick Up $82.11
• 3/3 Kroger $62.22
• 3/10 Meijer $71.71
• 3/14 Sam’s Club $36.26
• 3/15 Walmart $52.18
• 3/16 Kroger $33.10
• 3/18 Kroger $19.94
• 3/24 Amazon – Foundation $9.51
• 3/24 Walmart $7.38
• 3/26 Walmart $43.75
• March Total $418.16

April Grocery Shopping Totals

• 3/29 Meijer $30.53
• 3/30 Aldi $27.74
• 4/13 Sam’s Club $63.43
• 4/15 Kroger $40.32
• 4/16 Walmart Pick Up $49.79
• 4/22 Kroger $54.80
• 4/23 Walmart $47.22
• 4/27 Sam’s Club $50.14
• 4/30 Walmart Pick Up $42.48
• April Grocery Total $406.45

I am so pleased that for the first 4 months of the year, I stayed under my monthly $425 budget!

But…

I am getting ready to increase our grocery budget and here is why.

One simple answer? Inflation.

Have you noticed prices are creeping up? Me too.

Most official reports say food inflation is already at 3-5%. There is a lot of interesting talk about whether this is transitory inflation (temporary) or more a hyperinflation. I’m not going to get into politics or the technicality of it all.

Here is what I do know.

As a mom, it is my job to the best manger of my house that I can be. It is why I am shopping the sales more closely than ever, and I am starting to stock up more – before prices get higher.

I have always said that maintaining a stockpile means you have a practical emergency fund to be prepared for whatever comes.

For that simple reason, now is the time to build up my stockpile.

If inflation doesn’t come, well then, I will use those things eventually. But if it does? I won’t have to pay the higher prices and can stretch our dollars a bit further.

For the next couple months, I am working hard at saving as much as I can and giving myself an extra $75 to devote towards stockpiling. I am keeping my budget at $425 as the extra money will go towards stockpiling non-perishables.

There is SO much more I can say about this, so look for a blog post devoted to inflation and groceries soon.

For now, I’d love to know YOUR thoughts. Are you seeing inflation hit your grocery bill? Is it worth your time and money to stock up now, or do you have a different take on it?