So I'm more than a little tickled that in my current station as part time home economist, I get to tinker with spreadsheets to calculate and manipulate my weekly grocery shopping data.
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| WEEK 2 TOTAL: $98.70. |
While I'd intended to go shopping tomorrow, making it a full week between grocery runs, I realized that we have a wedding to attend for which we'll have to do quite a bit of driving. So I decided to drop the Man off at work and do the grocery shopping this morning on the way home as one of the Meximarts we like to shop is right down the street from his office. I also stopped at Fresh and Easy on the way home, and it would appear that Friday is the day they put the items about to expire on clearance because there were clearance pickins aplenty...
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| I couldn't bake this stuff myself for 3 bucks... |
For those who are averse to shopping clearance, I offer this: Stores throw out a mindbending amount of perfectly good stuff in order to maintain appearances and to stay as far away from the mere suggestion of a possibility of a lawsuit as possible. Some things aren't worth buying on clearance or special sale, but your common sense is a great tool for deciding whether they are. Will I buy a 4-pack of toilet paper on clearance for 50 cents because the exacto blade they used to cut into the box accidentally slashed part of the plastic wrapper? Hell yes. Will I buy a slightly dented can of San Marzano tomatoes for half off because some stocker dropped it? Of course. (BTW, for those who will cry botulism, botulism does the opposite to a can and is far more common with home canned goods than with factory canned.) Will I buy fish on clearance? If it looks good and I'm going to go home and cook it right away, I'd consider it. If I'm a Pepsi drinker (which I'm not), would I buy a 6-pack of Pepsi with the old logo for half off because the store wants to stock the shelves with the cans with the new logo? Why not?
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| I am so looking forward to these after a week of cinnamon-raisin bagels... |
But on to this week's stash...
PRODUCE: As last week was an amazing week for produce in terms of both quality and price, I bought quite a bit of it and still have a bit to carry over. I spent about 32% of last week's budget on produce. This week, only 17%, and I came home with spinach, okra, jalapenos, red onion, white onion (the yellows start to get super sulfur-y this time of year), grapes, plantains, avocados, white rose potatoes, yams, white onions, Gala apples, kale, corn and Persian cukes.
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| 99 cents a pound today... Easy snacks for Monsters. They look all frosty because I refrigerated them for a while before taking pics... |
MEAT: Since we ate Korean BBQ out on Sunday and had leftovers from that dinner to carry over on to another meal, we still have a bit of meat carryover from last week including some Italian sausage, 2/3 of a tray of shrimp, and the breast from last week's chicken breakdown. But this week at the Meximart was a good one for protein, so I still spent almost a third of my budget on meat - 28% to be exact - to buy surimi (the boychild wants Cali Rolls again), pork feet (I've been having a mad craving for some Korean style pig trotters), a pork picnic shoulder (bone-in, skin on), a whole tilapia, some baby octopus (another Korean food craving), chicken livers (one of our favorite beer snacks), and some beef chuck roast. The Meximart is always a great place to save money on protein.
DAIRY: Last week, I spent about 20% of my budget on dairy. This week, as I still have a half gallon of milk and half a container of yogurt left, and as I bought cheese on special from both markets, this week's dairy bill was only about 10% of the total for some sliced mozzarella and havarti, a wheel of queso fresco (KKEHsoh FRESSkoh), and 20 XL eggs.
PANTRY: As predicted, my pantry bill ran a little high this week and ate up 28% of my budget. A 10 pound bag of jasmine rice, a 5 pound bag of sugar, a 5 pound bag of all purpose flour, nori for Cali Rolls, vegetable oil, soy sauce, and an intriguing little packet of dried, ground shrimp were the perpetrators. But most of these things will last me at least a month.
GRAINS: Croissants, some cereal (Honey Bunches Of Oats at the boychild's request), and a bottomless bag of corn tortillas (I don't think the Meximart sells them in packs of less than 80) for 8 dollars (or 8%).
INDULGENCES: A small red velvet cake on sale at Fresh & Easy because the girlchild discovered at a birthday party last week that she loves red velvet, and a bottle of MexiPepsi for the boychild who is perennially fascinated with bottled beverages of any kind took up 4% of the budget.
MISCELLANEOUS: A pair of rubber gloves, a new bottle of dish detergent (one of my cheap kicks is changing out the dish soap scent with every bottle), some air freshener, and a bottle of a new to me cleaning agent called *LA's TOTALLY AWESOME* which purports to remove: grease, blood stains, wine, liquor, gum, oil, glue, coffee, pet stains, some inks, fresh paint, varnish, hair dye, food staind, grape juice, berry juice, and many more took up the last 5% of this week's budget.
As of this moment, here's what I know so far:
- 3 links of last week's hot Italian sausage, what's left of the chorizo, what's left of the shrimp, and this week's okra are going into a pot of gumbo type stuff. I don't have file (FEElay) powder, and I don't plan to get any, so I'll have to rig something that tastes like sassafras out of the recesses of my pantry.
- Last week's chicken breast will probably get slow cooked into an enchilada filling type deal with which we'll make tacos with some of those corn tortillas
- Sometime this weekend, I am going to crisp up those croissants in the oven with a couple of slices of that havarti cheese and an over medium egg in the middle, and I will be so happy. :)
- The surimi, avocado, nori, and Persian cukes are getting made into California rolls again at the boychild's request.
- The baby octopus along with some onions, carrots and celery are getting made into a spicy Korean stir-fry call nahkji bokkeum, which literally means *octopus stir-fry*. That's probably tonight's dinner.
- The little piggy feet are getting simmered for a loooooong time to be eaten with some spicy Korean soy dipping sauce and chased down with a few bottles of lager. As there is no weekly chicken this week, the liquid from that simmer diluted with a little water will be my go-to stock for the week.
- The tilapia will get fried whole and be served with a sweet, spicy, and slightly tangy Thai style fish sauce.
The rest will get played by ear as usual, but as always, I'll keep an eye to using older stuff first. And I'm pretty sure I'll have some protein and produce to carry over into week 3.
Halfway into the month, I'm at $190.75 and on track. :)
Back in a bit with today's meals,
shinae
P.S. I forgot to mention that Fresh and Easy sends out 3 dollar coupons in the mail each week, and those coupons I actually do clip.
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