Roasted beet salad, groceries, and musings

One of the hardest adjustments about grad school for me is that my work is never done.  Sure, I may leave for the night, but there is always something more I could be doing.  Like right now, for instance, even though my classes are over and I have turned in all of my students’ grades, I could be reading papers, writing a chapter I’m working on, doing experiments, planning experiments, analyzing data…really anything.  That’s why sometimes when I come home, I really only have time for a quick meal.  That’s why I LOVE to make salads.  Especially roasted.  An added bonus is that I can work (but truthfully rarely do) while the veggies are roasting.

This salad was especially good, maybe just because the colors were so pretty.  When roasting beets, I like to use balsamic vinegar.  I think the sweetness + acidity goes well with this vegetable.

Roasted Beet Salad

CSA goodness

-chop beets, leeks, turnips, and kale (use all parts of the vegetables- stalks/leaves/etc) and place into oven safe pan
-drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt

-roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees C.
-serve over your favorite grain (I did couscous) or add some protein (toasted walnuts, tuna, egg, goat cheese, chicken would all be good choices)

serve over a grain- I think there's couscous hiding in there somewhere!

As for now, I’m having a hard time determining costs for individual meals, since each CSA box was a flat $16.25.  In the upcoming weeks I’ll get this figured out so I can give a better idea.

Now onto things I can quantify.  I’ve done a lot of grocery shopping lately.  I want to do a better job this month of keeping track of my budget.  I feel like I’m always good about it in the beginning, and then fall off the wagon.

So far for the month I’ve spent $40 and it’s only May 1st…. I don’t know what to make of my CSA.  It’s a sunk cost so I don’t know if I build it into my budget or consider it a bonus supplement to my grocery shopping.  Again, this is probably something I’ll figure out as the time goes on.  So, what did I spend $40 on?

organic walnuts- 1.26 lbs at $8.29/lb- $10.45- I go in phases with walnuts.  I’m currently on a love phase.  I use them for everything- oatmeal, soups, salads, roasted vegetables (especially good roasted with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), and lately I’ve been having them as snacks
organic black turtle beans– 1.48 lbs at $1.39/lb- $2.06– I would like to start soaking my own beans instead of buying canned, since it’s supposed to not only taste better but be more cost effective.  We’ll see, I suppose.
organic short grain brown rice- 2.96 lbs at $1.49/lb- $4.41- With my new rice cooker that my sister bought me, I wanted to stock up on rice since it was on sale!
organic bananas– 2.07 lbs at $0.99/lb – $2.05 – my biggest weakness
organic orange juice- $5.29- still what I loathe buying organic the most
cage free/organic eggs- $1.99- we have somehow been going through eggs like crazy lately! 
organic carrots– 2 lbs, $1.99- my personal price point for carrots is $1/lb or less.  Carrots are a veggie that I can notice a very real taste difference between conventional and organic
Kentucky blue cheese- manager’s special! $5.60- I’ve been getting a lot of great deals on cheese lately by looking for manager’s specials!
organic milk- $6.69- I don’t know why milk prices have gone up, but it’s really annoying 😦

So, if we take a look at my groceries, it’s easy to see where the big budget breakers were- milk and orange juice.  The milk, however, will last me 2+ weeks.  The orange juice is what I take my iron with, and that lasts me about a month.  The rice and beans will last a while- probably a few months.  When you look at it that way, it’s not so bad.

Like I mentioned, I’ve been big on getting cheese from the remnant or manager special box at bloomingfoods.  The cheeses I’ve gotten recently are goat gouda, cocoa dusted cardona, and kentucky blue cheese.  The remnant section is great because it gives you a chance to try a cheese you may not normally.  It also allows you to have an expensive cheese for a fraction of the cost and without the fear of it going moldy in the fridge.  Plus, if you’re cooking for one, you can make a small chunk of cheese last a for a few meals.  If you’ve never had cardona before, I would suggest looking for it.  It’s apparently an artisanal goat cheese from Wisconsin.  The creator of it got the idea from one of his favorite sandwiches- a piece of swiss cheese and a hershey bar on bread.  I can barely detect the cocoa in this cheese, fortunately.  Anyway, I know a lot of people are leery to buy food that is marked down to sell.  I’ve never had a problem, though, and it certainly beats paying full price.

I think I had more I wanted to say, but I’m getting tired…

ketchup

or catch up.  whatever.

