grocery shopping – Page 2

My Healthy Food Budget: Week 3 March, 2013

March Week Three Healthy Food Budget: $109.13

A large amount of spending this week, but with 9 days left, I feel I’m in good shape with $84.98 for the rest of March.

I’m absolutely loving the local flour I bought earlier this month. The barley flour is awesome in muffins and pancakes. I’m hoping to organize a few recipes to post.

And the local Zorro whole wheat flour has been a little challenging for yeast bread, but I think I finally broke through the issues. I’ll be posting more on that soon.

March Food Spending Total $315.02

Dining Out: $15.50 / Total $62.55
Groceries: $93.63 / Total $252.47

Lots of veggies and fruit this week. Yum. Plus some other essentials.

(Sat) Market Basket $17.62: Balsamic vinegar, salsa, 2 lb bag o’ lil cutie clementines, broccoli, 2lb onions, minneola oranges, avocado, bananas, organic half & half creamer

(Wed) Whole Foods $28.66: Mango, organic fuji apples, grapefruit, organic fennel bulb, organic baby bok choy, 5 lb bag o’ organic carrots, organic celery, organic corn tortillas, Kerrygold cheddar, and (USA) cashews.

(Wed) Trader Joe’s $26.12: Organic plain whole yogurt, raw almond butter, organic half & half, TJ’s pasta, walnuts, organic raisins, and (2) fair trade dark chocolate.

(Wed) Market Basket $13.23: 5lb bag o’ mandarin oranges, mushrooms, red grapefruit, minneola oranges, and bananas.

(Wed) Penzey’s Spices $4.25: garlic powder – and free cumin and free cinnamon (coupons)

(Thurs) Seven Acres Farm $3.75 :1 dozen jumbo eggs

About My Healthy Budget

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, ~~entertaining~~, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

My Healthy Food Budget: Week 2 March, 2013

March, Week Two Healthy Food Budget: $36.83 spent

Great week. I tried very hard to keep my spending to a minimum, and it worked! We got take-out Chinese on Saturday and I picked up a few items at Whole Foods on Monday.

March Food Spending Total $205.89

After spending $36.83 this week, it brings the total for the month to $205.89, leaving $194.11 for the rest of March.

Dining Out: $22.60 / Total $47.05
Groceries: $14.23 / Total $158.84

Whole Foods Market (Monday): $14.23 – organic bananas, 4lb bag o’ navel oranges, organic apples, and 4 cans of Muir Glen tomatoes.

Yes, I know I promised myself that I wasn’t going to spend any money on commercially canned tomatoes, especially when there’s a boycott for General Mills/Muir Glen products! But it was a such a good sale (2/$4) and I had double coupons, which brought the unit price to .75 each. I couldn’t resist!

I am still confident that I’ll have enough personally frozen and canned tomatoes until summer, but I’ll keep the Muir Glen cans in my pantry for emergencies.

So, going forward, I expect that the $200 I have left will be enough for the rest of March!

About My Healthy Budget

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

My Healthy Food Budget: Week One March, 2013

Week One Healthy Food Budget: $169.07

I’ve been posting budget updates on a monthly basis, but I wanted to return to posting more often, with details of what I’m specifically purchasing…so here goes!

March Week One Food Spending $169.07

I went a little crazy, which is normal for the first week of the month!

It’s like a celebration with a fresh new $400 to spend. Or maybe psychologically I thought I should spend that sweet $70 left from last month, burning a hole in my pocket. ;)

Dining Out: $24.46
Groceries: $144.61

So, for the rest of March, I have $230.93 to spend but I’m shooting for light spending next week. I’ll be going to the winter farmers market on Saturday, and I’ll probably need more fruit, and hopefully that will be it (besides our weekly take out treat.) If I can keep spending down for week 2, I don’t think I’ll have any problem sticking to the budget.

