Saturday, March 22, 2008

In my shopping basket.....

  • Cantaloupe - $3.36 ($0.99/lb)
  • 4 Apples - $2.66
  • 2 Lemons - $1.78
  • 2lb baby carrots - $3.49
  • Pack Romaine Lettuce Hearts - $3
  • Bean Sprouts - $0.99
  • 1/2 Gallon 1% Milk - $3.59
  • 12 eggs - cage free Hawaiian - $4.19
  • Loaf whole wheat Safeway basic Bread - $3.49
  • 6 Sweet Italian Sausages - $5.99
  • Extra Firm Tofu - $1.50
  • Brie - $3.91 ($10.49/lb)
  • Safeway small pk Hummus - $3.59
  • 2 bottles Schwepes Tonic Water - $4.30
  • Safeway 12pk cooked sushi - $5.49 (yes I know, store-bought sushi, but it was a treat lunch and it was delicious!)
  • Total - $55.41 (with tax) - savings with Safeway card - $9.63
Okay, so I bought a couple of "treat" items, but please, how does a-not-even-close-to-full-handbasket of groceries suddenly cost over $50!!! I feel like I need to re-learn how to food shop, I got way too used to not even looking at prices on things. I guess I have a lot in the freezer and in cans from Costco, so maybe I should spread it out over the months or something, or maybe thats just a trick to try and make me feel better......

7 comments:

DDdd said...

Well at least you now have a cushy faculty salary to pay for those expensive groceries! he hee. Congrats on your own lab!

Nicola said...

okay, so how much of that is organic? i am floored by the price of your milk. what you need is a price list. that is the only way we keep our spending down. i know which stores offer the cheapest prices on what and i know which sales are the ones to stock up on. of course feeding 3+ is different than feeding 1. you can only drink just so much milk before it goes bad!

RGW said...

Yeah Di - if only they would start paying me my full salary!

So, rather depressingly, NONE of that is organic. I know people here who just don't ever buy or drink milk because of the price. I'm not sure it's that much cheaper in Costco either (and it's a drive out there).

1/2 gallon will last me ~ a week (depending if I make yogurt). I eat cereal in the mornings or smoothies and have milk in my tea so it goes before going off. I would stop with the cereal to reduce milk usage (I have thought about it!), but soemdays it's really the best protein and calcium I have! It also soothes my stomach well after too much coffee.....:0)

Worst of all Safeway here is a "lower end" supermarket.....!

Nicola said...

what about dry milk powder? honestly (you know this) we use it a lot. some costcos have it.

RGW said...

I've always worried about the dry powder being lower in nutrients than fresh - though i've just googled and could only find that it has higher cholesterol and is "oxidised" (if you believe in such things) and potentially has less calcium (though that webpage didn't seem too great).

One thing that did come up in google is that most people seem to say that powdered isn't any cheaper than fresh in many areas - but it's worth taking a look at what I can get it for, I'm suspecting here in HI it probably is cheaper.

Nicola said...

yikes. i always thought it was equivalent in nutrients. around here, dry milk was about half the price of fresh until dairy went up last year. now, it is still cheaper, but not by as much. of course, i also recently read that milk is one of the "dirty dozen" foods. if you can buy it organically, do. costco sells organic milk for approx $5.50/gal, so we started buying that. i haven't compared it yet to trader joe's.

RGW said...

DEFINITELY!! I always bought organic milk on the cape, and I have been on and off here, but it's nearly $5 for a 1/2 gallon and i'm not sure I can swallow that right now! I always make sure I get the hormone-free milk either way as that is really not good, esp for kids......

I wonder if there is an organic milk powder out there??