Grocery Shopping Success!!

I've been on a little hiatus because our internet router went out and the husband has been trying to get it working again, but it gave me time to compile this post. Anyway, I thought I'd start the post today with a picture of my Halo kitty pondering the mysteries of the green monster. She's still not so sure about it. Of course this is right before she went back to chewing on the plant behind her, so maybe she shouldn't judge.

Anyway, am I the only one that usually comes home from the grocery store feeling defeated and disappointed? I absolutely LOVE grocery shopping, I have since I was a kid, I was always tagging along with my mom or grandmother, it was one of my favorite things. I don't know why. Anyway, it still is one of my favorite things to do, except here lately, I've been really unorganized and it's been taking it's toll on my grocery budget and our meals. I end up coming home feeling like:

1) I know I didn't get everything I needed for the week and will probably have to go back at some point
2) I really don't have any ingredients that make sense for meals the rest of the week, just a bunch of random stuff that sounded good at the time
3) I've pretty much already spent my grocery budget and then some

It's usually all of the above.

So this week, I tackled it with a plan. It's a bit complicated at my house since my husband and I usually don't eat the same thing, or I eat a modified version of what he's eating, etc., so a plan is really necessary in order not to over spend and still have plenty of meal options on hand.

I made myself sit down and focus for about 15 minutes, to come up with meals for both of us each day of the coming up week then I made my list from that. I also usually have to go a couple of different places to get everything I need, so I broke my list up accordingly.

My weekly grocery budget is $100 and I did end up going a bit over at $124, but I also got some things that will last into next week, and hopefully I will spend less then and even it out. And since this is still less than I usually end up spending without a plan of some sort, I don't feel bad about it. And my overall goal is to get really good at this organization thing and start coming in under budget, so we're taking baby steps here.

Here are just some of the meals I planned for the week:

For Both of us:
vegetarian chili (I had beans and some of the stuff in the pantry already)
chicken salad and curried chicken salad

For The Husband
Turkey sausage with seasoned rice and veggies
Grilled chicken and veggies

For Me:
Lots 'o salads per the usual with some new additions like homemade candied pecans! :D
a new breakfast to try: oat groats!
Also lots o' fruit (hey, sometimes in the summer months fruit is a meal!)

I went two places: Kroger where I usually get most of my groceries and they have a great selection of natural foods that though usually a bit over priced is livable. And Aldi, where I get most of my produce because it's just so darned cheap and usually pretty fresh, and pantry staples like canned goods, etc. once again because of the cheap thing.

Here are the Kroger goods: Here I spent a total of $82.68 and saved $29.37
(If it seems like all of this shouldn't add up to the total, I should also mention that there are a few pricey items that are not pictured such as dog food, toiletries, etc.)



I felt pretty good about it because they are having this sale going on where if you buy any 10 of a certain list of items, you get $5 back, and the vitamin waters are on the list, so since the husband is drinking the 10/cal vitamin waters like they are going out of style, I bought 20 of those and basically ended up getting them for 50 cents a piece! I also had lots of other Kroger plus savings which I realize can be kind of a scam sometimes, but I'm wise to how it works, so I feel good about my savings total.

Here is what I got at Aldi: total $41.36


I pretty much stuck to my list here except for a few things like these cherries, how could I pass these up at $1.99! They are huge and gorgeous! And they are super tasty too!




I also probably could have kept my budget down if I hadn't been in the mood to try so many new things, here are some of the things I am trying for the first time this week:



100% unsweetened dark chocolate (HEAB says its good) she was right, but I think it will take some getting used to. So far, I like eating it best shaved over top of my Green & Black ice cream with a little piece on the side for garnish. I think this defeats the purpose of unsweetened, but I'm easing into it LoL.


Unsweetened chocolate almond milk (never tried it always wanted to) this is a great addition to my green monsters! Also makes a good coffee creamer!


Herdez Salsa (mostly for the husband but I tried it too) the Fitnessista said this was the best salsa, and she was right, this stuff is awesome, my husband is addicted to it already, my suggestion, buy the big can, I am going to next time. You've got to find it where the authentic Mexican stuff is.


Another new thing this week is Forever Bags, I actually picked these up last week at Big Lots, I got a 25 pack for $5, so I figure if they don't work, I'm only out $5, and if they do, awesome!

The pack comes with a few different sizes of the produce bags, bread bags, meat bags and cheese bags. I'm actually a little wary of the meat bags, but will probably get plenty of use out of the rest, it says each bag can be reused up to 20 times!

Here's what I put in this week:

Two baby cucumbers and some bell peppers


I also put some baby zucchini into one and for my bananas, I split them up to do a little experiment, half the bunch will sit out on the table, and the other half will be in the bag and I'll see what the difference is in a few days.


I'm off for now, but I'll leave you with some random food shots and pictures of my Halo kitty: