Thrifty food plan wrap-up
In the final week, we wound up doing three grocery trips, to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Giant, for a total of $173.75 for the week, and $460.78 for the month. Some of the high spending this week is because we stocked up on stuff that will last until the next month, but we also bought more packaged goods — a big thing of nutrigrain bars for D to take as snacks at camp, string cheese, ice cream — and D even convinced T to buy "orange chicken" at Costco. So, it’s easy to see that it would be easy to blow past the $501 thrifty food plan budget if you weren’t really watching. The bars are a lot cheaper at Costco than at the regular grocery store, but they’re still far more expensive than baking.
As it happens, this week we’re going to get our first delivery from South Mountain Creamery. Since I read The Way We Eat, I’ve been wanting to move away from industrially produced meat and dairy, and this looks like a way to do so without adding yet another set of shopping trips to our lives. It’s not cheap, but it’s a better price than the comparable foods from Whole Paycheck. I’m interested in seeing whether we can taste the difference.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:07 am
We get our milk delivered and LOVE it. I swear the milk tastes better in glass bottles.
We’ve come to the conclusion that scrimping on food isn’t a good investment for us. We shop at the organic food co-op and the farmers market.
But we spend *a lot* of our money on food. I think we easily spend $800/month for a family of four. The organic meat/veggies/produce/dairy is simply more expensive. We don’t belong to Cosco/Sam’s and really only go to a traditional grocery store once a month. We rarely go out to eat, though.
Our theory is that in the long run, spending more on food is a good investment. Our hope is that long-term, we’ll be healthier and happier eating fresh, locally-produced food.
Either that or we are ignorant saps who believe the left-wing propaganda produced by our CSA. : )
The fact that we have personally met most of the producers who supply our food is really cool to me. When we eat dinner, we know exactly who grew the veggies on the plate and who slaughtered the cow for the hamburger.
Now if I could just meet the guy who grows the Twizzlers and the Reeses. I’m a huge fan. (Hey – you definitely need to balance out the organic Kohlrabi with some mass-produced junk food for dessert…)
June 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
We started getting milk from South Mountain a few months ago. My husband cringes at the price every week (it’s really the delivery fee that makes it much more expensive than a gallon of organic milk from the grocery), but I feel so much better about the quality of it. I guess there is a taste difference, although it could be because we used to drink 1% from the store and now get 2% from the creamery. Or maybe it really is better.