Where I Spent My Grocery Dollars

Whole Foods Market: $29.30 for organic apples, 5lb bag o’ organic carrots, organic celery, Theo chocolate, cashews, bulk sucanat sugar, olives, Manchego cheese
Open Meadow Farm: $23.11 for pork shoulder roast
Four Star Farms: $15 for 5lb whole wheat and 2lb barley flours
Brookline Winter Farmers Market: $21.70 Stillman’s Farm: pork sausage $14.70 & Silverbrook Farm beets, potatoes, swiss chard.
Trader Joes: $44.64 for California olive oil, Zinfandel wine, organic plain yogurt, feta cheese, (2) organic raisins, raw almonds, shelled pistachios, peanuts, 2lb clementines, (3) loose navel oranges, (2) bananas, mini baby-bel cheese (for DH)
Market Basket: $7.11 last bit o’ shopping for organic apples, oranges, and bananas

clementines little cutie oranges

About My Healthy Budget

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

My Healthy Food Budget: February, 2013

February Healthy Food Budget: $330.72

This was a great month! I spent $71 less than my $400 budget for the month!

It seems a lot easier to spend less in the winter, so this will allow me a little spending cushion for summer, when I know I spend more. Or if I do well next month, I might use the excess to pay off the whole meat delivery I received in January.

February Food Spending $330.72

Dining Out: $121.52
Groceries: $209.20

Dining out spending wasn’t bad, considering we had a sit-down Valentines night dinner at a local Italian eatery for an extra splurge.

I was amazed at how little I spent at the grocery store. Inspiration was sparked by the Good Cheap Eats 1 Month Pantry Challenge. I didn’t hold myself to any specific rules or timeframe, but I made a conscious effort to refrain from purchasing ingredients when I knew there was something that could be cooked from my pantry, fridge or freezer.

For instance, I skipped the Winter Farmers Market last weekend because I still had kale, cabbage, beet, celeriac, potatoes, and sweet potato left from the prior week’s shopping trip. All I needed at the store this week was some fruit; I was able to use what I had on hand for meals all week.

I’m also finding inspiration over at the $100 a Month blog. Mavis, the author, hopes to feed her family of four with an average of $100 per month. She has a spectacularly massive garden, complete with egg-laying chickens, and it’s very educational to read about her adventures. I’m fascinated by her “reclaimed” food posts. ((Thanks for the recommendation, Angela))

Lastly, I’m excited because I found a local grain grower; We’ll be meeting up with her at a local farmers market on Sunday. To start, I’m trying bags of zorro wheat and barley flours. If it’s as wonderful as I hope it is, the next step might be a grain mill to grind my own flour.

Where I Spent My Grocery Dollars This Month

Total: $209.20
Market Basket 63.43
Trader Joe’s 44.74
Whole Foods 37.68
Winchester Winter Farmers Market 30.65
Open Meadow Farm 25.20
Seven Acres Farm 7.50

About My Healthy Budget

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

Winter Farmers Market at Mahoney’s Garden Center

I finally made it to the winter farmers market at Mahoney’s Garden Center in Winchester today. It was awesome; I was very happy I ventured out in the cold!

There were 3 farms, selling lots of vegetables!

Per usual, I initially walked around the floor, checking out the offerings, and I decided to buy a little bit from each of them.

Oakdale Farm had a great selection of root veggies: carrots, beets, onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, along with radishes, kale and small bags of greens. Plus I was surprised to see broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Springbrook Farm had small bags of mixed greens and spinach.

Silverbrook Farm offered parsnips, carrots (massive!), beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celeriac, turnips, kale, swiss chard, along with mixed greens and cute micro greens.

I was really surprised and so happy that there really was a lot to choose from, plus prices were not outrageous for most of it. The root veggies were $1.50-$2 per pound. Oakdale farm was selling the broccoli, kale and radishes for $3 per bunch.

The baby greens were pretty expensive, but that’s to be expected in New England wintertime. I paid $4.50 for about a half pound.

Anyway, I ended up spending $15.40 for a bag o’ greens, beets, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, celeriac, and kale. (the kale weighed about 1 lb, so at $3, it was comparable to Whole Foods)

Next time, I’m thinking maybe carrots, parsnips and radishes.

My Healthy $400 Food Budget: Jan 2013

January Healthy Food Budget: $384.16

It’s great news that I ended up $15 under my $400 budget this month. Whoo hoo! Netted to the January slight underage and February overage, I’m still ahead by $2!

