2016 Groceries Week 53 - $60.55

We drove to my hometown on Christmas Day and straight to my parents' house.  They were in South America over Christmas - Why? - and there was very little food in the house.  I had brought along a cooler and a big bag of dry goods, but we were going to be feeding 9 kids for 2 days with the cousins over to play.  So I went shopping that first morning.  I spent $53.17 on food & scored some great deals for Christmas markdowns, too.  I bought cereal, pasta, ham, apples, oranges, bananas, ground beef, pork loin, bacon, shredded pork, guacamole, bell peppers, fresh mozzarella, milk & chocolate milk, kettle corn (so DD2 could have microwave popcorn with her cousins), several bags of candy, and a new Hershey syrup with just 5 ingredients that let DD2 have chocolate -coconut- milk with her cousins, too. 

We spent Monday, Tuesday, & half of Wednesday at my folks, then drove 5 hours to an Aunt's for 2 more nights.  We had plenty of food to meet allergy needs and not land on my Aunt's kitchen like a plague of locusts. Kidding, not kidding. And on Friday we packed all the kids up again for a night at a hotel with a free continental breakfast.  DD2 was able to have apple juice but nothing else.  Thank goodness we still had some coconut milk left and a mostly full box of Chex.  We attended a big family party on Saturday (I had made a big pot of pork chili at my folks and froze it for the Portland driving) and headed home through some storms, but made it in just about 3 hours which was awesome!  We didn't stop even once! 

Sunday we slept in, watched church on the internet, and ate leftovers from the big party.  We used the last of the milk so DD ran out for milk & a loaf of bread to see us through another day or two spending $7.38.  

Week 53 Total: $60.55
2016 Grand Total: $8,181.73
2016 Weekly Average: $154.37

And how does this compare to prior years?  I'm spending way more.  I shouldn't be surprised  because our family is growing, food is becoming more expensive, and we are buying far more gluten-free and dairy-free items.  In 2015 I averaged $116.26 per week so I'm up about $40 weekly.  Continuing this trend I might be pushing $200/week in 2017 but I hope not!  I'll just keep doing what I can to keep costs low: cooking whole foods and looking for bargains.

Happy New Year!  Katie