September Grocery Haul: Part 1...

It's a new month friends, which means a new grocery haul. It's been three weeks since we moved to Arizona and we were in desperate need of a big grocery haul. I had done a few small trips, after we got here, but I needed to go to Costco and I was itching to get back to once a month shopping. With all the choas of hubby working out of state, paying bills for two residences, weekly trips for hubby to come back and forth, baby delivery, and then a big move out of state.... I was ready for some structure. 

I crave structure and organization. I thrive on it in fact. We have a lot of financial goals this year and some debt we want to pay off asap from unplanned medical expenses with Tallia's delivery, so we wanted to start getting ourselves back on track with budgeting and saving. 

The first place to start was with groceries. I made a 30 day meal plan. Basing it first off of stuff from food storage and what I had on hand. I then made my grocery list. It was a long list. We needed a lot this month. We set our budget at $700. I made plans to go to Costco and Fry's. Today I'll share the Costco haul. I'm leaving my Fry's haul for tomorrow. 

I'm going to continue to document my prices here on the blog. Kind of my way of creating a new price book. 

I got a lot of snack items in this haul. We won't eat all of these snacks this month. I stock my pantry weekly with granola bars, protein bars, dried fruit, etc. The rest is put away. In the new apartment I have everything stored on top of the cabinets. It's that whole "out of sight, out of mind" method I use. It helps me stretch items further. 

I also bought some stuff to stock our freezer chest with....chicken nuggets, chicken patties, etc. The chicken nuggets I buried in the freezer to use later in the month. I didn't want them gobbled up the first week. Chicken nuggets are my family's weakness. They love them! I let the family eat them for lunch after shopping and then into the bottom of the freezer they went. The chicken patties will last us about two months. We'll have them for dinner one night this month and then the rest will be saved for next month or as a backup when life gets crazy. It feels good to have my freezer up and running again. I also love having a few saving graces in my freezer. :) 

This month I also bought a huge bag of chicken from Costco. I needed some for a few meals I have planned. I made a Zaycon Foods order this week. I ordered 40 lbs of ground turkey, which I'll pick up this month. I also ordered 80 lbs of chicken, but I can't pick it up till next month. My total for that order was about $203. We used money we had saved on groceries in previous month's to cover the meat order. I love ordering my meat in bulk. It allows me to get it at rock bottom prices. I was able to snag the chicken for $1.68/lb and the ground turkey for $1.72/lb. You just can't beat that price! I took advantage of a sale Zaycon had going on. I also received $12 in credit, which I put towards my order. If you share a referral code and someone orders, you earn credit. Those extra savings were a blessing. This meat should last us quite a while. I'm hoping we'll be able to go about 4-6 months before needing to order again. I'll let you know how it goes.

At Costco I spent $329.40. That total reflects the $15.99 I subtracted for toilet paper. Toiletries and cleaning supplies do not come out of our food budget. They're part of another category. Below is the cost breakdown of everything I purchased. I also made a video of my haul. You can check that out on my channel or below. 

Applesauce $8.79
Protein bars $15.49
Peanutbutter powder $11.99
English muffins $6.79
Peanuts $5.39
Animal crackers $9.69
Nutrigrain bars $12.49
Granola bars $8.59
Fig bars $11.49
Carnation instant breakfast $12.59
Raisins $6.99
Red Vines $8.79
Prego pasta sauce $6.99
Canned corn $7.49
25lb white flour $5.49
Yoplait yogurt light $8.99
Hamburger buns $2.29
Hotdog buns $2.29
Grape tomatoes $4.99
Granola $7.99
5 lb bag yellow onions $5.49
Frozen berries $9.99
Frozen strawberries $9.99
5 dozen eggs $5.19
Chicken patties $13.79
10 lbs. Chicken breasts $19.99
Shredded mozzarella cheese $10.99
Chicken nuggets $11.39
Crumble bacon $10.99
Strawberry jelly $5.99
Go-gurt $7.99
Rice Rollers $6.99
Kirkland Mayo $4.79
Sharp cheddar cheese block (2 lbs) $4.79
Shredded Mexican cheese $7.99
Tortilla chips $3.49
KC BBQ sauce $5.99
Cream cheese $7.99
Sour cream $4.39
Minced garlic $4.39

Check back tomorrow to see the rest of our haul and how much we spent at Fry's.

XO Danielle