Sunday, May 17, 2009

Shopping

I've been tracking my grocery budget in an excel spreadsheet complete with monthly subtotals, graphs, and a "savings" column. It's not Type A. I'm just bored. Or easily amused I'm not sure. I've already spent as much this month as I normally would in an entire month. I blame having to occasionally cook vegan muffins, tofu scramble, and potato pancakes (the ingredients for the scramble cost a little over twenty bucks!) Not really a big deal, but there are some, unusual?, items in my kitchen/fridge at them moment. Like the ~4 ounces of extra firm tofu and bag of spinach in my fridge. Or the bottle of extra virgin olive oil and garlic on the counter (the potatoes don't really stand out, I'm a carbs kinda guy).

None of that really bothers me, but it did get me thinking about what my normal diet was costing me (health-wise and money-wise). I've been eating much healthier than I have in the past. Consider this time two and a half years ago I was having cigarettes and Mt. Dew for breakfast, eating Doritos or Goldfish for lunch, and having Hot Pockets and beer for dinner. A little over two years ago I lost the cigarettes (and my sunny disposition). And last summer I replaced the Mt. Dew with an apple and shortly thereafter added a bowl of cereal to the morning routine, granted the cereal is usually Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or Lucky Charms, OR Quaker Oat Squares if I can ever find them on sale, so the cereal isn't exactly healthy, but it usually comes with some vitamins and extra-sugary milk; ingredients I haven't seen on the label of Mt. Dew. Last fall I swapped out the Doritos with crackers (Triscuits or Townhouse) and added in a sandwich on homemade wheat bread. So far this year I've even started eating peaches and bananas with regularity (and I stopped buying beer at the grocery store - a case or two a week is a bit silly and really expensive). Breakfast and lunch have been fixed, but dinner, to this day, remains hit or miss. Sometimes it's cheese and crackers with fruit or potatoes. Other days it's Ramen or corn dogs or frozen fish sticks. Sometimes it's chili or tuna casserole with leftovers served for the rest of the week.

Money-wise my meals run between $1.25 and $2.00 a meal. It depends on how much fruit I go through and what's on sale. A loaf of bread costs about $2 to make and I go through 3 loaves every two weeks, so yes, it would be cheaper to buy bread at the store, but homemade bread provides that extra knowledge of what exactly is in it. And it is soooo tasty warm and covered in butter. I've started looking at items in the store thinking "How many meals could I get out of that? And how much would it cost per meal?" Does anyone else do that?

Most cost effective AND tasty dish? Pizza.
From Taste of Chicago, WI

3 comments:

Sarah said...

What is with your post dates?

In other notes, I'm impressed by your thriftiness and your health consciousness, neither of which I do well. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl, so my meals tend to be pre-made snacks (like the 100-calorie packs that always require you eat several of in one sitting) or 4-course meals. Neither is cost-effective.

Oh the cigarettes and Mt. Dew days...those were the good ol' days weren't they?

RiCap said...

Hmm I don't keep track but sometimes I get cheap. Beans and rice are also quite cost effective, plus the beans have protein.

juha said...

I told you I've been writing almost every week (or other week) and just not posting because I get caught up in work, school, life, etc. Don't worry, I'll be caught up soon.

Rice is a great option too, but I suck at cooking it. I have a crock pit that I need to put to work on some soups!