Week's Groceries & Slaving Away {some}

That's the shopping for the week. Grand total: $23.35

Sounds good, doesn't it? Excellent even. Well, it's not really as good as it sounds. There's no milk, hardly any fruit, just one box of crackers for snacking on, and probably not enough cheese. 

I had to buy 3 dozen eggs last week, as well as double the cheese, and the eggs weren't as cheap as usual. This week they are at the same price but when you have a budget, sometimes you just have to go without. And we still have 1/2 a gallon of milk from last week.

I decided to 'be smart' and buy tube ground turkey at $1.69/lb rather than ground chicken at $2.89/lb. I much prefer the chicken. And two pounds of ground turkey actually equals about 1.5 pounds when it's cooked. Not so smart...

It's quite silly that the sugar-laden foods cost less than the better-for-you foods. That spaghetti sauce is $1.19 and has too much sugar. Really, spaghetti sauce doesn't need sugar! Last time I splurged and bought the sugarless {and that means no sugars, no sweeteners} for $1.69. The taste of the more expensive is superior {I don't listen to what my kids say *wink*}. 

I bought corn and peas this week in lieu of the usual "California Medley" that has broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. It's not a lot more, about $.14, but for some reason, I'm feeling the crunch on my groceries and just had to save that $.28 this week. And I wanted something different.

I decided to try something else this week. I usually plan out the meals for the week and then buy what's needed. This week I bought stuff and will plan the meals around what I bought. And I'm pre-cooking some things. We have quite a good supply of white rice and just slightly less brown rice. We also have some beans {I want to get more of those though}. Not long ago I bought millet to try so we still have some of that as well. I'm pre-cooking all of these things.

It's not a huge amount but I think {hope} it'll make meals easier to prepare. Now.. I just have to make the menu. I have a dread that dear hubby may not like so much beans and rice. But hey, at least there's some meat and cheese.

I was going to chop up some onions for the freezer as well {that comes in super handy!} but just don't have the energy left after cooking all this and making dinner, too. Another day...