Groceries on a Local Food Diet

One of the questions Dennis and I are asked most often about our local food diet is “How much do you spend on groceries?”

I admit that we haven’t been tracking that very well, but we believe we spend much less for groceries now than we used to. Last summer we probably spent more on food than usual. We bought seeds, bought bushels of tomatoes and other veggies at the farmers’ markets, and wine at Forestedge Winery, among other things. But now that the harvest is in, we’re mostly living off the larder.

This morning I looked through my checkbook for the month of November, trying to get an idea. I write all our debit card purchases in the checkbook as if they were checks, so that’s included, but Dennis may have made some cash purchases (mostly eggs).

I found 6 food-related entries. We spent $47.09 on butter and milk from Dahl’s dairy (this was actually for October and paid on October 31). That was a higher-than-average month for dairy. There was also a $30.67 check to Harmony Food Co-op (mostly for the thanksgiving turkey, but all food-related). Otherwise we spent $18.79 at Lueken’s and $31.61 at Teal’s. Those last two are supermarkets. We buy laundry detergent, fabric softener, dish soap, paper towels, and other non-food items there. I remember buying 2# wild rice at Teal’s and some local onions there. We get cream and milk from Blackstar Dairy at Lueken’s. The bulk of those purchases were non-food items though.

The other two entries were from dining out. We ate some pizza on our way home from a day in Brainerd ($22.04) and I bought lunch for myself and some other folks at the Effie Café this week during a work-related trip ($55.74). We also ate out with friends one time when we went to see a concert, but we paid cash that evening (I estimate $60 for the night, including drinks???).

So that’s it!

Eating out for any reason is a big expense, but we still do it from time to time, if we’re away from home, working, or spending time with friends.