Our quest for cheap groceries

BudgetScreenshot
Originally uploaded by amg_quail.

A large part of being a Vista involves trying to survive on not a lot of money. Allison and I are way more fortunate than most in that we're sharing an apartment; also, we don't have a car payment or other big expenses that would eat up our living stipend. That being said, we still want to be as frugal as possible. Consequently, we've started a groceries budget so we can keep track of our monthly grocery expenses. It's just expenses because our monthly stipend is fixed and we know what that is already. I have a feeling that the look of the budget will change as we get better at this, but right now it's essentially an Excel file that shows every trip we make to the grocery store itemized into basic food groups, like dairy, fruits and vegetables, and household items. Hopefully we can keep track of any variations in our spending, and, assuming we save our receipts, look back on what we've bought and what we're eating. The picture is a screen shot of our first three trips to the store in budget format.

The other really cool thing we've discovered since living here is the WinCo grocery store across the street from out apartment. They have an absolutely amazing bulk foods section! We were told WinCo is the cheap grocery store in town, and it's true, but I was pleasantly surprised that it is both cheap and NICE. Bulk foods save on packaging, which saves us money and saves the environment. We even did some comparison shopping between brand name goods, private label goods, and the bulk foods, and hands-down bulk foods came out on top. Here's to WinCo!


Here's our loot!