I haven’t posted in forever.  hello finals.

here are some of the high points of my foodie life lately:

1.  We finally got rid of the 30+ pounds (40-something canned good) of food we had sitting in our house.  In December Becca and I threw a holiday party and in lieu of asking people to help pay for beer, we asked for canned good donations to take to a food pantry.  It turns out food pantries only accept food at the most inconvenient times.  We’ve been staking out food drives andfinallyfound one.

kind of.

I took our food to bloomingfoods and the food drive was over but I begged them to take it from me, so they said since it was so much food they would haha.

2.  My birthday was a good one, as far as kitchen gadgets go.  Here’s what I got:
cast iron pan- I’ve been wanting one because, frankly, teflon scares me.  I try to be really careful with my teflon pans (not washing them in the dishwasher, not using metal on them, etc) to try and keep those pesky flourine atoms on the pan, but I know it’s just a matter of time before they’re doing some radical chain reaction in my body.  long story short, I want to make fire roasted things in my cast iron pan and I’m excited.
set of three small strainers- these are going to be perfect for when I make cheese and have to scoop out the small curds!  bonus: the larger of the three worked perfectly to wash the squash seeds I made the other day!
set of two tongs– I’m pumped for these for salads and when we roast things!  Roasting for me usually consists of precariously sticking my arm way back into the oven with a small fork to test the veggies.  This should help 🙂
onion keeper– This technically doesn’t count because I asked my mom for this a while back ago.  These are just gosh darn nifty.  Instead of making your tupperware smell, you can put half an onion in here and hang it in your fridge.

rice cooker– I got this in the mail today from my sister!  Not only does it cook rice, but it steams too!  and makes hard boiled eggs!  and dessert!  I’m pretty excited, especially for the rice pudding recipe that came with it!

3.  I finally cooked my sqash.  It yielded, oh, about 8 pounds. The picture is deceiving because I had already cooked with some when I took this.

so much squash

4.  I roasted veggies in the toaster oven  yesterday.  It turns out my 1 lb bread pan fits perfectly!  It was so much quicker than roasting in the oven, since I only had half an onion and half a sweet potato.  Much more energy efficient, too!!

5.  CSA starts Friday!

6.  I went grocery shopping Monday.

yum 🙂

organic bananas: 1.64 lbs @ $0.99/lb- $1.62
organic Bartlett pears: 1.97 lbs @ $1.69/lb- $3.33
5 lb organic wheat flour: $5.29
organic rolled oats: 2.58 lbs @ $0.99/lb- $2.55
3 lb bag organic apples: $3.99
smoked gouda orphan:.09 lbs @ $6.99/lb- $0.63

5% discount: -$0.87
Total Price: $16.54

hmm I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting something…I’m sure I’ll remember later.

Back Home Again in Indiana (and my kitchen)

My kitchen has never looked so good to me as Saturday when I got home.

What looked even better was Bloomingfood’s when I went grocery shopping Saturday night.  You know, the great thing about stores like B-foods as compared to normal grocery stores is that produce that wouldn’t  normally go on sale are reduced every time there’s a surplus.  So, what did I get this time that I can’t normally afford at Marsh?  parsnips.  I freaking love parsnips.  I also got more celery root (new addiction).

salvation

– .61 lbs organic celery root: $1.21 (1.99/lb)
-1.49 lbs organic parsnips: $2.52 ($1.69/lb)
-2.55 lbs organic bananas: $2.52 ($0.99/lb)
-2.99 lbs organic rolled oats: $2.96 ($0.99/lb)
-organic kale: $1.89
–2 x organic frozen edamame: $3.98
–5 x Chobani yogurt: $5.45 ($1.09/each)
-2 x organic canned black beans: $2.78 ($1.39 each)
-1 dozen all nautral corn tortillas: $0.59
–.13 lbs organic garlic: $0.78 ($5.99/lb)

Total Price: $24.88

So, what else have I been up to?  Well, the day that I got home I ate 4 bowls of cereal, 1 bowl of oatmeal, and I made barley/red lentils with roasted celery root, turnip, potatoes, and red onion.  Why did I eat so much cereal?  For some reason I was craving it like crazy.

Hmm, what else?  Yesterday I made rice with roasted vegetables and smoked clams in rosewood oil.  Nothing too exciting.  Here’s a picture of all the colorful veggies I had lying around in the fridge: (carrots, parsnips, turnip, potato, red onion):

how amazing does that look?

What else?  Oh!!  Here’s a new recipe.  Tonight I was craving quesadillas but didn’t have any cheese so I thought egg might be a good substitute.  It didn’t quite have the effect I was looking for but it was really, really good.

