Frugal Forward

I’m going to try to document what I’m buying each week and how much everything costs. This post covers Monday, January 27th to Sunday, February 2nd.

My New Rules

I went into detail on what my new shopping rules will be in this post, but in short, my initial goal is to keep purchases for food and household goods to $150 per week with 2 caveats.

We make most of our meat and seafood purchases from Butcher Box throughout the year. I currently put $200 per month in a separate fund for these purchases.

We also make sporadic larger bulk purchases from Azure Standard to save money over what we can buy in the grocery store. I currently contribute $200 per month in a separate fund for these purchases.

With all of that out of the way, here’s what we bought this week.

What I Bought This Week

Food

Thrive Market ($61.00 spent)

What we bought:

If you aren’t familiar with Thrive Market (this is an affiliate link that will get you 40% off of your first order), they are an online membership-based grocery store that provides organic, non-GMO products. Their prices are very competitive and they make it very easy to search foods by food allergies (for us, that’s gluten) and by diet (Paleo, Whole30, Keto). Their annual membership fee is $60, but for $5/month you get free shipping on orders over $49 and they give memberships to teachers, veterans, and those in need.

They were having their big gluten-free sale, so I picked up with following:

• 4 boxes of Banza Chickpea Pasta ($10.52)
• 2 packages of Schar Hamburger Buns ($8.54)
• 2 packages of Scar Hot Dog Buns ($8.54)
• 2 bags of King Arthur gluten-free bread flour ($16.48)
• 2 packages of gluten free ramen ($3.44)
• 4 bags o f Late July Tortilla Chips ($13.48)

Discount Grocery Store ($27.03 Spent)

What we bought:

• I got a 2 pound bag of coffee beans for $12.99.
• Miss Frugal Forward loves her iced coffee, so I got 3 bottles of this cold brew concentrate for $4.68 each, total $14.04 for all 3.

Ralphs ($19.87 spent)

What we bought:

I love hunting for bargains at Ralphs (a Kroger affiliate). This week I was able to get:

• 4 pounds of Jimmy Dean sausage for $1.98 each. They were still good, but close to the Best Buy date, so they went straight into my freezer.
• This hummus was still in date and marked down to $2.28. Mr. Frugal Forward loves hummus, so this was an easy buy.
• I got a container of baby kale (still in perfect condition) for $1.71.
• The Hillshire Farm smoked sausage was still within the Best Buy date and was a deal at $2.47.

Honey Baked Ham ($0 spent)

What We Bought:

I had $24 in rewards cash from a purchase I made for Thanksgiving, and $15 of it was going to expire on January 30th. If I didn’t want to lose the value of that, I needed to go and get something. I also had two $50 gift cards from Christmas, so I decided to redeem the rewards and use some of the gift cards to pay for a turkey breast.

So, that’s what I did.

Buoy Hydration ($64.06 spent)

I’m honestly ticked about this one. It was a subscription I thought I had canceled, but apparently did not. Once I got the email, I reached out to customer service to try to both cancel the order and the subscription. They would not refund me for the order, but processed my cancelation.

Household Goods

Thrift Store ($8.50 Spent)

I stopped in my local thrift shop and got a funky vase thing for my fireplace mantle. It’s a fun way to bring in some color to my otherwise neutral colored space. I plan to look for some dried eucalyptus or something to put in there. Also, this is not a final “styled” mantle. I suck at these things and my mom will be here in a few weeks to help me.

Costco ($58.92 spent)

Since we just moved, we needed to buy updated checks. We don’t use checks often, but we do use them enough to warrant purchasing more with the correct address.

Ashley Furniture ($148.91 spent)

Okay, this one was a late night shopping tragedy. We had been planning on buying a roll-away twin sized bed (like hotels have) for our guest “bedroom.” It’s a combo office/guest room and it’s a bit weird. You have to walk through this room to access the garage. It’s apparently ok to count this as a bedroom in California. The room is TINY, so we have a day bed in there, but when my parents come to visit, they both need somewhere to sleep. We figured that a roll away bed would be the best option for the space. So, we bought that.

Lowes ($0 Spent)

When we purchased our refrigerator from Lowes, we earned $55 in loyalty rewards cash that was set to expire. So, I bought a couple of things I had been planning to buy for our new home.

First were these solar powered path lights ($29.98):

The other thing I bought was a snake plant for $17.31.

Azure Standard Purchase ($122 spent)

What we bought:

We bought the following:

• 1 pound of Beef Gelatin ($8.36)
• 12 pounds of Raw Berry/Wildflower Honey ($43.45)
• 3 pounds of Raw Orange Blossom Honey ($13.66)
• 4 pounds of Pamela’s Gluten Free Bread Mix & Flour Blend ($20.18)
• Jenn’s Ultimate Elderberry Syrup DIY Kit ($29.25)
• 4 ounces of Echinacea herb ($12.35)

The total amount in our Azure Standard Sinking Fund was $302.47. After this purchase, the balance is $180.47.

January Extra Income

I was able to sell a couple of pieces of furniture (they don’t work in our new home) on Facebook Marketplace. I sold a queen bed frame for $60 and an Ikea cabinet for $60.

I also was paid $39.37 from a GEICO class action settlement.

And finally, I was paid $2.29 from this class action settlement:

My total extra income for January, which will offset the crazy spending this week, was $161.66.

Week 2 Totals

That brings my Week 2 total to $379.79, after taking into account my January extra income and the carry-forward from Week 1. This was not my original plan, but I suppose if I’m going to blow it, at least I’ve blown it while still being able to offset some of the spending with “found” money. I’m still really annoyed with myself, though, to be totally honest.

What’s your grocery strategy right now? Are you cutting back, swapping brands, or just crying in the produce aisle? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear how you’re surviving this mess!

*Some links in this post may be affiliate links. For links to products on Amazon, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You are not charged for using an affiliate link. If you use my link, I earn a small commission, which I can use to offset the administrative costs of this blog. If you use my links, thank you.

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