Grocery Haul: What I Spent & What I Made

Welcome back to another week of What I Spent & What I Made! I hope you had fun cooking some of last week’s recipes—my personal fav was the pulled pork.

Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s spending.

Walmart in Redmond, OR. I am not a Walmart girl. I used to be a Target girl, but she broke my heart. But I decided to go into Walmart because a) it was right across the street from where I was running some errands in the camper, and b) I was too tired from driving to find another place to go. And I was honestly so surprised at how much cheaper groceries were at Walmart than the grocery chains I usually shop at. So… for budgeting purposes, I may be a Walmart convert while living a life on the road.

Let’s get into it…

• THIS WEEK’S TOTAL: $193.10

  • Meat & Poultry: $51.66 (27%)

  • Pantry Items and Restocks: $40.35 (21%)

  • Dairy and Bread: $26.91 (14%)

  • Produce: $21.61 (11%)

  • Household items: $35.26 (18%)

  • Snacks: $14.63 (8%)

  • Frozen: $2.58 (1%)

• TOTAL FOR FOOD WITHOUT SNACKS & HOUSEHOLD ITEMS: $143.11

Dairy and Bread

• Sourdough loaf ($4.92)

• 18ct eggs ($2.17)

• 1/2 Gallon Whole Lactose-Free Milk ($4.04)

• Fage 0% Greek Yogurt 32oz tub ($6.96)

• Romano wedge ($5.48)

• Meunster cheese slices x 2 ($3.34)

Meat & Poultry

• Pepperoni from the deli ($3.92)

• 2-2.5lb Chicken Breast ($16.12)

• 2lb Ground Turkey ($10.92)

• 1.5-2lb Chicken thighs ($9.23)

• 1lb Deli turkey ($11.47)

Produce

• Broccoli crown x 2 ($2.20)

• Baby carrots ($1.86)

• White onions ($0.70)

• Rainier cherries ($8.71)

• Bell peppers x 3 ($2.97)

• Bananas ($1.35)

• Green grapes ($3.82)

Pantry Items & Restocks

• Kodiak blueberry pancake mix ($5.72)

• Mayonnaise ($3.98)

• San Marzano tomatoes ($4.54)

• Maple syrup ($5.48)

• Kind peanut butter granola ($5.28)

• Spaghetti ($1.84)

• Olive oil spray ($4.74)

• Paprika ($1.08)

• Basmati rice ($3.97)

• Mini chocolate chips ($3.72)

Snacks

• Assorted meats and cheese ($7.47)

• Hummus ($2.72)

• Fruity Pebbles ($4.44)

Frozen

• Frozen mixed veggies ($2.58)

Household Items

• Hefty 4 gallon trash bags ($3.78)

• Viva Paper Towels ($6.52)

• Puffs Tissue ($2.54)

• Glass cleaner ($2.22)

• Fabuloso ($3.97)

• Lysol ($7.97)

• Cottonelle wet wipes ($4.38)

• Scrub mommy ($3.88)

I had a number of items already in my pantry and leftover in my refrigerator that I used for the recipes I cooked this week:

• Pesto

• Flour

• Flour tortillas

• Baking soda and baking powder

• Sugar

• Salsa

• Seasonings and spices

• Garlic

• Olive oil

• Soy sauce

• Dark soy sauce

• Sesame oil

• Strawberries

• Peanut butter

• Honey

The worst part about living in such a tiny space (my truck camper) is that we have extremely limited storage space. So each week I find myself buying things that I could have bought in bulk from Costco. I have to buy paper towels about every 2 weeks (I buy 2-4 rolls at a time), tissues and toilet paper once a month, trash bags and wet wipes about every month and a half, and so on. If I had the same storage space I had in an apartment or house, I could (likely) buy all of these in bulk once a year and never have to think about it again until the following year. The lack of storage space hits especially hard when I can’t buy and freeze meat in bulk. I used to always keep a freezer full of commonly-used meat—chicken, ground turkey, ground beef—purchased on sale or in bulk. But my camper freezer holds a large bag of mixed veggies, a pint of ice cream, and some frozen breakfast sausage. That’s about it.

Since I travel constantly, one thing I don’t do as often as I did while living in one location is utilizing my grocery store’s app to hunt for deals and coupons. I loved clipping a digital coupon that would automatically be applied when I used my loyalty card. But since I often don’t know where I’m shopping until day of, it’s not as convenient to manage multiple loyalty programs and apps for stores I may never visit again.