 

Here’s what I had to work with: corn tortillas, kale, a potato, red onion, tomatoes that I froze before I left for Orlando, and eggs.

I love all these colors!

Huevos Quesadilla
-finely chop potato, 1/10 a large red onion, and a leaf of kale
-sautee in olive oil, add a couple quarters of tomato
-when the vegetables are ready, add two eggs into the pan; scramble

yum 🙂

-scoop vegetable/egg mixture onto a corn tortilla, add extra tomatoes, cover with another corn tortilla, and heat in the skillet until warm; flip if you can and heat for a minute or so on the other side

kind of difficult to eat without anything gooey holding it together, but totally worth it

Total Price (2 quesadillas): $1.51

-2 eggs: $0.50
-4 tortillas: $0.20
-1/10 red onion: $0.10
-1 potato: $0.15
-1 leaf of kale: $0.20
-1 tomato: $0.36

Relief!!

Well, I did it!

I ate organic for $107 in February.

I’m not going to lie.  It was hard and it was frustrating and most definitely challenging.  However, I am alive, nourished, and am happy to feel at least a little bit of releift, budget wise, this month.  This doesn’t mean I have the freedom to have unlimited spending, though.  I’ve budgeted $150 for the month of March.  I don’t think I’m going to need all of it, but it will be nice to know I can buy bananas for the whole month, if I need to.

The past few days were probably the worst.  My last four meals have been barley.  literally.  Today, my lunch consisted of slices of beer bread and a lot of almonds.  Granted, I think the barley meals were pretty well balanced, but still.  I’m a bit sick of barley right now.

Interesting numbers for the month of February:

boxes of cereal eaten: 6
pounds of meat eaten: 2
gallons of milk used (for milk, yogurt, and cheese): 3
28 oz cans of tomatoes used: 3
number of grocery trips: 3
number of miles run: 269.1
number of extra calories needing to be consumed: 26,910

I really think if I can do this given my caloric needs, then anyone can.  Sure, $107 is NOT by any means a lot.  However, I did it and I don’t feel like I ever went hungry because of it.  I maybe didn’t have as much splurge food lying around, but that’s not a big deal.  I had plenty of almonds to snack on!!

I finally have food again!

I ended up spending $50, but a lot of that was because I literally  had nothing left.  I certainly anticipate my next visits to be far less.

Here is what I got (sale items are bolded):

organic orange juice – $5.29 (I HATE paying this much for orange juice!)
2.49 lbs organic bananas–  $1.79 ($0.69/lb!)
1.58 lbs organic turnip – $0.77 ($0.49/lb)
1.14 lbs organic celery root – $2.27 ($1.99/lb)
2 x 1 gallon organic 2% milk – $6.69
1.33 lbs organic red onion – $1.32 ($0.99/lb)
2 x organic avocado – $2.58 ($1.29 each)
2 lb organic carrots – $1.99
2.41 lbs organic roma tomatoes – $3.59 ($1.49/lb)
2.4 lbs organic rolled oats – $2.38 ($0.99/lb)
3.77 lbs organic whole wheat flour – $4.86 ($1.29/lb)
3 lb bag organic navel oranges – $3.99
1 plain organic yogurt – $0.99
2 x canned organic black beans – $1.39 each
3.28 lbs organic brown rice – $4.89 ($1.49/lb)

I’m so excited for what this month has in store!

It was really…let me emphasize this, REALLY nice to go grocery shopping again.  My last trip was February 15th.  I think I did pretty well for myself.

I’ve been avoiding the sale fliers from the grocery stores I used to go to because I don’t want to think about how much money I could be saving / how much more food I could be buying.

However, for the sake of procrastinating on grading these lab worksheets, I’m going to look through the fliers and see what I would be buying, and compare it to what I buy now.  Riveting, right?

