Money money money...and happy second birthday (part 1)

So, the blog is officially two years old now! This is the first of two posts revisiting notions I addressed on Trash to Table's first birthday, so keep an eye out for the next one.

Something I vowed to do upon the blog's first birthday was to start keeping track of how much money I DO spend on groceries, and therefore how much I save over the course of a year.

A 2009 study conducted by the independent bundle.com (pictured above) estimated Baltimore's average grocery spending per person for the year to be $2,769.00, coming in at $230.75 per month. Based on some additional research, as well as the amount I receive from the government in food stamps, around $200/month seems to be a fair estimate of the norm.

In 2012, I kept a spreadsheet of how much money I spent on groceries, as well as the quantity of each item I bought to see what items are the least likely to be dumpstered, as well as what items I purchase most frequently. At the beginning of August, I also began receiving government food stamps, which changed my dumpstering habits considerably. I started grocery shopping almost exclusively, and dumpstered far less since I also moved around that time and had trouble finding new dumpsters.

So, there are two things to present here. One: how much I spent for the whole year and my savings compared to the Baltimore average and two: how my spending changed from January-August versus August into the new year. Looking at this second item will tell me how much I COULD have saved if I had kept up my habits from the first half of the year.

So, down to the nitty-gritty. In 2012, I spent a total of $806.60 on groceries. This means I saved $1,962.40 over the year compared to the average Baltimore-based consumer. That's a LOT of money! This means I spent an average of $67.21 on groceries every month, which still sounds pretty high to me.

Now, for the more interesting part. How did my spending habits change from the time I was regularly dumpstering compared to the time I wasn't? When I was primarily using dumpstering as my method of gleaning food, $64.47 was my monthly average grocery spending. After that, the average raised to $71.05 per month. This amount isn't that drastic of a change, but I'd like to also account for the fact that in the last 3 months of the year, I didn't make much food at home since my work provided meals. In my mind, this would have changed the statistics considerably, since I would have been cooking those meals instead of getting them for free.

So, what would have happened if I hadn't stopped dumpstering? I would have spent roughly $773 and saved around $30, coming in at $1,996 lower than the Baltimore average. This doesn't sound like much savings for my own spending habits. However, according to the rate I was spending AFTER I stopped dumpstering, I would have spent $853 over 2012, making for a difference of $80 over the year, which starts to sound more substantial, especially accounting for the fact that I wasn't spending money on groceries much at all in the last 3 months of the year, which decreases the numbers. My guess is that I could have saved between $100-200 if my spending habits were more regular, and there's a lot of things someone could do with that amount of money. Money is just one more incentive to dumpster!


TOP TEN THINGS I BOUGHT OVER 2012:

1. Garlic - 13 cloves

2. Eggs - 10 cartons

3. Milk - 10 cartons/half gallons/etc.

4. Bread - 8 loaves

5. Red onions - 8

6. Greek yogurt - 8 packages

7. Bacon - 7 packages

8. Avocados - 7

9. Kale - 7 bunches

10. TIE Honey - 6 jars, Earl Grey tea - 6 packages


Almost all of these make a lot of sense. Garlic, eggs, milk, yogurt, bacon, (good) avocados, tea, and honey are very rare dumpster finds. However, bread, onions, and kale are the surprises of the list. All of these are fairly common to dumpster. I'd say I use onions and kale a lot - maybe more than any other food in the house, so it stands to reason that they'd be high on the list. Also, I have many recipes that call for onions, so when they weren't found in the dumpster, I would go buy them out of necessity. I typically don't use much bread, but in the latter half of the year I developed a very heavy nutella and toast habit, so I'm guessing that padded my bread buying stats.

Now that I know the staggering amount I saved this year by dumpstering, the goal for next year is to spend even less and dumpster more. Also, something I plan to start doing is keep track of how much I spend on "going out" to eat and compare that with the Baltimore 2009 average of $2,333.00 per year per person. This, as well as how much landfill space I saved in 2012 are coming up soon!