Monday, November 11, 2013

Day 1: Shopping

My first task in getting us started on our SNAP Challenge was to design a menu for the week and a shopping list. This is my habit every Sunday anyway, a ritual since I started having children. I always hope that if I map out our week's food plan carefully, I might alleviate extra trips to the grocery store. It almost never works. I would guess that we end up making 5 - 6 trips to the grocery store each week. I love the grocery store, so it doesn't really bother me.

Usually, I go to two grocery stores each Monday: Good Foods and the Kroger at Beaumont Centre. At Good Foods, I get our milk, eggs, meat, peanut butter, honey, yeast, and bulk items (flour, nuts, popcorn, oatmeal, grains, etc...). I get everything else at Kroger: fruit, vegetables, yogurt, chips, salsa, cereal, cheese, and so forth. I must admit to paying very little attention to the price of items, but because I have kept an elaborate budget for years, I can say on average we spend around $1300 - $1500 per month on groceries (not including alcohol). That means we spend at minimum about $9 per person per day at my house.

On the SNAP Challenge, I had to get that down to $4.50 per day. For 4 days out of the 7, there would be 4 mouths to feed. On the other 3 days, there would be 5. That meant $72 for the first 4 days, and $67.50 for the last 3 or a total of $139.50. It has also been our tradition since having children that Mom and Dad make a special, no kids meal on Saturday nights. I decided to aim to spend $100 for the week and save $39.50 for our regular Saturday meal.

Yesterday I made a list, dividing items between Good Foods and Meijer (my hypothesis is that Meijer is cheaper than Kroger - I will not be trying to prove that;  I'm just going with it).

Today, I cleaned out our frig...




...and our dry goods/snack shelves.   I had one bag of clementines left over to use, which I figured into the costs.  I hid all the dry good/snacks upstairs where hopefully my children will not find and raid them.


The shopping trip went very well.  Below are all the non-refrigerated items I bought.  I took along a trusty calculator to make sure I stayed on track.  I planned to spend $25 at Good Foods and $75 at Meijer.  I came quite close to both (itemized list below).
Good Foods
Yeast $1.50
Vegetable Bouillon $2.49
Cascadian Farms Organic Honey Nut Os $2.99
One dozen eggs $2.99
2.4lbs Organic Rolled Oats $4.06
.83lbs Blackeyed Peas $1.90 
.68lbs Virginia Roasted Peanuts $2.71
.50lbs Pearled Barley $0.75
.92lbs Brown Rice  $1.83
.47lbs Red Split Lentils $1.17
.35lbs Garbanzo Beans $1.02
.58lbs Whole Wheat Elbow Pasta $1.73
Bag Refund -$0.10

TOTAL AT GOOD FOODS:  $25.14

Meijer
Apples $7.98
Bananas $2.32
Onions $2.01
3 Bell Peppers $3.00
Celery $1.69
Lemon $.79
Lime $.50
Cilantro  $.89
Grapes $3.24
Ginger $.20
Carrots $.79
Butternut Squash $3.87
Clementines $4.99
Organic Milk  $5.98
Shredded Mozzarella $1.88
Shredded Monterey Jack $1.88
Block of Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese $3.49
Cottage Cheese $2.06
Stonyfield Farm Organic Yogurt $3.59
Coffee $3.99
Meijer Honey $3.39
Meijer Natural Peanut Butter $2.69
Popcorn $1.99
Pepperoni $.89
Meijer Natural Whole Wheat Flour $2.84
Meijer Natural Unbleached Flour $1.82
Granola bars $1.88
Meijer Light Brown Sugar $.96
Tortillas $2.19
Tomato Sauce $1.57
Tomato Paste $.56
Frozen spinach $1.09
Frozen corn $.88

TOTAL AT MEIJER:  $78.49

TOTAL FOR BOTH:  $103.63

I was feeling quite proud of myself until I remembered that I had not bought chicken.  Usually I would get that at Good Foods.  It will cost me about $7 there, but I know I could buy frozen chicken at Meijer for a few dollars less.  Nonetheless, a recent report in the news will make it very hard for me to ever buy chicken again at a regular grocery store no matter how much cheaper it is.  Our Saturday night meal will just have to be that much simpler.  Any suggestions on delicious, slightly elegant, but super cheap meals will be appreciated!


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