…or should I say snapshots.
Scroll to the end to skip the story and see the real numbers charted.
I’m just starting to get back into blogging again after having my baby and finishing my prep for a college class I teach one hour a week. When I realized I hadn’t done a grocery spending snapshot from 2020, I was disappointed, especially knowing I dropped the ball in 2019. Is this the time I insert my excuses of getting pregnant, going on a giant road trip, and having a baby while managing our household all at the same time? I didn’t think you’d want to hear those excuses:).
Anyway, I was teaching choir part-time (.4 or 40% of a full-time job) at a public school middle school pre-baby. In June 2020 I said goodbye to the public schools, and we happily took a significant financial hit so I could be home with the babe. We again became extra vigilant about our spending (not that we weren’t before, but you get it).
It was time again for another grocery bill snapshot. I started 2021 by recording 4 consecutive weeks of weekly grocery receipts. When I opened up the doc to first start recording, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had actually recorded amounts for 2020 as well. Do you ever do that? Do you ever put time into something and then promptly turn around and COMPLETELY forget you dedicated all that time to such a thing? I would never do such a thing. Ha!
I recorded our totals of groceries and toiletries (toilet paper, shampoo, soap) for four weeks. This is just our regular spending.
Here is my grocery and toiletries spending for Summer 2020.
| Week 1: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | 4 Week Spending Total |
| Safeway | 7/28/20 | $34.77 | $104.76 | |
| Winco | 7/30/20 | $45.59 | ||
| Costco | 7/30/20 | $24.40 | ||
| Week 2: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | |
| Walmart | 8/4/20 | $21.68 | $145.65 | |
| Trader Joe’s | 8/5/2020 | $62.07 | ||
| Costco | 8/7/2020 | $49.99 | ||
| Winco | 8/8/2020 | $9.70 | ||
| Week 3: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | |
| Walmart | 8/13/2020 | $3.87 | $57.87 | |
| Trader Joe’s | 8/15/2020 | $54.00 | ||
| Week 4: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | 4 Weeks Total |
| Fred Meyer | 8/17/2020 | $18.87 | $107.77 | $416.05 |
| Costco | 8/17/2020 | $55.98 | ||
| Winco | 8/17/2020 | $26.52 | ||
| Walmart | 8/18/2020 | $2.90 | ||
| Walmart | 8/20/2020 | $3.50 | ||
| Average Spent/Week | ||||
| $104.01 |
And then here are my 2021 numbers.
| Week 1: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | 4 Week Spending Total |
| Winco | 1/21/21 | $18.96 | $141.86 | |
| Costco | 1/24/2021 | $118.31 | ||
| Walmart | 1/24/21 | $4.59 | ||
| Week 2: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | |
| Walmart | 1/29/21 | $16.99 | $74.06 | |
| Fred Meyer | 1/29/21 | $38.31 | ||
| Costco | 1/30/2021 | $14.77 | ||
| Costco | 1/30/2021 | $3.99 | ||
| Week 3: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | |
| Winco | 2/4/21 | $18.96 | $179.60 | |
| Fred Meyer | 2/7/2021 | $5.61 | ||
| Costco | 2/7/2021 | $139.31 | ||
| Winco | 2/9/2021 | $15.72 | ||
| Week 4: | Date | Amount | Weekly Total | 4 Weeks Total |
| Fred Meyer | 2/15/2021 | $50.62 | $146.08 | $541.60 |
| Costco | 2/15/2021 | $95.46 | ||
| Average Spent/Week | ||||
| $135.40 |
Interesting that my numbers were down in the summer and are up now, but it’s not completely surprising. We ate more home grown food and maybe ate out a bit more since we were gone overnight a few times in there. What’s a bit more interesting is that we spent less in the summer than we did a year and a half ago. And we’ve also got some gleaned food~I love resurrecting food that’s about to be dumped.
Below you can see what we’ve spent on groceries as a family since 2007 and what the family composition was at the time.
- Fall 2007: $ 42/week =$168 for 4 weeks (2 adults, a 2 year old, 1 baby)
- Fall 2008: $55/week =$220 for 4 weeks (2 adults, a 3 year old, a 1 year old)
- Fall 2009: $67/week =$268 for 4 weeks (2 adults, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a baby)
- Fall 2010: $ 74.89/week =$299.56 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 5, 3 & 1)
- Fall 2011: $84.25/week =$337 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 6, 4 & 2)
- Fall 2012: $105.88/week =$423.52 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 7, 5 & 3)
- Fall 2013: $142.65/week =$570.60 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 8, 6 & 4)
- Fall 2014: $106.08 /week =$424.30 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 9, 7 & 5)
- Winter 2016:$112.53/week =$450.10 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 10, 8 & 6)
- Spring 2017: $119/week=$476 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages 12, 10 & 7)
- Winter 2018: $130.12/week=$520.46 for 4 weeks (2 adults, 3 kids ages almost 13, 11 & 8)
- Summer 2020: $104.01/week= $416.05 for four weeks (2 adults, 4 kids ages 15, 14 , 11 & 1)
- Winter 2021: $135.40/week=$541.60 for four weeks (2 adults, 4 kids ages 15, 14 , 11 & 1)
Have you tracked what you’ve been spending on groceries lately? Or how about what you are spending in other budget categories? If you haven’t, try it. It’s always interesting and telling.
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