Welcome to the first week of September’s LWD Grocery Haul series in which I share our weekly grocery purchases, including prices. I’m always curious to see what others purchase and what food prices are in different countries or regions. I hope you are finding this series interesting and helpful.
LWD GROCERY HAUL
September 2025 ~ Week One
Pantry/Freezer Challenge Month Update
I continue to make progress using up things we had in our freezers and pantry. Pretty soon I’ll bite the bullet and do an inventory. I know there are things buried in the chest freezer that should be tossed. I also need to be intentional about using some of the frozen fruits – probably in smoothies.
I then need to organize my kitchen pantry and the extra pantry in the storage closet. I’ll evaluate what I need to restock for the winter. I know I’m low on canned beans, cartons of diced tomatoes, stuffing mix (just used the last one), elbow macaroni and canned vegetables.
This week I bought a whole chicken for our Sunday dinner instead of the usual pot roast David has been making fairly often the past few months. In part this is because it sounded good to me but it was also due to the fact that the price of roast has skyrocketed. On August 11th I paid $7.99 a pound which seemed bad enough. That same cut is now $9.49 a pound! Beef prices in general are just crazy high. Have you noticed that in your area?
I continue to look for the sales as I make my order each week. In this week’s order, 14 out of 24 items I purchased were on sale. The best deal were the frozen meatballs. $15.99 for 60 ounces of meatballs was a good price since they are regularly $17.99. I can get a lot of meals out of this huge bag and it’s cheaper than making them myself. 60 ounces is 3.75 pounds. My store currently has 80% ground beef for $6.09 a pound if you buy the three-pound family pack. That works out to $22.83 to make them myself. And it’s awfully handy to have them on hand to add to a jar of spaghetti sauce for a quick dinner. They are also good in a homemade gravy served over rice or mashed potatoes.
I was down to just one jar of pasta sauce (and not a favored brand) so I was glad the one I like was on sale. The sale lasts through October 5th so I’ll likely stock a few extra as soon as I’ve done the pantry inventory and re-organized it.
There were a few different types of frozen garlic toast on sale this week. I chose one with 8 slices so I could get two meals out of it. I bake four at a time which leaves one additional piece to go along with leftovers.
I don’t buy canned biscuits very often but as they were on sale I thought they’d be good with Sunday’s roast chicken dinner.
Have you tried the Werther’s coffee flavored candies? They are SO good. We are trying not to eat a lot of sweets but when craving something sweet, having one of these to suck on helps. Since they were on sale I bought a bag for the candy dish.
Otherwise, I mostly just bought our usual produce, dairy and bread items.
Speaking of bread, I really hope to start baking my own this fall. I have a few buckets of wheat, a wheat grinder and a Bosch mixer. There is no reason for me not to be baking our bread aside from being out of the habit. Well, and not having room in the freezer. But that problem will soon be remedied. And honestly, I could rework my recipe to make fewer than 5-6 loaves at a time. I’d like to try my hand at making bagels, too. David eats one each morning with his oatmeal and they keep going up in price like so many other items. Not only would it save money for me to bake our bread products but they would be healthier, too.
