Thursday, February 25, 2010

Shopping Day

So I got my week's shopping done today. I went to two stores this week Fresh Market and Smith's. 
So here's my menu for the week:

Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs
Beef Roast with Mashed potatoes
Chicken tenders with Potato wedges
Pork Tenderloin with noodles
Tuna casserole
Chunky Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Chicken and rice casserole

As always I went to my pantry firstand then made my shopping list for the remaining foods I need to complete my meals. My shopping list for this week's menu is: 

Fresh Market
1 box of Barilla Whole Grain Pasta (shells) $0.88
1 dozen large eggs  $1.50
2.15 lb Beef Roast  $7.50
1 lb Ground Turkey $1.57
1.61 lb Chicken Tenders $2.88
1.7 lb Hormel Pork Loin Mediterranean Herbs and Olive Oil $5.99
1 lb Cheddar Cheese $3.99
1.05 lb Asparagus $2.09
3 Yellow onions $0.86
Western Family Frozen Orange Juice  FREE

Total: $27.26

Smith's 

Red Pepper  $1.50
Garlic  $0.39
Yellow Squash  $0.69
1.25 lb Broccoli  $1.24
2 cans of Chicken of the Sea Tuna $1.00
2 gallons of milk  $3.33
1 lb Land o Lakes Lunch Meat  $2.99
4 lb bag of frozen chicken breasts $5.99
1 box of fruit loops $1.67

Total: $22.13

Grand Total: $49.39

A couple of notes here. I got free orange juice by using a coupon from the Fresh Market ad. When I bought 1 dozen eggs I got the orange juice.
 
Also at Smith's when you bought four boxes of Kellogg's cereal you got two gallons of milk for free. As you can see I only have one box of cereal in the list and a price beside the milk. Since we will only eat part of one box of cereal in a week my need for the week is one box not four. I bought all four to get the free milk but the other three boxes will go into the pantry to use another week.So the list here only reflects what I will use this week, not nescessarily what I bought (I'll talk more about this is a minute). To figure out the price of the milk I just figured that I bought 6 items for $10 (four boxes of cereal plus the two free gallon of milk) so divide $10 by 6 items and you get a price of $1.67 each.

Ok I as I mentioned before I bought more than I needed for the week. This is how I stock my pantry and how I have things on hand that I can use in later weeks. When there is a great sale on something that I use frequently I buy more of that item and store it in the pantry or freezer. That way when I need it I have it and paid typically less for it then I would if I bought it later and it wasn't on sale. 

Also most of the time if you buy an item in bulk it saves you more money than if you buy a smaller portion. For instance I will only use about half of the 3.22 lb of chicken tenders that I actually bought this week (which is why only half of that is reflected in my shopping list), but had I only bought 1.5 lb of chicken tenders I would have probably paid nearly $3 or $4 dollars a pound. This way I paid more this week but I can use rest of the chicken next week and save some money.

Most of the grocery stores have twice yearly Case lot sales. This is a great opportunity to take some of the money you have been saving on groceries each week and stock your pantry. I like to buy things like diced tomatoes, black beans and baking goods (flour, sugar, chocolate chips etc....)

If you want a list of "pantry/freezer" items that I bought so you can get an idea of how much I spent on those items here it is: 

1.61 lb chicken tenders  $2.88
3 lb Ground Turkey (it came in a 4 lb package)  $4.71
4 cans of chicken of the sea tuna  $2.00
Kraft salad dressing $2.50
3 boxes of cereal  $5.00
Pork roast  $6.03

Total: 23.12

So in all I spent $73.02 but I can use the meat in those pantry/freezer items for 7 more meals. It was worth it to spend a little more this week to save more later. 


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