So, as many of you know, H and I signed up for a CSA last summer/fall. I wrote about what I got and what I did with it on the site on a monthly basis (our ‘shares’ were delivered weekly). Of course, we got inundated with fruit at certain times of the year (peaches in july, pears in august, and apples in november and december). Being the value centered personal finance geek that I am, I wanted to see if using this saved us any money on our food bill. Unfortunately, I wasnt able to track how many pounds of what fruit we got per week, and the cost of something similar at the store because I didnt think of the idea soon enough. I still wanted to keep track of the cost, so I figured that the next best way to do it would be to compare this years food spending with last years food spending for the same time period, and see where I spent more.
This of course is far from rigorous – I was traveling a lot this summer, meaning I was eating out a bit more than usual, and not eating at home as much. Since I’ll only be tracking grocery expenses, this could skew them a bit low. Not only that, but H and I try to split the groceries – one week I pay, one week she pays. However if we need to go the store and the person who should be paying is busy/out of town/not feeling like going to the store, the other one pays. I’m sure over time we are probably pretty close to even, but there could be some seasonal fluctuation in there.
So in 2011, I recorded 25 transactions on groceries from the months of August through November (I dropped off both the two weeks in july and the two weeks at the beginning of december to make records keeping easier). There were 25 transactions, totaling $650. This amounted to approximately 40% of what I spent for my “food and dining” category in 2010. While there was a few things that should probably be thrown out (there was a purchase of some vitamin water and gummie bears (yes, I remember what I bought 6 months ago – but only because this is one of about 2 times I’ve purchased something at this place in my life). Thankfully, this category was the largest of my food expenses (beating out hooch, and eating out). One thing to note is that I cant break out fruit from the totals here, and that the of the fruit that was bought, none was organic, which our CSA is. That of course would have increased the price.
In 2010, I logged 33 transactions at the grocery store that cost a total of $470. This also amounted to 40% of my total expenses in the “food and dining” category. Most of these, however, were for distinctly non meal related items. There were 20 (!!!) transactions from whole foods, most of which were things for my lunches on that day. There also were some times in there where I had to pick up something specific (like a duck) that I couldn’t get where I live, but most of those 20 transactions where for lunch. There was also 1 transaction for the meat processor – from when I went hunting antelope and had the meat ground up to sausages and burger. Less those two places, there was 12 transactions at the grocery store for me in 2010.
Clearly, this was not exactly what I expected to find. Not only was I shocked at how much more I spent in 2011 than in 2010, I’m surprised at the amount of times I bought stuff at whole foods (though this was noted about a year ago in Trending Up). I had expected the numbers to come out roughly even or with me spending more in 2010 – what I did notice was that while I was having fewer transactions, the average went up from about 4 a transaction to 10 a swipe. Now that I’ve noticed this, it looks like I’ll need to do a better job avoiding the grocery store, and better record keeping for a more apt comparison next year. I’ll also need to do a better job meal planning (which I’ve been working on) and considering cost when doing so (also, working on it). Finding this out leaves me with plenty of areas to improve on, obviously.
Readers: Are you ever suprised by what you find when you’re digging through your accounts? How have you been able to change and reverse course so that you can do better in the future? Any specific tricks for my case of spending too much
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Didn’t food prices inflate quite a bit year-over-year? That would help explain the discrepancy, though I suspect not all of it.
By chance, I posted about CSAs today too!
They did go up a bit, but i’m not going to attribute it to that. I think it has been more my habits.
Our food bill went up quite a bit in 2011 as well. I haven’t kept careful track, but we spend more at the grocery store on the average now. I think it’ll keep going up in 2012 since gasoline is going up.
You’re probably right joe – im trying to shift cooking styles and ingredients so that I can flatline my food spending.
I dont think a CSA would save my family nay money. We have looked at them before, and for our typical food needs, we would definitely lose money with a CSA.
That’s probably the case for quite a few people – I suspect those that do it are more concerned with the organic/local nature of the csa
Since we already belong to a work-shift food co-op, which has well-priced organic and minimally treated produce (and bulk and boxed/processed items), I don’t think our CSA saves us much money. What it DOES do is support our values – it lets us know that the bulk of our product is LOCAL and hasn’t been shipped around the world. The co-op offers some local “within 500 miles” options but sometimes local items are more difficult than others to find.
So – for that reason, it’s convenient. It’s much harder to pick through whatever the food co-op’s local offerings are as the bulk of our produce. And I think it’s worth it to support a local farmer.
Agreed – where i live if you wanted local you’d end up with some pretty crappy food, mostly beef. They do get some of the fruits, etc from 250 or so miles away, but it’s better than from chile
I know that groceries have been going up a noticeable amount. We used to spend about $150-$200 a week for a family of five. About six months ago we moved to a less meat filled diet. On average we have 4 nights of vegetarian meals, that don’t mostly rely on a dairy for protein either. During this time our grocery bills were between $90-$120. But lately it’s crept up to between $120-$150.
As far of the CSA, I would think they would be a little bit more expensive than going to the grocery store anyway because of the convenience and quality usually associated with them. I only wish our town had something similar.
I am finally at a point where I am happy with our grocery/dining out spending. It used to be the bane of my budget, but I really did/do have to work on it with meal planning, freezer supply and watching our dining out spending.
Interesting observation – I honestly wouldnt have noticed that groceries have gone up all that much. I just go in and buy what is on my list, pay for it and get out.
While reviewing our 2011 expenses I was shocked at our discretionary spending. We had specific amounts set up in our budget for myself, my husband, date nights, and family fun. The problem was when my husband would use his card rather then cash. He would easily lose track of his spending and overspend often. Since I do all the finances I spotted it early and now take out his amount for the week so when the cash is out he knows he can’t spend more. For me I overspend on groceries so in Feb I’m switching to just cash for those.
I think that tends to happen – I use 1 credit card for all my purchases but this month it expired so I had to switch to another one – I overspent slightly (some was for the wedding) because all the balance wasnt on 1 card.
I struggle so much with increasing food prices, especially the grains. Bread, cereal, etc. has gone up significantly… and it seems there not being discounted as much lately. Of course, while I’m moving to more healthy foods as well, I’m feeling the impact. I guess that’s one way to diet.
great point doc – a forced diet and switch to healthier foods because of rising prices!
On the CSA note. My brother has very close friend who started one last year or the year before. Their farm is about 15 miles from me and I plan on getting a share this year. With that and the tiny garden i’ll be planting I think it will save me money. well at least i’m hoping.
that is awesome! I think anyone who is remotely interested should try a CSA for the season.
I am shocked at how much more I’ve spent at the grocery store in the last three months. Sure, I’m eating for two, but I don’t need that many extra calories. I must say that I am eating more things according to health than to price — that’ll sure add up!
it sure seems to – also, I feel like what I’ve been cooking has been enough to feed 4 people lately.
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