How did it all add up?

One of the things I wanted to look at for this month was how much money we spent eating gluten free for 30 days. We started on June 6, but to make it easier, I just analyzed the month of June and compared it to the month of May. Both months were similar in our activities: In May we were out of town for 4 days for a wedding and in June at the beach for 5 days. May also had my kids' birthday party so there were expenses, but we did get to eat the leftovers. I couldn't really compare to other months easily because before May, me and the kids were at my parents' house 2-4 days a week for all of our meals. Last June wasn't good for comparison either because I had just had a baby and we were eating out of the freezer and from other people's meal support.

So how did it add up? Was gluten free that much more expensive? First let's look at the grocery stores. This does not include any Walmart/Target/Walgreens trips that were half household items and half food. Both months had multiple of these trips so I figured it balanced out to leave them out. So just with actual grocery stores, we spent about $80 more in June than in May! Not nearly as bad as I thought. Remember, there was that May bday party, but I thought this number would be hundreds more! Looking at the actual number, I am shocked though! It has been a long time since we have actually filled in our budget. Wow! I know grocery prices have gone up, but over $500 a month for groceries for a family of 4 seems a bit high. How much do you spend on groceries these days?

Now eating out was a big shocker too! Even with adding in $50 to the eating out total for June (for half of what my parents spent on food at the beach) we spent HALF of what we did on eating out in May ($300)! Granted, this doesn't count any cash spent on eating out which does happen when I buy a drink a few days a week. But imagine how much more this would have been if we really could eat out while we were on vacation?

So what have I learned: GF does save money on eating out and hopefully makes up for the extra cost of bread, pasta, and special products that way.