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This week's grocery shopping
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One of my favorite features of Crystal's blog is when she photographs and shares about her weekly grocery shopping trips! :) I love the great deals she finds, but mostly I just like seeing the yummy food she got. ;)
I thought it would be a fun experiment to document all of our family's grocery/household purchases for a while. Those of you who have asked about how I shop, or what my grocery budget is, this will give you a firsthand look! :)
Some of these things will last much longer than a week, so as I share our grocery trips in future weeks, hopefully it will give more of a complete picture of what we buy and use! :)
This week's groceries, from Costco:
Oranges (13#) $8.99
Organic Jonagold apples (7#) $5.49 x 2
Bananas (3#) $1.32 x 2
Mini peppers (2#) $3.99
Organic baby spinach (1#) $3.69
Large eggs (5 doz.) $6.55
Shredded mozzarella cheese (5#) $9.89
Shredded cheddar cheese (5#) $10.99
Whole milk (2 gal.) $4.24
Butter (4#) $6.69
All-purpose flour (25#) $6.79
Organic raisin bran (56oz.) $7.69
Sundried tomatoes (2#) $7.59
Organic frozen green beans (5#) $5.99
Organic frozen peas (5#) $5.35
Total: $102.06
I love the selection and quality of Costco!
For example, the organic frozen baby peas are so sweet and tender. The pre-shredded mozzarella cheese usually makes perfect pizza, with long stringy cheese when you pull out a piece of hot pizza. Other things (butter, milk, bananas) are comparable to other stores' sale prices, but without the "limit 2" or the hassle of driving through traffic to make numerous quick stops. :)
I have also found quite a number of items that can easily be frozen when bought in bulk. A few weeks ago, I bought a 2.5# bag of feta cheese at Costco for about $7 -- a good deal, but only if none is wasted. I froze half of it, and planned several recipes involving feta cheese for the next couple weeks! :)
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Those ARE some great
Those ARE some great deals!!! But what's your total including non-grocery items? I usually spend that much a week on our family of 3 including non-grocery items. I should really consider the large frozen veggies instead of fresh for the winter now that I have freezer space. But i just love "fresh," too. Do you do much fresh veggies like lettuce, cucumbers, bell peppers, etc through the winter months?
and....what about supplements? Do you or your family take supplements of any kind? I haven't figured how much we spend a month yet, but it's kinda high right now due to my pregnancy and eczema problems. But that's getting better and hope to cut down. Just wondering.
Priscilla
Non-grocery items and supplements
I didn't buy any non-grocery items this week but typically those will be included. (For example, next week I'll need dish soap... and if Rite-Aid has any free-after-rebate items, I'll try to get those things.) We actually don't usually have a lot of non-grocery things since we're not buying diapers/wipes, and most of our shampoo, etc. is whenever there's a super great sale (or free!). :)
We do usually keep on hand fresh veggies like lettuce, carrots, onions, potatoes... but especially in the winter, we eat a lot of frozen veggies with meals.
We don't take a lot of supplements (multi-vitamins and omega 3-6-9 oil are our daily ones) but most things I get in bulk once a year or less. For example, I ordered herbs for pregnancy tea when I was expecting Ruth and still have plenty left to make my tea... so it is very cost-effective! :)
storing flour
That's a great deal on flour. I've decided that I'd like to start buying larger quantities of flour. I wouldn't have a problem using it, I'm just not sure how to store it. Do you have a bin of some kind? Any suggestions would be great!
Kristin, I don't do anything
Kristin, I don't do anything fancy -- just buckets. :) It's much nicer than having an open bag with the top rolled shut. :) You could always store the "bulk" in a bucket and then re-fill a smaller flour cannister from that bucket as needed! :)
Tammy - Thanks to your
Tammy - Thanks to your buckets post awhile back, I finally bought 25# of flour last spring. I found a 2.5 gal bucket at Safeway (for free at the bakery - frosting container) to store my flour.
My question - my mom always taught me to freeze my flour for about 2 days before using, if I'm not using it all right away (or within the month) to kill any weevil eggs. That way, they won't hatch (she said they sometimes make their way into flour when it's processed). Have you ever had a problem with weevils in your flour buckets? I ended up putting mine in 1 gal ziplocks and freezing in batches over a week until they had all had 48 hrs in the freezer. Then I dumped it in the bucket, but it was a lot of work.
-Erica
Freezing flour for weevils
Erica, I don't freeze my flour before storing. I think there are weevil eggs in most (?) grains and flours, which will hatch under the right conditions.
I've actually never had any flour or grain get weevils in it though! I make sure I'm not storing my buckets in a warm location (by the stove, fridge, sunlight, heat vent, etc.) and I don't usually store flour (I buy bread flour and AP flour for some things, in 50# or 25# bags) for longer than about 6 months. Also, we keep our house cool in the winter... I'm sure the climate plays a part in how likely it is to get weevils!
For really long term storage of whole grains (like wheat) I have used Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers in the buckets. That's the "fail-safe" method for storing grain for 10+ years! But not practical or necessary for month-to-month use... :)
I love seeing that you shop
I love seeing that you shop at Costco! So many people living frugally are convinced that Costco/Sam/BJs are not good deals, but I do a lot of my shopping at Sam's Club -- purchasing almost exactly what you did! I have yet to find a cheese sale with a coupon at the grocery store that can beat the Sams price (unless it's free, of course)! I also buy almost all of our frozen and fresh produce there, too.
Thanks for the post!
I agree
I consider myself very frugal, but we are big Sam's Club shoppers. They are very comparable to Costco.
Mealtimes are such an important family time for us, we enjoy eating tasty, quality food. I simply don't think that Aldi food or generic items can compare to the QUALITY at Sams or Costco.
