Groceries - February 2019 - Week 1 Update

Here's a quick Thursday recap and update to this week's $60 budget for groceries.

Superstore

$2.99 - 10 lb Potatoes - purchased

$1.69 - Rice vermicelli - purchased

$2.99 - Romaine hearts - purchased

Also purchased:

$3.49 -Yellow peppers from the 'eat today' rack

$4.99 - Variety pack of bread from the 'eat today' rack

Total planned ~ $8

Total spent - $16.14

Sobeys

$2.99 - Salmon - unavailable when I went so I purchased two packs of salmon fillets. One was $6.04 with a discount of $3.00 and the other was $4.90 with a discount of $2.00.

$0.99 - Ragu pasta sauce - unavailable when I went so I purchased a bag of penne for $0.99

$0.89 - Compliments mac and cheese (we prefer it over brand name! but we eat it with brussels sprouts on the side so we may be weird) - purchased

$1.99 - Campbells Every Day Gourmet soup - purchased

Total planned ~ $11

Total spent - $10.33

I said I was going to check out hummus at Sobeys. It was $3.49 each and was buy two get one free. Instead of purchasing those for $7 I made my own using a $0.99 can of chickpeas, cumin, coconut oil, and lemon juice. It was delicious and I regret nothing.

Walmart

$0.87 - Tuna - purchased

Also purchased a 2lb bag of apples from the eat today rack.

Total planned ~ $2

Total spent - $3.47

Giant Tiger

$3 - 6 Avocados (if not on an 'eat today' rack somewhere else)

$3 - Salad mix

$3 - 6 Tomatoes

Total planned ~$9

Total spent - $0 - I didn't go before the flyer ended. I'll check out the new flyer Thursday and plan around that.

This week to date:

Total planned: $30

Total spent: $29.94

Total budget: $60

Amount left for groceries this week: $30.06

What we ate:

• Sunday: smoothies, coffee, cereal, high protein pancakes, leftover perogies, leftover pasta

• Monday: smoothies, coffee, cereal, high protein pancakes, salmon, string beans, corn, ciabatta bun with homemade hummus.

• Tuesday: oatmeal, leftover pasta, smoothies, coffee, bagels with vegan butter, leftover salmon and veggies, buns with homemade hummus, roasted sliced potatoes 9 spice mix, Parmesan roasted carrots, rice vermicelli noodles with yellow curry sauce and cashews, peppers, onions, and shredded carrots.

• Wednesday: bagels with vegan butter and peanut butter, coffee, Oh She Glows Banana Bread Muffin Tops, left over vermicelli noodles, left over potatoes, mac and cheese, soup.

• Thursday so far: bagel with regular butter, coffee. banana bread muffin tops.

How I tried to reduce my impact this week:

• Making my own hummus from bulk pantry items eliminated the three plastic containers that the store bought hummus would have come in.

• The mac and cheese box became a vehicle for getting my compost from my counter to the green box. I didn't have to wash a dish which eliminated some water consumption and waste water treatment.

• I keep a few glass jars handy to the kitchen sink. When I'm running tap water waiting for it to get hot, I bottle that water instead of watching it go down the drain until it gets hot. I then use this water for the dogs' water bowl, the plants, and the diffuser. There's nothing wrong with the water so why am I watching it go down the drain just because it isn't hot? That's my money yo (and a waste of treated water which will then have to be treated again).

• I purchased food from the 'eat today' rack which otherwise would have been thrown out or composted depending on the store's policy. I ate most of it and froze some. It was heavily discounted and still good food, but had to be eaten or frozen.

• Some of our meals like the mango curry are 'garbage meals'. I toss in whatever is in the fridge that needs to be eaten. Half a mango curry sauce in the fridge door? yup. 'Eat today' yellow pepper. Two please. Carrots? Shred'em girl. I even do this in the banana top muffins. I toss in things like flax meal, seeds, odds and ends that need to be eaten.