I was very pleased with our dining-out budget. We went out 5 times, but really kept it cheap!

There were two bulk purchases, Amazon’s subscribe & save tuna and three 2lb bags of shredded coconut from Tropical Traditions (which by the way is scrumptious!). Plus a half bottle of fish oil (split with the dog budget). All totaling about $55! Taking that into account, it really was an awesome month!

January Food Spending $384.16

Dining Out: $80.46
Groceries: $288.41
Vitamins & Supplements: $15.29

My summer canning and freezing is paying off. There’s been no need to purchase any jelly/jam yet and I’m hoping to can a few jars of citrus marmalade soon. My tomato stockpile is plentiful, and still should be enough until next tomato season.

I popped open a jar of my home-canned corn salsa, and it was absolutely delicious. I was hesitant to can additional salsa recipes because when I initially tasted this batch, it was over-the-top too vinegary; it must have mellowed over the months. We go through about a jar of salsa every week, so to be able to can my own, is thrilling. I’m looking forward to next summer when tomatoes are abundant! I’m already getting some tomato salsa recipes organized!

Lastly, I received a large delivery ($180) of local frozen meat this month, but I’m going to account for the cost as we consume it. It should last us 4-6 months, so it’s like I’ve created my own personal meat CSA. ;)

Where I Spent My Grocery Dollars This Month

Market Basket 83.24
Whole Foods 79.43
Trader Joe’s 67.98
Tropical Traditions 20.97
Amazon.com 18.60
Open Meadow Farm 13.26
Seven Acres Farm 7.00
Vitacost 4.94
Misc Credit for gifts ($7.10)

About My Healthy Budget

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

Whole Foods Wake-up: Salsa GMO vs Non-GMO

While shopping at Whole Foods Market this morning, on the salsa shelves, I noticed that only two of the Whole Foods 365 brand (non-organic) salsa were verified by the Non GMO project. Hmm, why only two? What was up with the 4 or 5 other flavors?

So, I looked at the labels of the 365 Black Bean & Corn and the 365 Tequila Lime, the latter of which was GMO-free verified. (Note: I saw only the paper verification tag under each product; there wasn’t any notification on the actual label)

Click the photo to view each jars’ ingredients

365 Black Bean & Corn Salsa Ingredients

(probable/possible GMO ingredient bolded)
Diced tomatoes, water, tomato paste, black beans, onions, corn, jalapeno peppers, green chiles, distilled vinegar, sugar, salt, dehydrated garlic, cilantro, citric acid, basil, oregano, natural flavor

365 Tequila Lime Salsa Ingredients

(without distilled vinegar and citric acid)
Diced tomatoes, water, jalapeno peppers, tomato concentrate, sugar, salt, dehydrated onions, onions, lime juice, cilantro, dehydrated garlic, coriander, natural flavors

Hmm, no actual tequila in this salsa? Funny, must be in the “natural flavors” sigh.

Why Such a Fuss Over GMO

Anyway, my point is, Whole Foods Market makes such a big fuss over a selected few products being verified for the non-GMO project, but in reality, most of their non-organic products don’t qualify!

Why only 2 flavors of salsa? Why not take the extra step and use non-GMO ingredients for all flavors? It’s not that difficult to do.

Maybe it’s a marketing ploy. (It’s how Kashi/Kelloggs plays.) If WF verifies only 2 flavors out of 6, maybe when the customer sees the little “non-GMO Project Verified” tag, they won’t notice or realize the other flavors don’t meet non-GMO standards.

Or maybe it’s just that they need to keep their prices as low as possible, trying to distance themselves from the “Whole Paycheck” moniker. But while keeping their prices are low, are they any better than General Mills or Kraft? Sadly, no. Whole Foods Market is getting more and more like conventional Big Food every day.

Years ago, Whole Foods Market used to mean trust-worthy, quality, safe ingredients. It’s unfortunate that they are slowly sliding away from those qualities for more profits and sales.

See all posts in my Whole Foods Wake-up series.

Whole Foods Wake-Up: GMO Ketchup

I admit I was one of the biggest Whole Foods Market groupies. Visiting to one of their stores was like going to church. But the delusion is over, at least for me. I still shop there, but my eyes are open and I diligently read labels.