Sunbeam Split Top Wheat bread- $1.49
Instead, I make my own organic whole wheat sourdough bread for ~the same price.
Anna: 1, supermarket: 0

Food Club Shredded Cheese – $4.09 / 32 oz.
Instead, I make my own organic cheese for $1.50 / 32 oz.
Anna: 2, supermarket: 0

Cheez-Its – $1.44
So, I have a price point for pretty much everything.  My price point for Cheez-Its is $1.88.  I’m sad that I’m missing this, but I would honestly (now) rather snack on almonds than cheese crackers.  I used to eat a box of white cheddar cheez its in 2-3 sittings.  I win for not being tempted to buy these anymore.
Anna: 3, supermarket: 0

White Seedless Grapes: $0.98
My price point for grapes is $0.99.  However, grapes have the seventh highest pesticide rating, so I would definitely pay more for pesticide free.
Anna: 4, supermarket: 0

Hot or Lean Pockets: 5/$10
I only buy these when they’re $2.00 each or less.  HOWEVER, not buying them forces me to make healthier foods and save money.  Win.
Anna: 5, supermarket: 0

Food Club Canned Vegetables: $0.59
Hmmm…I’m torn on this one.  I eat organic veggies now, but that’s a really low price.  I’m also trying to eat less canned goods…I’ll go half with the grocery story.
Anna: 5.5, supermarket: .5

Minute Maid Orange Juice: 2/$5
I go through a lot of orange juice to take my iron supplements with.  It pains me that organic orange juice is 1/$5.
Anna: 5.5, supermarket: 1.5

Green Bell Peppers: $0.88
That’s a really good price for green peppers, but the quality of these are always hit and miss when they’re that cheap.  I would rather buy fresh and pesticide free and pay more.
Anna: 6.5, supermarket: 1.5

Hass Ripe Avocados: 10/$10
Avocados are actually on the safe list, so I think I have to give this one to the grocery store.
Anna: 6.5, supermarket: 2.5

Broccoli Crowns: 10/$10
Again, really good price.  I don’t know what the pesticide rating is, so I’ll split this again with the store.
Anna: 7, supermarket: 3

Dannon All Natural Yogurt: $1.99/32 oz
I make my own (organic) for $1.50/32 oz, I win.
Anna: 8, supermarket: 3

So, there you have it.  I figured I would feel bad about what I spend now.  On the contrary, doing this actually made me feel pretty good.  I think I eat much healthier, less processed food.  I make more conscious decisions, and I’m really not losing much money.

WIN 🙂

 

Grocery Day

Lesson Learned.

it's good to have food again

Remember last week when I was sad that there weren’t any good sales at Bloomingfoods?  This week I looked online at their sale flier ahead of time.  When I went there today it turned out that they hadn’t posted their sales.  at all.  I never would have known and would have had another disappointing shopping trip.  Becca and I had to literally show the manager online what their sales were because she didn’t believe us.  There are 3 different B-foods here…I think I’ll go back to traveling to the farther one because they’re always on top of these things.

Items I bought on sale that were listed online but NOT in the store:

4.31 lbs of raw almonds (bulk): $20.64
1.65 lbs organic pearled barley (bulk): $1.79
1.07 lbs organic red lentils (bulk): $2.02

That may not look like much, but the almonds were normally $8.99/ lb (got them for $4.79/lb), the barley is normally $2.49/lb (on sale for $0.99/lb), and the red lentils are typically $3.29/lb (snagged those for $1.89/lb).

That’s a total savings of $21.93

Here are the other items I bought:

Organic Multigrain Pancake Mix: $2.99
2 lbs of organic bananas: $1.91
1 dozen organic medium eggs: $1.99
2 organic yams: $1.62
frozen organic rhubarb: $1.79
1 gallon organic milk: $5.99
organic celery root: $1.17
5 lbs organic russett potatoes: $3.99

Grand total spent: $45.50

total saved: $25.89

Total left in budget: $2.18

uh oh…I guess this will be an intersting next two weeks.  I totally thought I still had $20 more…

Underwhelmed

meh

…That’s how I feel after my latest grocery store excursion.

I was riding pretty high on how well I did the last time I went to the grocery store…I guess it was time for a down week.

It just seemed like absolutely  nothing was on sale.  While standing in line I realized I hadn’t actually bought anything, just ingredients to make old standbys.  I ended up grabbing some grind-your-own peanut butter since it was on sale, but I feel like that’s the only thing I bought that I can even put in my lunch.  Oh well, better luck next time I suppose.

organic bananas: $0.99/lb – $2.28 (not on sale)
organic chickpeas x 2: $4.00
organic diced tomatoes x 2: $3.98
organic orange juice: $5.29
organic plain yogurt: $0.75
3 lbs organic yellow onions: $2.99
peanut butter: $2.89/lb- $1.18

5% discount

Total: $19.45

I suppose this will last me through the week and a grocery bill under $20 isn’t bad.  I just feel like I didn’t get much.  The bananas will go in my lunch for the rest of the week, along with the peanut butter and the bread I made.  I can roast the chickpeas.  I can do absolutely anything with the tomatoes.  The orange juice will last forever because I take it with my liquid iron.  The plain yogurt will be used as a starter for home made yogurt.  The onions should last at least a few weeks… I just feel like I’m lacking food I can eat right now.

