Sunday, March 9, 2014

A Grocery Post

Grocery shopping is such a huge ordeal for me. I don't know why I make such a big deal out of it. I always end up spending more money than I plan to, I always forget the coupons, and a lot of my food still ends up going to waste. Today, I'm going to lay it all out on the table (literally) so you can see what I purchased, where I purchased it from, and how much I spent on it.

Before I get to that, here is a list of the meals and snacks I went shopping for today:

Meals:
  • Rolled oats (oatmeal) with peanut butter and banana
  • Southwestern Salad
  • Spinach, Tomato, and Feta stuffed chicken with quinoa
  • Turkey meatballs with spaghetti squash
  • Hard boiled egg whites with black beans, salsa, and guacamole (I hate scrambled egg whites)
Snacks:
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Homemade hummus with celery
  • Greek yogurt with fruit
  • Rice cakes with peanut butter

Here's the damage from the three different places I shopped...

Costco


I only go to Coscto when I need to stock up on something like fruit or grains -- aside from household items. I couldn't find regular quinoa so I purchased the 4lb bag of Red Quinoa for $15.99.
  • 4lb bag of Red Quinoa
  • Pineapple (2) (Cub had these cheaper though I don't know how the quality would compare)
  • Blueberries ($6.79 for 18oz)
  • 10lbs of Old Fashioned Rolled Oats ($7.89 - I wish they would have been organic!)
Total Damage (with tax) = $36.65

Cub Foods
(apologies--I am not a photographer nor am I aspiring to be one at the moment)

I don't normally like doing the bulk of my shopping at Cub Foods but at the moment, I can't afford to do all my shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. One thing I know for sure to stay away from is their meat selection. I'd go to Rainbow Foods for my meat before buying it from Cub. Everything I purchased at Cub:
  • GOYA Black Beans
  • GOYA Garbanzo Beans
  • 4.5lb bag of Pink Lady Apples
  • Grape Tomatoes (on sale for $1.88!)
  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Sliced mushrooms
  • Vine tomatoes (3)
  • Roma Tomatoes (2)
  • Organic Bananas
  • Cilantro
  • Zucchini
  • Spinach
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • English Cucumber (4/$5 but I only purchased one)
  • Celery
Total Damage (with tax) = $34.06

Whole Foods

For the past 2-3 years, I've purchased all my meat and dairy from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. It makes a huge difference in quality...but also in price--and not in a good way. The regular packages of chicken breast (usually three come in a package--a little over 1lb) were around $8-$10 depending on varying weight. I always purchase the large "value" package of chicken breast. Today is was $5.94/lb and the package I purchased was 3.19lbs. I plan to use 1lb for grinding in my food processor for next week's lettuce wraps (recipe coming soon!), two breasts for the stuffed chicken, and the rest I will top my Southwestern Salad with or freeze.


What I bought from Whole Foods:
  • 1lb Ground turkey breast ($6.99/lb)
  • Feta cheese crumbles (used to buy the huge tub for $8 but I never use it all...)
  • Fage 0% plain Greek yogurt
  • Chicken Breasts
  • Peanut butter (They had the Whole Foods 365 generic brand...but it was NOT organic! Bummer!)
  • Garlic (three heads)
  • 1 large organic yellow onion
  • 2 dozen organic brown eggs
  • 1 bag of salt-free brown rice cakes (the same brand at Cub was almost $1.50 more!)
  • 3 organic bass avocados
  • Muir Glenn Garlic Roasted Garlic pasta sauce (YUM!)
Total Damage (with tax and roundup donation) =  $64.00

Grand total: $134.71

Of course, many of these items I've purchased will last me more than one week. I don't normally have to purchase rolled oats, chicken breast, eggs, quinoa, and Greek yogurt, etc. every week. The big mistake I made was forgetting my coupons at home. I had at least $8-$10 in savings at Cub foods and maybe about $5 for Whole Foods.

What I will do differently next time:
  • Bring my coupons
  • Purchase my meats at a local butcher shop/meat market
  • Grind my own turkey and chicken breast into ground meat
  • Purchase peanut butter from Trader Joe's

What would you have done differently and what are your preferences as far as where you purchase your groceries?

#healthywholebeautiful

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