$146.79 - Why We Spent That Much on Groceries This Week

$146.79 - That is what we spent at the grocery store on Friday night. That doesn't include the $5.99 we spent at an alternate grocery store buying edible gluten-free bread.

Here is our dinner plan for the week:
Saturday: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli
Sunday: Leftover meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli
Monday: Broccoli and goat cheese frittata with Bisquick biscuits
Tuesday: Vegetarian lasagna
Wednesday: Leftover lasagna
Thursday: Chili
Friday: Chili

Here is our lunch plan for the week:
The boy will bring with him an apple, a sandwich OR a block of cheese and some summer sausage to eat with Nut Thins, nuts, pretzels, Lara bars on his extra long days.
I will eat a piece of fruit, a yogurt, and some sort of protein (cheese, peanut butter, or leftovers from the day before are common).

Here is our breakfast plan for the week:
The boy will eat two of the following three items - Jones sausage links, two eggs, two pieces of toast with a cup of tea and a glass of milk.
I will eat fruit and two mini bagels with peanut butter.

Here's the breakdown of what we spent:
12 pack of Mug root beer: $4.29 (for the boy, not me - empty calories through beverages makes me sad, but he's on a 3000 calorie a day diet, so he takes calories where he can get them)
Gluten-free Bisquick: $3.99
Newman's Own Sausage pasta sauce: $2.89
Hunt's crushed tomatoes: $2.09
Ruffles potato chips: $3.99 (fine, this was for me, but it was playoffs this weekend - a girl is entitled to snack food once a week, damn it)
Blue Diamond almonds: $3.69
Amy's cream of tomato soup (one can): $3.29 (for the chili - not to eat plain because canned soup is the absolutely in disgusting)
Thomas cinnamon raisin mini bagels: $2.99
Chipped walnuts: $3.99
Celestial Seasonings green tea with honey, lemon, and ginseng: $3.19
Strawberry preserves: $4.79
Kitchen Basics chicken stock: $3.15
Kitchen Basics beef stock: $3.05
Kemp's vanilla ice cream: $3.00 (him, not me, of course)
Goat cheese: $4.49
Jone's mild breakfast sausage links x 2: $5.18
Old Wisconsin summer sausage: $6.49
3 pounds ground beef: $9.42
1 pound ground chuck x 2: $4.21/each
Lara cinnamon roll bar: $1.69
Lara cherry pie bar: $1.69
Nature's Bounty Fish Oil pills 1200 MG x2: $15.49 total
Lemon: $0.50
Broccoli: $2.49
Zucchini: $0.44
Idaho potatoes x4: $2.55
Portabella mushroom: $1.21
Onion: $1.28
Garlic: $0.39
Red pepper: $1.05
Italian parsley (improperly rung up on our receipt as cilantro): $0.59
5 pounds clementines: $5.00
Unsalted butter: $3.49
Whole milk: $2.49
1 dozen large eggs: $1.69
Dean's onion dip: $1.99 (but I had a coupon so it was really free)
Jello pudding snacks: $2.50
Yoplait yogurt x9: $0.69 each
Something labeled farm cheese (hmmm...not even sure what that is): $2.69
Cheese sticks: $3.75
2 blocks of sharp cheddar: $2.90 each
Glad cling wrap: $2.90
Charmin toilet paper: $3.39 (if you even dare to suggest we should use one-ply, I will politely ask you to leave my blog)

Could we save money? Sure. I could clip coupons. Frankly, we could have bought a carbonated soft drink that was on sale. We could do more sale shopping. We could buy more generic labels. If I didn't include the brand name, we bought our local generic version. But we don't. Here's why.

1) Most of the items on the above list are gluten-free, with the one except of the mini bagels that I eat for breakfast and are kept in a separate breadbox on top of the fridge, away from any other grocery item. We're not going to get the Ragu/Prego/what's on sale, but we trust that the brand we use will be safe every time for my husband and Newman's Own has the benefits of no high fructose corn syrup in it.

2) I value my time. Attempting to look up coupons for the following items: Amy's tomato soup, Glad cling wrap, Old Wisconsin summer sausage, Yoplait, Dean's dip, and the Bisquick took me ten minutes and netted me only a $1.99 coupon for Dean's dip. I'm pretty sure that's not worth it.

3) We refuse to sacrifice on food. We have talked our budgetary priorities to death in the NGS/Dr. BB household. The truth is that food is important to us. No, we're not the most healthy eaters in the world, but we are careful about what we eat, we meal plan, and each item on the list is carefully thought out and researched.

4) I don't know that we are spending that much. Normally our budget is about $100-$125 dollars a week. This week we spent more than that, but even so, we are feeding each adult in our household on $75 a week. Is that too much? Is that a lot?

5) There are some things that are worth spending money on. I believe that Glad works better than the generic cling wrap, so we spend the extra fifty cents. Kitchen Basics stock is way more expensive than Swanson's, but it's gluten free AND tastes hella better. So, there you have it.