I guess we’ll see how the week goes.

Monthly total: $60.03

Money Left in Budget: $47.68

 

Quickies

1.  Sahara Mart fail – I stopped here on my way back from errands this morning to buy some organic wheat flour since I noticed they had it in bulk for $1.79.  That sounded cheap, except that I failed to really do the math.  5 lbs cost me $8.91, when a 5 lb bag of the same thing cost me $6.99 last month.

2.  Squash Part 4 – The squash has been great as mix in for oatmeal.  I’ve been doing 2 heaping spoonfuls of squash with brown sugar and honey.

3.  Squash Part 5 – I roasted the seeds and am using it in a recipe for sour dough – cornmeal – pumpkin seed bread.  More to come on that later.

Supermarket Shuffle

I left my house at 6:15 PM today on a mission to get my watch fixed and pick up some groceries since I finally got paid..

After 3 grocery stores, $40.97, 7 pounds of meat, and a ton of cooking, here I am — 4 hours later.

While going to the different stores was exhausting, it was TOTALLY worth it.  Here’s a pic of what I got:

$41 of organic goodness

See all those orange stickers in the top left?  That is 7 pounds of meat that I got for 60% off.  Why was it 60% off?  Well, it goes bad tomorrow, but that’s okay because I have plenty of freezer space.  This is also more than enough meat to last me the rest of the semester.  Here is what I got:

Bloomingfoods:
1 lb organic romaine lettuce: $0.99
1 gallon organic 2% milk: $5.99
1 bulb organic garlic: $0.84
2 x pesticide free butternut squash: $1.00
5 lb bag organic navel oranges: $3.99
2 pesticide free turnips: $0.99
28 oz cans organic diced tomatoes: $2.49
28 oz can organic whole peeled tomatoes (fail): $2.89
2.39 lbs organic rolled oats: $2.37

+ 5% discount

Total: $20.47

Sahara Mart:

(All the meat is from Fischer Farms, an all natural, hormone and antibiotic free farm from Jasper, IN)

1.01 lbs  ground bison: $4.54
1.03 lbs ground turkey: $2.57
1.00 lbs ground beef: $2.50
1.95 lbs beef chuck roast: $5.70
1.82 lbs pork tenderloin: $4.06
1 gallon organic milk: $3.00

+10% off

Total: $20.50

Grand total: 40.57

This is how I followed the rules for myself from yesterday’s post:

1.  I saved a total of 15% on my groceries today by going on member days.  Bloomingoods’ was 5% and Sahara 10%.

2.  didn’t use any coupons

3.  I saved $22.46 using manager’s specials at Sahara.  All the meat and the 2nd gallon of milk goes bad tomorrow so it was all 50% off.  I immediately froze the meat and I made yogurt and cheese tonight out of the milk.  At Bloomingfoods, I saved $2-3+ on the squash.  It is usually $0.69/lb, and these were $0.50 each.  Granted, the majority of them were rotten, I was still able to find a couple that were somewhat good.  I immediately roasted them when I got home and now I have 2+ pounds of butternut squash pulp that I will keep in the fridge.

4.  I intentionally didn’t buy a couple things I normally would put in my lunch, since I have been taking leftovers in.  For instance, I was tempted to buy almonds solely to make almond butter for lunches.  However, organic almonds are $8.99/lb and are something I can skip this month since I only want them for the stray day here or there that I may  make a sandwich.

5.  I saved money by not buying yogurt or cheese this trip.  It was an added bonus that I ended up getting the milk for $3.00.

6.  I didn’t make too many bulk selections this time, but I am happy that I bought a lot of oatmeal at such a low price.

7.  I remembered my reusable bags! But I also found the only stores in town that don’t give discounts for them 😦

8.  I felt as though I was flexible with my food choices.  I didn’t buy bananas (+1 for maturity) and the only things I bought that weren’t on sale were garlic and and the first gallon of milk.  Oh, I also failed hardcore and bought the wrong can of tomatoes, accidentally paying $0.50 more.

9.  Finally, there were a few things I walked away from buying just because they were on sale.  These included black beans and organic walnuts.  I love both, but truthfully they just end up sitting in my pantry longer than they should.  One area I could have been better: the chuck roast.  I don’t really need that, but I got a little discount happy.

