There are some things you'll need to know up front. I am not starting with an empty pantry, so I won't be buying every single thing that I need for all our meals each week. Because I am not starting with an empty pantry, I am able to stock up on sale items that will be used in future weeks. That's why I decided to go with an average rather than a weekly amount. There will be some weeks that I go over $100.oo. There will be other weeks that I spend less. For the sake of this study, I will not be counting non-food items or pet food since the study is about feeding our family of eight. If we buy a new pan (we're looking for an inexpensive bun pan) I may add that in. I usually shop at two main stores, Super Wal-mart and Kroger. I buy mostly store brand items if they are of good quality. If name brand products are cheaper, then I go with those. If another store has a good sale, then I will shop there if the savings is worth it. I make most of our baked goods. I cook from scratch a high percentage of the time. I'm sure there is more you'll need to know, but I'll address that as necessary.
So, let's take a look at what we purchased last night.
We unpacked everything quickly and I rushed to get a picture and get it all put away. I can't afford to have our milk or other cold items spoil. Obviously, it takes a lot of food to feed eight people, so I won't be listing off the whole list of purchases. Cost of groceries 3/26/09:
- Wal-mart $0 - We didn't make any food purchases there this time.
- Kroger $119.41
- Meijer $18.28 - We saved ~ $6.00 over the cost of the same items at Wal-mart or Kroger. That's definitely worth the extra stop.
Menu options:
Breakfast
- oatmeal
- muffins
- cold cereal
- eggs, bacon, and toast
- bagels
- bacon, egg, and cheese bagels
- banana bread
Lunch, Supper, or Dinner
- Sloppy Joes, applesauce, carrots
- meat loaf (a la Froggie), mashed potatoes, corn, rolls
- pot roast with carrots, potatoes, onions, bread and butter (We use Country Crock w/Calcium and Vit. D added.)
- chicken and rice casserole, salad, rolls
- fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits
- BBQ ribs, green beans, baked potatoes, rolls
- roast chicken, stuffing, rolls, brocolli and cheese
- egg salad sandwiches, carrots, cottage cheese, bananas
- tuna salad sandwiches, carrots, applesauce
- spaghetti, bread sticks, corn
- tacos, chips and salsa
- hot dogs, salad, applesauce
- pizza
- PB&J, chicken noodle soup
- yogurt
- cookies (sugar cookies a la Kitty Kat, chocolate chip a la Puppy Dog)
- chocolate tea bread (a la Monkey)
- fruit snacks
- tangerines
- cantaloupe
Drinks
- 1/2 caf. coffee (just me)
- water
- orange juice
- iced tea
- milk
- hot tea
- Mt. Dew (Jon)
- Dr. Pepper (Me)
Last night we had a bedtime snack. The kids had fruit snacks. Jon and I snacked on some Pringles and had salads (We had a package of Sargento Cheddar Chicken Salad Finishers that was about to expire. We tried a raspberry vinaigrette on it and we both liked it. We must be getting old, our tastes are expanding.) The kids didn't have drinks since they were headed straight to bed. Jon and I had pop.
7 comments:
Wow Good Job with the groceries what a good steward you are !
Allen asked if you ever shop at Aldi's? We do and it's AWESOME!!!
:)
(chrystian knows now...public knowledge in a few weeks)
Thanks Ladies!
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Teri,
We had some bad experiences with Aldi's in the past. They also usually don't have everything we need. We try to limit the number of stops we have to make, especially with the price of gas. It also takes a while for us to get everything we need. Less stores means less time shopping. If there is a good sale we will go, but otherwise we stick with our routine. I was actually going to mention in a future post about the possibility of saving even more by shopping at stores like Aldi's.
LOL..okay...I guess it is better for us there because we don't do that much cooking from scratch.
I feel like such a lazy slob! We go out to eat at least 3 nights most weeks and I'm horrible about jumping in the car to run grab some lunch! For just the 2 of us, though, it really is often cheaper to grab something out... Yes, I know. I can justify anything! LOL!
Have I told you lately how impressed I am by how you do things? Well, just in case... WOW! Good job!
I was raised on Aldi's foods. My mom was a single mom of three and then when she married she lost all govt help and had LESS $ to buy groceries with (isn't THAT sad....her dh had a job but we still couldn't afford some basic necessities...sigh...but that's a whole nother subject). Anyway....we ate most of the canned foods from Aldi almost NONE of their processed stuff...their mac and cheese was okay until I bought Kraft for the first time...not the same. LOL. We also bought lots of their frozen meats and fish sticks and veggies. Mom stayed away from their produce back then because it didn't last long.
We tend to get most of our produce for Kroger because the quality is usually much better.
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