Grocery shopping...revisisted

Back a month or so ago when I posted about how much I hate to grocery shop, a kind reader suggested that I stretch my shopping to every two weeks instead of once a week. Hmmm. I've tried to do a month before, but it took so long to shop with two carts, bring it home and put it away that I was discouraged from doing it again. But two weeks? Maybe I can handle two weeks.

Because I plan my menus, it really isn't that hard to make my grocery list. And besides a few produce items I knew wouldn't last into next week, two weeks worth of food fits in my pantry and two fridges, so why not? Yesterday was the experiment. My son was home because he doesn't have class on Tuesday and so I left my daughter at home with him. You would think I would have brought a kid with me to help, but kids slow me down, and kids make impulse buys. No kids.

I fit everything in my cart (it was very full) and I even bought for my college kid on campus. I realized when I checked out and spent a full $100 less than I normally would for shopping two weeks in a row (one week times two), that I probably spend a lot on "I'll just grab that" items, and shopping once instead of twice really cuts down on that. I think also because I didn't want to push two carts I really only bought what I absolutely needed (except that Snicker's bar!).

I will probably have to get more milk at some point, and I definitely will have to pick up those produce items that won't last, but I'm really happy that I have all the meat (went to the butcher shop on Saturday) and groceries I need for two weeks!

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And speaking of grocery lists, a couple months ago we talked about grocery list apps. I had a few suggestions, and went ahead and loaded Grocery IQ. It's free and at first I really liked it. I could scan UPC symbols of items I use a lot and keep a list of favorites that transfer to my weekly grocery list at the touch of the screen.

But two things drive me nuts about it. First, it freezes all the time. It might only be for ten seconds, but when you are trying to do something quickly (aren't we all always trying to do something quickly?), and the device freezes for ten seconds every few minutes, it's very frustrating.

The other thing is, the app is loaded with all sorts of brand names that I don't use. Because each list is divided into sections of the grocery store -- canned goods, dairy, fruits and vegetables, if it doesn't recognize your input, it puts it in "other." Because I shop in a discount grocery store and many of the brands are unknown to Grocery IQ, a lot of my items go into "other" and then I have to change them manually to the section the item is in. If it was just one or two items, I wouldn't mind, but it ends up being a lot of items. That is probably confusing if you've never used this app, but suffice it to say it takes longer to make a grocery list than it should.

I also thought since my college son could load it on his Droid that our lists would interface, but they don't. He can only email the list and then I have to manually put the items on my list.

So, back to the drawing board and I'll try another of the suggestions I originally got.

Grocery shopping

Just curious today....when do you do your grocery shopping?

I used to get up bright and early on Saturday and get it done. Sometimes grocery shopping involves two grocery stores and I would not get home until almost lunch time. It took a lot of my day and the worst part was when I got home, the house was usually a mess because no one did anything while I was gone. So then, I was faced with groceries to put away and a mess to clean, or direct the cleaning of. It wasn't a good start to the weekend.

Lately I have been shopping on Friday night. During the fall, or more specifically high school football season, Doug and at least one of the boys take off on Friday evening to a game. That leaves Faith and I to head to the store, which is o.k., but still not great. On Friday evening, I'm pretty wiped out, and I could find about 600 things I'd rather do that grocery shop, followed by unloading and putting groceries away.

But that really is the crux of my problem, at any given time I can find 600 things I'd rather do that grocery shop. I just don't like grocery shopping.

So, my question is, when do you do it? How do you make it a more enjoyable task, or is that just not possible?

;-)

It's Summer...

...there goes the grocery budget.

Kids are home (one more than usual) plus they are a little bored. That equals eating and a big grocery bill. Today was my first official grocery shop of the summer and I'm ready to ship them off to work camps.

I noticed, however, when I shopped at Giant Eagle (I buy my meat from Giant Eagle and every thing else from my local discount grocer) that I have an almost 20 % discount waiting on me. If you're not familiar with Giant Eagle (in Ohio, PA, and WVa), my food purchases give me a discount on gasoline, and my gasoline purchases give me a discount on groceries. So I have almost 20 % off my food bill coming and I think I'm going to plan ahead for a month and buy all the meat I need. That should help a little bit, especially if I buy only sale meat.

I also stocked up on some veggies, cut them up and put them in a container in the fridge. They eat Ranch dip with the veggies, but at least they are not dipping chips. You could do the same thing with fruit and some yummy fruit dip. I'll probably alternate fruit and veggies.