Money left in the budget: $67.24

Dolla Dolla Bill Y’all

Fair warning: this post has absolutely nothing to do with food and everything to do with February’s budget and my strategies to save money.

Tomorrow is pay day and damn, do I need it.

I was working out a budget today and went through 3 or 4 symptoms of depression…

1.  Denial – there’s no way that I have only this little bit of money to spend on groceries.

2.  Sadness- I have no money

3. Anxiety- How will I eat this month?

4. Hope- It may be fun to be SUPER thrifty and at the very least, I will have something to write about!

Back in February when I found out how much money I would be making as an Associate Instructor at IU, I was ecstatic.  I thought I was going to be living super comfortably and would finally have “the” life.  ha.

hahahahahahahahahaha.

To be fair, I get by.  I feel very fortunate that I worked this summer because many of my coworkers have had to resort to the phone call home.  In their defense, January was a particularly tough month because our last paycheck was December 16th.

But, where has all my money gone?  In working out my budget, this is how I anticipate to spend February’s pay check (I made a pie-chart but can’t figure out how to post it…):

Paying off the Christmas/NYE Credit Card Bill: 39%
Rent: 37%
Groceries: 7%
Savings: 6%
Energy Bill: 6%
Student Loans: 3%
Spending Money: 3%

So, why exactly am I freaking out about groceries?  This budget leaves me with $107.71 to spend for 29 days.  Between January 3rd and January 30th, I spent $136.91.  That ended up being ~$34 a week.  To be honest, I don’t know if that’s a lot or a little, considering this is my first time trying to do the all-organic thing.  I know in undergrad I spent ~$50 a week, but I bought a lot of superfluous food, too.  I also think I eat a little bit more than the average person because I run 50+ miles a week.

I’ve developed a few strategies for the upcoming month in an attempt to get the most bang for my buck:

1.  Only go to the co-op on member days
I try to do this anyway, but there are a few times throughout the month that I slip.  I also checked around town for other “deal” days.  Marsh gives students 10% off on Saturdays and Sahara Mart gives 10% off on Tuesdays.

2. Find coupons on facebook
I’ve been trying to get in the habit of “liking” my favorite brands on facebook because most offer coupon deals/giveaways.  Also, other people who like the same page usually post tips when stores put that brand on sale.

3.  Look for “manager’s special”
I’ve bought quite a bit of bread and meat this way.  Typically (this seems to work best for me when I go at night), you can find food that is about to reach it’s “sell-by” date go on sale 25-30% off.  This tends to happen more with organic food because it has a smaller market.  I have gotten great deals on bread, chicken, steak, and hummus in this way.  If you do buy meat, make sure to freeze it right away.  I have made the mistake of letting it sit in the fridge and then wind up wasting my money.

4.  Ditch the sandwich for lunch
My lunch habits have gotten exponentially better since I got this wonderful lunch thermos for Christmas.  I waste less and buy less “lunch food” by being able to bring leftovers from the night before.

5.  DIY more
Making my own cheese, yogurt, bread, almond butter has been incredibly cheap, fun, and delicious.  Now that I have invested in the equipment and have saved the appropriate starters, I will be able to save even more money.

6.  Make smarter bulk selections
Everyone knows that buying from the bulk section saves money.  However, it’s always wise to know which store has the cheapest bulk sections.  I’ve now staked out all the grocery stores in town and I know, for instance, Sahara has organic almonds $4.00/lb cheaper than Bloomingfoods does, but Bloomingfoods’ organic walnuts are a better deal.  I also have to be better at stocking up when I find good bulk deals.

7.  Remember my reusable bags
Pretty much every store has a bag discount…I usually save ~$0.15 by bringing my own bags, which adds up!

8.  Be flexible with my food choices
I know a lot of people, myself included, who spend a lot of money at the grocery store because they HAVE to buy the same 3-4 things every week.  For instance, I always get bananas, even if they’re not on sale.  Do I NEED bananas every week?  No.  So if I can find another fruit or vegetable that’s on sale, I will go for that instead and be creative.  Besides the fact that this will save money, not eating a variety of foods is bad for you.  Even if what you eat every day is healthy, your body craves variety.

9.  DON’T  buy something just because it’s a good deal
This is a bad habit I learned from my mom.  I have a tendency to buy something just because it is on sale, even though I could just as easily do without it.

So, there it is…pretty  much the same list that everyone posts when they talk about saving money in the grocery store.  I’ll keep y’all updated on how this works out.