Quality of food...
I have to agree about the quality!
I shopped regularly at Aldi's for 4+ years in Ohio, and got some great stuff there (their mozzarella blocks made great pizza too!). But a lot of what we now eat from Costco is higher quality or healthier.
Even Costco's milk, while not organic or raw, is rBST-free which would be more expensive at a typical grocery store. And we love the Darigold sour cream (made with just cream and enzymes instead of all the fillers!)! Aldi's sour cream is sufficient, but we can definitely tell a difference and enjoy the higher quality! :) Or costco's organic carrots for $0.50/lb -- yum!
Anyway, there are a lot of things like that... and I forget sometimes that we get a lot of organic or hormone-free stuff for the same prices we were paying at Aldi's! :)
Costco is awesome
Thanks for sharing! Do you know that there is even an Addicted to Costco blog? :)
Addicted to Costco? I'm not
Addicted to Costco? I'm not surprised! I've considered starting a blog along those lines ;)
I like Costco too....
but recently have found found better deals on things like cheese through the local grocery store, like when I got 8 oz packages of cheese for .60 and 2 lbs pizza cheese for $2.18, so I have only been buying milk there!
Costco
The frozen strawberries are a good deal and make great smoothies. We also love the roasted almonds with sea salt. The organic carrots are about equal to store brand regular carrots in price but taste better to me. When I'm taking the night off cooking I get the rotiserrie chicken. But really why I go there is the gallon tub of ketchup, what does that say about my cooking?:)
"hassle of driving through
"hassle of driving through traffic"...didn't take you long to start talking like a true Washingtonian! Ha ;)
Washington traffic...
LOL! Yeah, the excited "We're within 5 miles of EVERYTHING!!!!" turned into "Let's not go anywhere unless we really need to..." :) I never knew stop lights could take so long... or that the light may need to turn green several times before we're finally up there! ;)
Quality
The Quality of Costco food is great! Kroger foods though have some great quality sour cream that is natural sour cream which we love, it is usually .88 or $1 for tub! I love Tillamook cheese though! There is nothing like it!
flour
I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question, but if you grind your own wheat, why do you buy 25# of flour?
Buying flour
The flour I bought this week is all-purpose flour. I don't use a lot of it, but I do like to have it on hand for thickening soups/sauces, making cakes, making lemon scones ;) etc... :) Costco has 50# bags of AP flour but the 25# bag will last us quite a while so I went with that. :)
I also buy bread flour from Costco, which I use in pizza crust and Italian Cheese Bread (which I make for our church dinner regularly). :)
So basically I have 4 staple kinds of flour:
Whole wheat bread flour (grind my own and use lots)
Whole wheat pastry flour (grind my own)
All-purpose flour
Unbleached bread flour
That probably sounds confusing, but I am spoiled and like to have the "right" flour for whatever I'm making... frequently in desserts I combine whole wheat pastry flour with all-purpose flour, for example... :)
Storing flour
I love your blog. You are an inspiration to other women. Could you elaborate how you store your flour.? I have not heard of the bags and oxygen absorbers that you used.
Thanks,
Rhonda
Buckets with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers
Thank you, Rhonda! :) We have wheat and other grains (but not ground -- like flour) stored in buckets in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. I have a post with pictures and details from when we bucketed some wheat here. :) --And this post has more info about long-term food storage (with lots of links!). :)
I store flour in plastic buckets, but not for long-term storage. I grind whole wheat berries for flour as needed, so the only flours I store are the 2 kinds I buy: all-purpose flour and bread flour. :)
Comment on the feta cheese
I buy a small bucket of it at Gordon's Food Center and freeze it in small bowls that holds 1 1/21-2 cups.I take it out let it defrost on the counter and it keeps about 1 1/2 weeks-2 weeks in the fridge.Our favorite is a greek salad with it,Garbonzo bean salad with feta and pita's stuffed with veggies of your liking raw mix up with feta and what ever kind of dressing you like mixed with it.Those 3 things we fall back on a lot during the summer so I do not have to cook and it fills you up.Or if Rick wants meat we do hot dogs or some kind of quick sandwich with it.
I am very excited about you blogging on your groceries.I have been cusious about it.On my blog I do a bread down of what I buy and the price also but don't post a picture of it.I do menu's too.
I love the Costco post
so much! We do a lot of our shopping at Costco as well. I try to get some things at Aldi's but am rarely happy with their selection and often find that the quality of some items is not the same as Costco.
I've tried to get into the habit of spending approximately $40 a week (family of four) on groceries (I am a big fan of Crystal's blog) -- it's definitely possible to do, but my family was never happy with the meals that I could prepare.
My newest Costco find is their frozen, triple cherry blend (sweet, tart and balaton(?) ) cherries. We can't eating them frozen right out of the bag.
Loved the grocery post and the resulting discussion.
Thanks for you blog -- I really enjoy it.
price comparisons
Hi Tammy,
I wanted to write a short comment about how much MORE affordable food is in the US compared to here in Ontario, Canada.
For example, our eggs, 1 large dozen, cost $1.97, a 600g cheese "bar" costs $6.59-$9.19(the higher being "Kraft" or "Black Diamond") Our bananas average about .79 per pound, the cheapest butter to be found is $2.99 per pound and our milk(4L bag?) costs $4.97(3.25%)
I'm very envious of your low prices--truly, our Costco membership goes mostly unused.
I agree
I'm Canadian too and lately we really don't use our card much either. We went the other day and the fruits and veggies are quite a bit more than you have there. A 900g bar of cheese was close to $12...
Suzanne
Edmonton, Canada
price comparisons
Sorry Tammy. I forgot to log in before! :)
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