Checking In With My Groceries vs. Toiletries Project

Photo credit: Ralph Aichinger, CC BY 2.0.

Last month, I made a list of all the things I needed (and wanted) to do with my money in 2018.

I’ve already accomplished several things on that list: meeting with a CPA, opening a HSA and a traditional IRA, switching from paper to digital receipts.

But I realized I hadn’t actually been separating my Hy-Vee Aisles Online receipts into “groceries” and “household/toiletries.”

I originally wanted to do this because I suspected I was spending way too much of my grocery budget on stuff that wasn’t actually food: toilet paper, Clorox disinfecting wipes, etc.

Now that I’m doing the grocery delivery thing, this feels like less of an issue. I’m buying my household goods in bulk, which means I’m spending less money overall and I’m not running out of facial tissues every two weeks.

But let’s look at the numbers anyway.

This month, I’ve made two Hy-Vee Aisles Online orders and spent $264.80 on groceries/household/toiletries — and, thanks to meal planning and buying in bulk, I don’t anticipate needing to do any additional shopping in any of those categories before February.

$114.30 of that $259.80 went to my monthly Huel subscription. (Breakfast and lunch.)

$74.40 went to non-Huel food. (Dinners, snacks, tea, etc.)

$66.15 went to household/toiletries.

$4.95 went to paying the grocery delivery fee when one of my orders wasn’t large enough to get the fee removed.

$5 went to tipping the delivery people.

Considering that I was often spending close to $400 on all of this stuff every month when I lived in Seattle, I’d say I’m doing a lot better now — and I probably don’t need to agonize over how much I’m spending on groceries vs. toiletries. I’ll take a look at how my February spending divvies up and then I’ll let the project go.

And if you’re wondering how I got a month’s worth of dinners and snacks out of $74.40, I made an enormous pot of black-eyed pea soup on New Year’s Day and still have a bunch of it in the freezer. Thank goodness I don’t mind leftovers.

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