PRUETT’S (REGIONAL GROCERY STORE):
- On The Border Tortilla Chips (10.5 oz) $3.00 (on sale)
- Sun Chips Garden Salsa Flavored Whole Grain Snacks (7 oz) $3.50 (on sale)
- Red Seedless Grapes (1.03 lb) $3.08
- yellow onions (2) $1.31
- green onions $.99
- iceberg lettuce $2.49
- Organic girl Baby Spinach (5 oz) $4.99
- Tomatoes on the Vine (3) $3.47
- Pictsweet Farms Deluxe Baby Sweet Peas (10 oz) $2.49 (on sale)
- Best Choice Whole Kernel Corn (15.25 oz) $.69 (on sale)
- bagels (20 oz) $3.99
- Sara Lee Sandwich White Bread (24 oz) $2.50 (on sale)
- Pillsbury Biscuits, Buttermilk, Flaky Layers (10 ea) $2.69 (on sale)
- New York Bakery Texas Toast, With Real Garlic (8 ea) $2.49 (on sale)
- Borden Sharp Cheddar Sliced Cheese (10 ea) $2.99 (on sale)
- Best Choice Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese (8 oz) $2.29 (on sale)
- Superior Selections Feta Crumbled Cheese $1.99 (on sale)
- Half & Half (32 oz) $3.79
- Heavy Whipping Cream (16 oz) $3.49
- Pagoda Wontons, Cream Cheese (7.27 oz) $3.99 (on sale)
- Farm Rich Meatballs, Homestyle, Party Size (60 oz) $15.99 (on sale)
- whole chicken (3.59 lb) $7.14
- Classico Caramelized Onion & Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce (24 oz) $3.99 (on sale)
- Werther’s Original Hard Caramel Coffee Candies (5.5 oz) $2.39 (on sale)
Total: $85.73 (plus tax, shopper fee and tip)
Our weekly menu…
We are all off on my planned menu for this week, for a few reasons. Monday was a holiday and the guys decided they wanted pizza. I put the leftover pork chop and gravy in the freezer so I can make that another day. The pizza place made a mistake on our order and we ended up with an additional pizza. So Tuesday night was…pizza again.
I did make spaghetti and meatballs as planned last night. Well, actually, David made the meal. You see, I apparently have shingles and am not feeling great.
Tonight I was planning to make stir fry but we all at lunch so late that no one is all that interested in dinner yet (it’s 6:15 p.m. as I’m writing this). There is leftover spaghetti and garlic bread which David will probably eat at some point. Chris asked if we had some fruit so he’ll probably have fruit, cheese and crackers later. I need to eat with my medication for shingles and my third dose of the day is around midnight. Last night I had a couple of pieces of toast and I’ll probably do that tonight.
Since I had already started to thaw the chicken for stir fry tonight we’ll move tonight’s meal to Friday. And as for the weekend…who knows at this point? At least I have some options available. Some weeks are just like that, right?
FEATURED RECIPE…
PREVIOUS GROCERY HAUL POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
Yes, chuck roast here is in that general area or a little bit higher. Cubed steak is typically about $7/pound.
Wendi left a comment about being shocked over her ground beef prices. Having just looked at my own grocery I was commiserate with her the I saw what she paid and I was ENVIOUS. She found ground beef in a family pack for something like $5.75 a pound. And ALL that I’ve seen here ON SALE has been $6.75 a pound even in a family pack. Sheesh.
I’ve given up so much of the foods we like and I’m working harder than ever in my kitchen to prepare foods. I’ve decided that, at least at this time, I’ll just go ahead and purchase the chuck roast or cubed steak and the ground beef. I’ll pinch elsewhere for the time being and if things go up still more I’ll adjust from there.
We live in “cattle country” so these beef prices are shocking to me. Fortunately our family likes a lot of meatless or “low-meat” dishes and I’ll be increasing those in our menus. We love eating tacos every Tuesday and most of the time I make them with ground beef. However, we also really like lentil tacos. I make up a batch of taco-seasoned lentils in my Instant Pot and freeze in meal-size portions. I think I might cook up a batch of ground beef and do a 50-50 mix for the freezer. I think that would be a good option that would decrease cost. And instead of a weekly Sunday pot roast I’ll alternate with a roasted chicken and maybe throw in the occasional roast pork when I find that on sale. Honestly, that is yet another reason I HAVE to get my chest freezer cleared out. I need room to buy these larger cuts of meat whenever I find a good sale. We don’t have trouble affording groceries now but David retires next year and I want to be well prepared for a drop in income coupled with rising prices.
But having said all that, you and I are both fortunate that we have the kitchen skills to weather these prices. I’m concerned about young or inexperienced homemakers who have always depended on a lot of pre-packaged foods or meals heavily focused on large amounts of meats. I intend to work on some easy low-cost recipes and helpful suggestions here on the blog and you have always shared those on yours, as well. The challenge is for those young homemakers to “find” us – ha!