Weekly Shopping

OK, so just because I plan my meals out for 3 months and do a big shopping trip once every 3 months does not mean that I don't have to go shopping every week. I still need to buy the fresh fruits and veggies, not to mention cheese, yogurt, milk and butter. I know that these are all things that you can buy frozen, but, well I don't. I will buy a bulk bag of frozen berries for smoothies, and a bulk bag of mixed veggies that I can boil up for a quick addition to dinners, but that is about all I do.  I have heard of some people stocking up on dairy items, even milk. They store them in their freezer. But I never know how much my family will drink from one week to the next, and even though we have a chest freezer, space is valuable (seeing as I need to stock it with meat for 3 months).

The hardest thing about this weekly shopping trip is to stick to a list. I am forever going and buying things that aren't on my list (yes I am human). And those $1 items sure do add up fast. One thing that really helps me (although some call me nuts) is on these little weekly trips I take my kids. Why??? Well, it is simple, I have a list of 5-10 items, it should only take me about 10 minutes to get them, which is about that same amount of time my kids behave in the store. So, by taking my kids I am forcing myself to stick to the list and get in and out as fast as I can. For those lucky times when I am kidless, don't go to the store hungry (that is the worst thing you can do) and go when you are in a bit of a hurry so you don't dilly dally in the snack section.

So this weeks list consisted of the following, all bought at King Soopers (I prefer Kings because it usually has decent prices on the things I need, and their quality on the fruit and veggies is so much better then Wally World)...

cheddar cheese - $2.18
2% milk (for the hubs) - $2.79
Whole milk (for the boys) - $2.79
2 bricks of cream cheese - $1 each
2 lbs butter - $2.50 each
2 packs margarine - $0.97 each
tortillas - $0.99
18 eggs - $2.98
4 mangos - $0.88 each
bunch of bananas - $1.55
watermelon - $5.99

Total coming to $31.73, not too bad for a weeks worth of food (remember that I am on my last week of food from the previous quarterly plan, so that is why I get away with this. Obviously these items don't make up all the meals). It took me a little longer this time, because a certain 4 year old decided to walk off on my while I was picking out some bananas. I was still out within 15 minutes, and it only took me 5 min to make up the list, no coupons either.