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Tuesday, March 6, 2018

A long receipt for Senior Discount Day



I think this may have been my largest grocery shopping trip at Fred Meyer. I've bought more than this at Cash & Carry, but the carts are different there (flatbed style), so it never seems as much. The four indications that this was a big shopping trip:

  1. I filled the cart above the top edges, and was hanging on to a few items so they wouldn't topple out.
  2. My purchases completely filled the car's trunk, and I had to put several bags into the back seat.
  3. I think this may be the longest receipt I have ever received, over a yard long -- 38 inches.
  4. I completely filled both the garage fridge and the kitchen fridge.
I only deviated from my shopping list for a couple of items: some oyster crackers to use in soups (less expensive than the saltines that I buy, and at least part of the time that we eat crackers it's to crumble into soup); 2 extra loaves of bread, as they were marked down; asparagus because it was on sale for $1.49/lb; and 2 half gallons of chocolate milk, because they were marked down. I spent $111.48 on food. The other day I spent $91.97 at Cash & Carry. oh boy, this is not good -- $203.45 and it's only early March. The good news is that we won't need to shop for several weeks. Between the 2 stores, I think I bought just about everything we could need for the month of March. Maybe some of this will last into next month, but I don't like to count on something so unknown. I may be increasing our monthly grocery allotment.

8 comments:

  1. If you got everything you need until the end of the month, does that mean that you aren't going shopping until then? That would free up a lot of time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi live and learn,
      I will buy a ham at the end of the month, for Easter, and maybe a couple of other Easter items. The way it looks now, I really don't "need" anything else. I am hoping this means no more shopping, except a stop at Dollar Tree for toiletries. This will definitely free up time, and needed right now, as I'm putting together all of the tax stuff.

      Delete
  2. It sounds like the pantry was bare and you needed to do this! Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! I always have overflow into the next month or two or three.

    I would much rather have a pantry loaded with "extras" than have to go out specifically for an item I need to finish a recipe. I also like unusual items that are cheap but that take some thought into making a meal from. For example, Daily Deals had 30 oz. of raw pork meatballs (tennis ball size) for $1.99. This is really cheap so I bought one and made chinese dumplings out of 4 meatballs. The rest I froze. A week later I went back to DD and they still had them so I bought 3 more for the freezer. Since they are raw I can pick one or two out at a time to mix in with another type of meat or just cook the meatballs. They are nestled in a container that look like egg cartons so I'm thinking of keeping the empty carton and making my own meatballs and putting them in the container to freeze.

    I see my hubby bought ham slices at DD once that he put in the freezer. That will be our Easter ham instead of buying a big ham.

    We're out of potatoes and jasmine rice but we do have regular long grain rice which we'll use. But we still have so much other stuff that I won't need to shop either for the rest of the month other than coffee cream and other dairy products.

    When the kids were little in our other home, we always had a second fridge in the garage. We didn't take it along as the new owner wanted it and it didn't always keep things cold. I've debated getting once for the garage but for 4 years in the "new" house we haven't really needed it so we won't be getting one.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      Yeah, you're right. I think we just needed that much.
      That's a great deal on those pork meatballs. A real convenience for seasoned meat that you can use in cooking. I've used pre-made beef meatballs, chopped in burritos and tacos, in addition to using them whole. Having them pre-seasoned is that little bit of convenience that gets me over the hump of "do I really have to make dinner tonight?" and into the kitchen to cook, on really busy or difficult days. And I would do the same with the ham slices, if it were me. Sounds like you're good to go for the month.

      Our garage fridge is our old kitchen fridge. When we decided to finally phase out the avocado green color scheme in our kitchen and go with white, we moved the green fridge to the garage. It's from 1977 and still works great. We have lived in this house for 23 years and have only had 1 problem with that fridge, and didn't even need to call a repairperson. A bit of the insulation on the back was blocking the fan blades. My husband tucked the insulation back into place and the fridge has continue to work since. If you've discovered you don't ned one then that's one less thing to spend money on. I know that if I didn't have this one, I would figured how to make the most of the fridge space that I do have.
      Have a great day, Alice!

      Delete
  3. Good job! With prices rising it is only logical your needed budget amount will eventually rise. You can only do your best and you are doing that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sandy,
      You're right. If I were to do the math I bet I would find that my grocery budget has not kept pace with inflation. I do think I am doing my best, given my own circumstances. At other periods in my life, I may have had more time and energy to home-make every snack item that we ate, but that's just not working out for me in the moment. If we do as well as we can, that is all we can do.
      I hope you're having a great day, Sandy!

      Delete
  4. Good grief, how many times did you have to go back and forth from your vehicle to your home? Lol, I'm one of those "people" who try to carry in as much as I can, arms are laced with bags up to my elbows - i'm good until I get to the back door and no one is there to open it for me. :)

    Shelby

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Shelby,
      I love the mental picture of you getting to the door, loaded down with bags, and no way to open the door! That is me! The door from the garage into our house is on a spring, so it automatically closes. It's also at the top of a short flight of steps, so there's no place to set something on the step to hold the door open, and not trip me going in. With each lead of groceries I have to open the door again. So, yeah, I totally get being loaded down with bags and no one to open the door!!

      What I did yesterday, though, as a lot of what I bought needed to go into the garage fridge or freezer, I loaded what I could directly, taking things out of bags while in the trunk and putting the the fridge/freezer. Then with the empty plastic bags I double-wrapped all of the loaves of bread, tied those bags shut and put them in the freezer. I normally would bring everything into the kitchen, sort it, double-bag what needs freezer protection, inside, then take it back out to the garage. But this just seemed simpler, even if I had to bend down to use the trunk floor as my workspace. I miss having helpers around to at the very least keep me company when I'm doing this, or help me.
      Have a great day, Shelby!

      Delete

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