Do any of you ever watch Haul videos on YouTube, where people video and describe everything they just bought from a grocery store or Dollar Tree or similar store? I have no idea why they are so popular but they are popular. I must confess that I've watched quite a few myself.
I have no plans to start making videos but I did take photos of our trip to the commissary on Friday.
Commissaries are grocery stores aboard a US military base. They sell name brand and some commissary brand items. Most of them are very nice and have great prices.
We have to drive an hour to get to either of the 2 commissaries closest to us. We usually go about 1 time a month and we usually buy quite a bit.
My husband shops with me and he likes meat, which will be evident in the photos.
We are empty nesters but we feed company often and we sometimes share purchases with our family.
We budget $600 a month for all grocery and household items. Occasionally we go over that amount but the last 2 months we have been significantly under.
I'm sure our budget sounds so high to many of you. For most of our married life, our budget was much lower. But at this stage, we can afford that much and it's what works for us.
So, here is what $378 bought this week - I expect most of this will last close to 2 months.
I have no plans to start making videos but I did take photos of our trip to the commissary on Friday.
Commissaries are grocery stores aboard a US military base. They sell name brand and some commissary brand items. Most of them are very nice and have great prices.
We have to drive an hour to get to either of the 2 commissaries closest to us. We usually go about 1 time a month and we usually buy quite a bit.
My husband shops with me and he likes meat, which will be evident in the photos.
We are empty nesters but we feed company often and we sometimes share purchases with our family.
We budget $600 a month for all grocery and household items. Occasionally we go over that amount but the last 2 months we have been significantly under.
I'm sure our budget sounds so high to many of you. For most of our married life, our budget was much lower. But at this stage, we can afford that much and it's what works for us.
So, here is what $378 bought this week - I expect most of this will last close to 2 months.
Lots of dairy- we like cheese and this should last much longer than a month.
The Cooper brand cheese is only sold at commissaries, I believe.
The Tillamook is slices for sandwiches.
The flavored Philadelphia cream cheese is nice in celery and on crackers.
The yogurt drinks are not something we always buy 2 of the grands asked for them but in some areas, I do try to spoil them.
Produce - 3 pounds onions, celery, 5 pounds carrots, bananas, tomatoes on the vine
4 pounds of really nice strawberries, red grapes and my favorite kinds of yogurt.
And eggs as always
Donald Duck orange juice - hopefully a months worth
A sack with 5 packs of yesterday's 93% ground beef. They packs are almost 2 pounds, frozen, and marked down about 20%. I left them all tied up in a bag and put them in the bottom of the freezer. I think I already had a few packs bought before Christmas in the freezer and will use them first.
Melanie at Comfy House asked what kind of roast beef I buy. We like lean roasts and we really these Top Round cuts. Sometimes we buy similar ones called Eye of Round.
We bought 2 because they looked so nice. Roast makes a good meal to feed a crowd too.
Above is a pack of 4 strips steak that my husband will grill sometime, 3 packs of cube steaks to make chicken fried steaks, a pack of apple chicken sausage, and not shown is pack of Cajun chicken sausage.
We bought 3 big jugs of Snuggle fabric softener, 2 canisters of gravy mix, hamburger pickles,
6 pounds of breakfast sausage, a big Cure 81 ham that my husband will slice and then freeze for lots of sandwiches, and some jalapeño beef sausages.
We have learned to keep some convenience foods in the freezer.
We really like the Tyson chicken strips. We bake them and they are a crowd pleaser. We also like Marie Callander pot pies and some of Marie's dinners. Another shopper told us the French bread pizzas were very good so we got a couple to try.
The cheese sticks were free as my coupons exceeded their value. I would of got more but there were only 2 in the freezer.
Assorted canned goods and condiments
Some baking mixes, more condiments, a huge bag of raisins, squeeze fruit packs, drink mix and a big pack of tortillas.
I don't usually buy brownie mix but our son in law was recently craving brownies and was looking in our pantry for a brownie mix but there wasn't any. I planned to just buy 1 brownie mix but they were all on sale and looked so good so I ended up buying 4.
My favorite crackers - they are not always in stock so I got 4 because they had a good supply of them. 
Most all of these health and beauty things were bought with coupons and cost very little. I like these Presto gallon size food bags to store produce in the fridge inside, with the air squeezed out, of course.
Not shown are 3 50 count Hefty plates, 2 of the bottles of fabric softener and a giant case of 48 packs of Ramen noodles for our oldest son.
I didn't buy many canned foods, dry goods or baking goods as there are plenty still in our pantry.
I get most of our household cleaners and papergoods at CVS.
I buy milk in shelf stable cartons at Dollar Tree.
We eat chicken often but I got so much chicken on sale at the commissary right before Christmas that we didn't need to buy any more yet.
We will need more fresh produce in a week or 2 and I will probably shop for it at Aldi or Sprouts, depending on what they have on sale.