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Convenience Meat

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The last time I went grocery shopping, I bought an extra three or four pounds of ground beef because it was on sale. I used part of it for hamburgers, and while I was making them, I just kept on making them. I eventually used up all the ground meat into little quarter-or-so pound patties. I used to do this all the time but had gotten out of the habit. It's a good habit to be in.

When I form all the ground beef into patties, I can use them for burgers -- I just have to thaw them, season them, and throw them on the grill. Or I can just pull four patties out of the freezer and thaw them for a pound of beef to use in meatloaf or meatballs or tacos, etc. The meat thaws much quicker in patty form, so if I forget to take it out early in the day, it takes only an hour or so to have thawed meat.

Take a pound of ground meat (or if you have a two- or three-pound package first divide into two or three parts) and divide into approximate quarters. Form each quarter into a patty and place waxed paper or parchment in between. Place four in a quart size freezer ziploc bag or eight in a gallon size freezer ziploc bag and freeze.

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Fruit and Yogurt

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At the end of last summer, I mentioned that I had fallen in love with Greek yogurt. It is really the queen of yogurts -- there is none better. If you've tried it, I feel confident you agree with me. I enjoyed Greek yogurt all winter with these little babies:



They come in cherry, peach and strawberry (as well as honey, but I've never tried the honey variety). They are a bit pricey, but I limit myself to two a week and I figure the health benefits make it worthwhile. I highly recommend the 2% fat -- it is so rich and creamy.

Now that it's summer again, however, I can buy the larger container and make my own fruit and yogurt. Yesterday's afternoon snack:



a scoop of yogurt, some fresh bing cherries and a drizzle of honey -- splendiferous!

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Worth the Extra Money? Naaah

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I picked up our turkey the other night at Giant Eagle. Giant Eagle brand turkeys are 29 cents per pound and last year the butcher at Giant Eagle told me that Honeysuckle White packages the turkeys under the GE label (don't forget to grab one or two the day after Thanksgiving). My 20-plus pound turkey was $5.88. I almost felt bad paying such a low price. But, I was grateful.

Today, I stopped in at our local natural foods store (because food at the grocery store is not natural) to pick up some yeast (yeast is much cheaper in bulk -- I buy a quarter pound of baking yeast for $1.00). I was near the checkout when I noticed a sign advertising their (frozen) organic, free-range turkeys. They are $4.07 per pound. That would make my 20-plus pound turkey over $80.

Even if it was the best-tasting turkey in the world, could it be worth the difference of $75? I say, no way. With gravy and cranberry sauce and a bite of stuffing, I can't imagine we would even know the difference.

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Greek Yogurt

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We are still very much on the comfort food diet around here and while this post is not a recipe, it certainly is comfort food. I recently discovered Greek yogurt. After a conversation with my sister-in-law about where to find it in my grocery store, I picked some up this past weekend (I found it in the organic section, even though it's technically not organic). Yesterday I ate it for lunch and thought I'd share my indulgence with you, even if it is only a picture. If you've never indulged, you should.

I bought the 2 percent variety -- my sister-in-law did not recommend (highly discouraged) the fat free. The 2 percent was very thick and creamy, and I probably won't vary for future purchases.

I sugared some strawberries yesterday morning in anticipation, and then at lunch time I spooned some yogurt in a bowl, topped it with strawberries and some of the juice, and a big handful of Brown Sugar Granola. I used real sugar in my strawberries because I'm trying to stop using sugar substitutes. You could use honey, but I figure a little sugar doesn't hurt. The result is really yummy -- the Greek yogurt is much thicker than regular, and while still tangy like regular, the texture difference makes it much more of a treat.

After I took the picture, I stirred it all up and ate it like a little kid eating a hot fudge sundae!

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The Grocery Bill

I've had some grocery thoughts rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks, and now my thoughts are just going to spill all over this post. Pardon me if I don't make sense; I get fairly passionate about groceries.

I've seen several articles on the cost of groceries recently -- yes, they are going up, it's not your imagination -- and I've seen my own bill go up just since the first of the year. When I first noticed the upward flux, I thought that our bill was going up because we were eating healthier, due to recent diagnosis of reflux in one of the children. And that might be a little bit of it. But, just in the past several weeks, milk has gone up at least $.50 a gallon and eggs went up almost a dollar a dozen. Eggs used to be my cheap meal option, but now I can almost get a pound of ground chuck for the price of a dozen eggs. And if I watch the sales, I can sometimes do better with good cuts of meat. The boneless pork sirloin chops I bought this week were under $2 -- for five big chops.

