So on this blog you’ll see lots about my writing, lots about God, my family, and lots about my life. Basically my life, of which God is a part, and so is writing, my family, etc. It’s a one-stop shop–welcome, if this is your first time.

The love of my life and I have a group on Facebook called Common Cents (click to join!). It’s a place for people to get together to have some real talk about money, get out of debt, and stay out of debt. Charles and I currently use YNAB budgeting software, and are on week 7 of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

I’ve promised since January to make a grocery post. I did do a lengthy one IN the group, which I’ll reproduce into a post later, but I hadn’t posted our totals and items for one week’s worth of shopping. We’re a family of 6 that eat whole/natural/organic whenever possible, and mostly gluten free along with no/limited refined sugar.

Last Friday I went grocery shopping and spent $175.47, which is under our budgeted $200 per week, and got all this food!

This week did not include a Costco run. So, how’d I do it?

First, I went to our local discount pantry grocer, Deals and Steals in Northampton, MA. The back left corner of the table, where you see the Cascadian Farms food, Earth Balance crackers, and other name-brand foods come from there. They sell food that has to be removed from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods (and other large grocer) shelves after a certain amount of time, even if the food isn’t expired. Some of the food might be “out of date” but not expired. For instance, the organic PB I’ve been buying every week is “Best By” January 2016. But it’s fine. And at $1.99 for the jar–I’ll take it. See if you have one in your area–I bet you do. Since we have lots of gluten free needs, I shop here a lot. But not for pastas or breads, because Aldi and Trader Joes are far cheaper in those two categories. I get school snacks, boxed cereal sometimes, and pantry items here depending on what they have.

I spent $47.73 at Deals and Steals on items that will last 2-2.5 weeks. I don’t have an itemized receipt from them, but my pull did include raw organic almond butter, organic pb, organic Wolfgang Puck canned soup (4 cans), 6 boxes of Cascadian Farms granola bars (3 of the crunch PB kind and three of some seed kind that doesn’t have nuts in it that were $0.99 EACH!) Earth Balance vegan cheddar crackers @ 3 for $1.00, some gluten-free pancake mix, and a few other things.

The bulk of my grocery shopping this week came from Aldi. It’s a long list, so I’m just going to post two pictures of the receipt. At the top are a couple of frozen pizzas which have already come in handy and are far cheaper than ordering out when you run out of time or plain don’t feel like cooking. The meat this week was not organic, though the roasting chicken claims to be relatively healthy. We do buy organic/human whenever possible, but it’s not always possible without huge sacrifices elsewhere. The goal for us is MOST of the time. And, as our finances get in better shape, we’re able to buy more and more things organically. The bigger deal is making sure we’re eating the most whole foods, organic or not. If your choice is getting your kids to eat veggies but they’re not organic, or not eating veggies at all, give them the non-orgnic veggies.

Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, or join Common Cents, we’d love to have you!

You’ll notice that aside from the school snack stuff, I buy mostly ingredients, rather than prepared food. I’ll talk recipes/ menu planning in another post. Stay tuned!

xo

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