Grocery budget.

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
4 children - FML /thread

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: alkemyst
you are getting ripped off or lying.

He said organic. Thus, we already know he is getting ripped off.

I buy organic. I do notice a better quality of most of the items and the pricing isn't that horrible. I think eggs are the biggest markup.

Depends on what's being bought which is the ripoff. Certain things are at best maybe a few percent more expensive than their non-organic counterparts. Other things, depending especially on WHERE you buy them can easily be 2-4x more expensive. The latter is the part that sucks, because we're not totally familiar with local vendors and such.

As far as eggs go, we don't buy those organic, but we mean to get ahold of one of the local farms.

 

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: nkgreen
Which grocery store do you go to?

Stores. Fixed.

Erm, let's see, Costco, Publix, whatever the local smaller version of Whole Foods is called, Kroger and Target. Mostly because we can't find everything we need at one store.

I was about to say that occasionally Fresh Market on the corner of Whitesburg and Drake has decent deals on more healthy stuff. It's a bit far from Madison though.

 

[IEC]

Buy some frozen vegetables... err, that really only works if you're not picky and single, like me.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: nerdress

Originally posted by: alkemyst
one other BIG saver and the quality is much better as well was for us to find a local vegetable market. I live in S. Florida where a lot of this stuff is farmed.

Peppers at my local Publix are usually either $1-2 each or $4 a pound. At the local vegetable place $0.99/lb for green and $1.50/lb for colored

navel oranges are 3/$1. Romaine is $1 for a bag.

The stuff is all organic, no extras added. Taste and texture is so much better.

My wife has been tracking the receipts and our most has been like $14 for a cart full of veggies. We average about $6-8 a week.

It sounds like you have it pretty well figured out, if you don't mind me asking how much do you spend approximately per week at the grocery store? If I don't start figuring this stuff out I'm going to go broke buying food.

We spend $20-40 or so at costco lately we have been buying 1-2 prepared meals a week due to schedules. (I also spend an additional $15 on cat food for ferals each week I am not counting). Outside of that usually $10-20. Then at Publix another $40-50 and at the vegetable market $6-8.

I do go through about $13-20 in soda a week and another $17 in beer which is not counted.

My indoor cats food is about $15/week and we buy maybe $30 in rice every two months at the asian market.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: Insomniator
4 children - FML /thread

 

[magomago]

Wow....are kids having this many allergies these days, or are you a special case?

I wonder if its simply us learning to be aware of them and these people grow up and live, whereas in the past they might die....or something that is the result of what we are doing to the environment around us.

 

[nanette1985]

I feel for you. Growing up, my mother had heart and kidney diseases, and couldn't have any dairy or a bunch of other things. My oldest brother was an athlete and had a complicated bulking diet. My other brother was fighting lymph cancer for a long time, couldn't have salicylates or molds or fat of any kind. My sister is a vegetarian. My father was an old fashioned meat, potatoes, veg guy and since he was dad, he got what he wanted.

I'll eat anything.

Because my mom worked, I did a lot of cooking. Meal planning for that bunch was a huge challenge.

Here's what we did - first, a routine. Monday was beef, tuesday chicken, wednesday pork and so on. We started with my dad since he made most of the money and it was good to please dad. Whatever meat was on for the day, we figured out who else could eat that also and with what modification, if any. Usually dad, mom, me and oldest brother (meat has fat). There was something, I forget what, that mom needed to change - oh, sodium, and some other stuff. Then, the main starch - make most of it regular, but some without fat. There are a lot of starches. Big bro and mom couldn't have starch. For sis it was the main part of her meal. Usually it was two starches. And then several veggies, because everybody had stuff they would/couldn't eat. And special food for whoever needed it.

Leftovers had to be clearly labelled.

Frozen veg on sale was our mainstay. You never really know what other veggies are going to be on sale or seasonal special or what.

Another huge thing to explore is sauces. If you are limited in your meat choices, say, if you know 7 different ways to cook chicken 7 different sauces, then you're fine. Barbeque, sweet and sour, cheese-and-tomato, alfredo, teriyaki, etc. And shapes - strips, patties, chunky, chopped, etc. Starches plus sauces also equals lots of choice.

Budget - planning makes that possible. Buy in bulk. Have a lot of sample menus worked out so that you can be flexible at the market.

For some dietary issues, frozen veggies are more tolerable than fresh. It's been a while since I knew the details of that - look it up.

Good luck, and don't make anybody sick!

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
Yea, food is expensive, but IMO high quality food (not necessarily organic, but it could be) is worth it for your health and well-being. When you eat crap, you feel like crap.

I keep hearing people selling this line, but I'm not feeling it.

It's BS. It's a post hoc rationalization that people use when they get suckered into spending way too much on food.

Absolutely not. If I eat fast food or frozen dinners, I feel a lot worse than if I eat decent food. I'm sure that fiber is a big part of it. Sodium too.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
Yea, food is expensive, but IMO high quality food (not necessarily organic, but it could be) is worth it for your health and well-being. When you eat crap, you feel like crap.

I keep hearing people selling this line, but I'm not feeling it.

It's BS. It's a post hoc rationalization that people use when they get suckered into spending way too much on food.

Absolutely not. If I eat fast food or frozen dinners, I feel a lot worse than if I eat decent food. I'm sure that fiber is a big part of it. Sodium too.

those two seem to back each other up on silly things quite often.

I am not saying you have to spend a fortune on food but if you eat like crap you will feel like crap.

If all you do is just sit seditary though, you don't have much nutritional needs. Eventually though it will catch up with you.

Of course there are always exceptions to anything. I have drank about 1 soda for every hour I am awake for over 30 years now with the last 10-15 years being diet coke instead of regular. I have perfect teeth with absolutely no work done save the pulling of my four wisdom teeth. On top of that my last dental visit it was discovered that I must have had 7 wisdom teeth as I have 3 of them back now.

I also used to drink about a case of beer a day for 5+ years.

Not saying my soda intake is healthy.

When I lift weights I can definitely tell when I ate like crap. I have no energy and my motivation is way down...I just feel off.