The reason I've been thinking about this issue is because it doesn't seem to matter what I do to cut costs, I just cannot get our grocery bill lower than it is. And maybe I just have to learn to live with that. But, I just keep thinking that I'm going to find a magic method to eating cheaper. The grocery budget is the one expense that flexes -- a little. I can't pay less than the billed amount for my phone services or the natural gas. But, if need be, and it seems like we have the need more and more these days, I can squeak a few more days out of the pantry.

Don't get me wrong. My husband makes a good wage, and we're not using food stamps. We eat well. Not as well as some, but well. I can always manage to get a dessert in here and there, and for that we are fortunate. No one is getting fat, but if St. Francis were to visit, he would probably think we are gluttonous.

But, stretching the grocery money gets to me. I'm always thinking I should not buy this, or I should put another budget meal in the weekly menu. Maybe it's because we do eat better than many. I often think we should be suffering a little more. Yea, that's the Catholic in me.

Which brings me to the cue for this post. Doug's father sent me an email last week. Maybe you've seen it; I'm sure it's made the rounds. It's a photo essay of families around the world and what they eat (and spend) in a week. You can see the photo essay here, and be sure to check out the dollar amount for each family. It's pretty eye opening. There are people in this world, in this country for that matter, that get by on very few dollars per week. And that, of course, gets me feeling guilty. We are so fortunate; how can I be complaining about scrimping a little?

But, I was also surprised to see how much some families spend. While I'm not familiar with costs in other countries, I do know that $340 is a lot of grocery money in North Carolina. That's double what we spend for a family of six. And that brings me to this photo:



This is our "groceries for a week" photo. Because I received the above-mentioned email just after I came home from the grocery store on Friday, I decided to put all my groceries on the center island and see what it looked like. Doug came home while I was doing it and took a picture (sans smiling family). This is $150 in groceries. Admittedly I had already put a carton of beer and two gallons of milk away, so they are not pictured. And I am running to the store today for two more gallons of milk and two more loaves of bread. But, for the most part, this is what we eat in a week. I know you can't really see everything -- I didn't really do it for the photo op. But, seeing the picture and knowing that I am spending less, by and large than most families in America, I feel a little better about my quandary.

I know that we are spending less than most Americans because I recently checked out the USDA's food cost web page. You can find it here (click on January 2008 and it will download). Prompted recently by a post on a homeschooling forum, I checked to see how we are doing. I was shocked (really shocked) to find that we are spending less than the "thrifty plan." According to this chart, a family of our size and age, using the thrifty plan -- the lowest amount calculated by the USDA -- is spending $200 a week. Those in the liberal plan -- spending the most -- are spending $386. I know that we are a wealthy nation, but someone tell me who can spend that kind of money on groceries? That's more than a house payment each month.

Some people would say that we shouldn't have had four children if we were worried about feeding them. Like I said, we're not on food stamps -- my husband makes more than enough to feed us. And I'd have as many children as God would give me, and still find a way to feed them. But, it's such a vicious cycle, spending hundreds of dollars a month on groceries and then it's gone. It's disheartening sometimes. Last night, after a big dinner, my oldest teen ate 2 pieces of peanut butter toast (he eats almost a jar of peanut butter a week all by himself), a bowl of cereal, a piece of cake, a half a bag of BBQ rice cakes and then I went to bed. I have no idea what he ate after that. It's endless and I can't stop it.

I suppose I just wanted to talk about it and see if you have the same struggles. I try to plan some budget meals each week, but I run out of good recipes. It's not a budget meal if you use cheap ground chuck and then add $10 worth of other ingredients. And it's not a budget meal if most of it goes in the garbage disposal.

So I search and I try. And I'll keep searching and keep trying.

Do you struggle with your grocery bill? Or are you loaded and all you worry about is where you'll put it all? I know, you're laughing, aren't you?

Do you have any great tips to share? Any staple of your family's diet that costs pennies? Leave a comment or email me if you want to share. I'd be happy to post your suggestions.

I've added "budget" to my labels, and I'm going to try to post more budget meals. They may not always be gorgeous, or even terribly exciting. But, if my family eats it and it's a budget minded recipe, I'll certainly share with you. I guess we're all in this boat, or should I say shopping cart, together.

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Cost Cutting Grocery Tips

I just came across this online article on cutting your grocery bill. I learned a few things, and the article reinforced a few things I already suspected. Good information. I'm still working on cutting that bill. We have a few quality issues that we can't get past (they just won't drink cheap orange juice and I can't blame them), and we spend an awful lot in the dairy aisle. I can't decide if that's good or bad. I guess it's better than junk food.

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