This week’s grocery budget was $30, and I am proud to say my bill came in at just under that amount. While I do wish I could have gotten more for my money, I am happy to have the food I will need for the coming work week, as well as for this weekend.
Work is having a barbecue this weekend, which will be nice, and I am planning to have breakfast at Aroma Joe’s tomorrow while doing my financials. Other than those two things, I will be eating from home until next payday.
My grocery list was pretty simple. I did switch out carrots for cabbage at the store because the only organic carrots were bags with too many for me to be able to consume before they might go bad. I bet I could go to The Cross Legacy and look up how to get that many carrots to last for weeks in my fridge, but I do only have a dorm size fridge, and it will already be pretty packed come meal prep day without all those carrots taking up space.
I did notice that avocado prices are still going up. They were $0.70 when I stocked up, then $0.88 when I bought a couple more for the freezer. Now they are $0.97. If I had a regular size freezer I would have stocked up more now, before they get too high. My tiny freezer doesn’t allow me to freeze much. These aren’t the larger avocados, but small ones.
What I bought:
Spinach $2.98
Peanut Butter $3.57
Mini Lemon Bundt Cake for a treat over the holiday weekend $1.48
1 pound ground beef $4.64
1 pound ground turkey sausage $1.98
Cabbage $2.64 x 2
Celery $2.87 x 2
Green Grapes $1.98
Large Potatoe $1.79
Bananas $1.01
With tax I paid $29.53, and this will be plenty of food for me.
My plan is to make a double batch if chili tomorrow, using the ground beef and ground turkey. I’ll be using up a can of tomatoes, and half a can of tomato paste (freezing the second half), as well as some mozzarella, mild cheddar, and garlic in oil. I will eat off this over the weekend, then freeze what is left in individual serving sizes. I actually thought I was done making chili’s with the arrival of spring, but most days it is still cold out. It’s weird. Last year, spring came early, and it was so much warmer more consistently. I think I was hoping for much the same this year.
I’ll also be using up the berries from the freezer in smoothies, and a package of pork chops. Maybe a couple other things as well. This will free up space for the chili servings and banana chunks.
I will be eating celery and peanut butter over the weekend as well. Probably not much else. I do plan to make some popcorn for snacking over the next couple of weeks. I’ll do these things tomorrow and then have my meal prep day for the work week on Saturday instead of Sunday. Sunday I’m staying at my daughters, so I won’t be home to cook. It’s closer to work for me. There is no bus for me to get to work on Monday due to the holiday weekend, and if Uber is too expensive, I will have to walk the hour to get to work. It would take me a few hours to walk to work from home. Cabs are super hard to get these days. It’s a good thing I love to walk. Hopefully it won’t rain.
Smoothies will be my breakfast of choice Saturday and Sunday, to use up the freezer berries, some of the avocado, and bananas.
My plan for work week meals:
- Pork chops with roasted potatoes. I rarely buy potatoes because they are high in carbs, and I have diabetes. I bought one large Potato and will be splitting that between 4 meals. I’ll add some seasonings while roasting the potato and, when done, will separate it out between my four meal pack containers, and add a little frozen corn and peas to that section in each. Each of my containers has 3 sections.
- I will fill another of the sections in the containers with grapes, and then store any remaining grapes in a canning jar in the fridge.
- Then I will chop celery and cabbage for the other section in each. The rest of the celery will go into zippered storage bags in the fridge, and the cabbage in a canning jar in there as well.
Are you noticing rising prices where you are from? I haven’t been paying close attention to the price of everything, and try to vary what I buy each week, but I do know I am paying more than I was last year. Are your prices on the above items comparable to my area?
~ Shannon