I think what really set me over the edge was California’s Prop 37 for Genetically Modified (GMO) food labeling and the fact that Whole Foods Market was virtually silent. They pretended to care at the last minute, but Really! Whole Foods doesn’t want GMO labeling any more than other Big Food companies like General Mills, Kelloggs, and Pepsi. If a law like that passed, they would be forced to share with all of us (including their millions of blind-trusting shoppers) that a good chunk of their products do indeed include GMO ingredients.

Case in point, their 365 house-brand ketchup.

A few days ago, I noticed their organic ketchup had the “Non GMO Verified” paper tag under it. Well duh! It’s organic! GMO ingredients are not allowed in any organic foods, so it’s really irrelevant, but that verification label sure does look good, doesn’t it?

Then I glanced to the left, and noticed the non-organic Ketchup did not have the certified GMO free tag. Hmm, why? What’s in ketchup that could be GMO? And there it was: Distilled White Vinegar, made from cheap GMO corn.

(click for larger view)

Notice that only the organic version has the little blurb about how their “private label products are formulated to avoid genetically engineered ingredients” – those words are missing from the label on their regular ketchup.

What I’d like to know are are there any non-organic 365 branded foods that are GMO Free? And I don’t mean single-ingredient foods like rice or beans.

I’d like to see a 365 product that specifically includes some form of corn or soy that is on their Non-GMO verified list. Perhaps there is one, perhaps there isn’t. I’ll be sure to keep looking!

See all posts in my Whole Foods Wake-up series.

$400 Healthy Food Budget: December – End of 2012, Beginning 2013!

December Total Food Spending: $417.76

I thought I’d do much better this month, but “lazy food” choices got the best of me. Our dining out budget was through the roof, but thankfully I’m only $18 over budget for the month!

Besides being sluggish about home cooking, I’ve also (temporarily) gained about 6 lbs. But the new year, brings a new outlook! I’ll be back in shape (budget and healthwise) in no time!

December Food Spending: $417.76

This should have been an easy month. I’ve learned that seasonal food purchases in cooler months are less expensive than warmer months. I should have been way under budget, but as I said, I succumbed to take-out temptations!

Dining Out: $171.04
Groceries: $233.95
Vitamins/Supplements: $12.77

Here’s where I spent my grocery money:

Whole Foods: $71.08
Market Basket: $52.23
Trader Joe’s: $42.92
Ocean State Job Lot: $25.67
Seven Acres Farm: $16.75
iHerb.com: $13.27
Hannaford: $11.04
Other: 0.99

My $400 Healthy Budget Details

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

$400 Healthy Food Budget: November

November Total Food Spending: $395.95

November was the start of a brand new budgeting year, and I’m striving for an annual goal of $4800 – $5000 for food spending. That calculates to about $400 a month, give or take a few dollars over once in awhile.

This year, I decided to remove entertaining from the food budget, but all other conditions are the same: groceries, dining out, gardening, and vitamins/supplements.

November Food Spending: $395.95

I have to confess, on the last day of the month, I spent an additional $50, which would have put me way over-budget. To simplify, I decided to just lump those purchases into December.

Dining Out: $111.88
Groceries: $284.07

My dining out total is a little higher than I’d like, and I don’t know if December will be much better, since the holidays get crazy.

I know it will be a relief not to have to worry about counting my holiday food expense. Last year, I was over in December partly due to Christmas, and it was a nightmare trying to make up for the overage in January.

Here’s where I spent my grocery money:

Amazon $18.31 (Subscribe & Save tuna)
Mann Orchard $37.04 (which includes apples for canned applesauce)
Market Basket $41.65
Meat CSA $43.91 (pork roast was a large expense at $30, but there was enough cooked meat to freeze for future meals)
Seven Acres Farm $13.50 (eggs)
Trader Joes $12.95
Whole Foods $83.47
Wilson Farm $33.24

I canned 2 batches of applesauce this month, adding 10 pints to my canning cupboard. Yum. It will be nice to eat homemade applesauce later in the year, when local apples are long out of season.

applesauce canned

My $400 Healthy Budget Details

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. DH occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.