The Food - Grocery List

I've been shopping - a LOT - this week. In order to make my food budget stretch over six weeks and get a variety of taste & nutrition, I had to make at least a basic plan, and that included shopping around for the best prices, considering which foods need to be organic & where I'll compromise, choosing alternate foods to provide similar nutrition at a cheaper price, etc. I don't do well with starches in my diet at all, I need fermented cod liver oil to function well & stay healthy, and the kid says he can't live without cheese. Actually, considering the need kids have for animal-sourced vitamin A & other nutrients, he may be right about that, but that's a topic for another day. :) Beyond that, I think we can be a bit adaptable as long as we both get plenty of good fats & proteins - i.e. real butter, cheese, eggs, nuts, etc. - and as long as it tastes good.

Here's what I've bought so far:

From Real Foods Market:

1 quart heavy whipping cream, grassfed & non-homogenized - $9.29

3 gallons whole raw milk from grassfed cows $13.78 (buy 2, get 1 free sale - very rare!)

1.87 lbs. organic sucanat ($2.99/lb.) - $5.59

1 bottle fermented cod liver oil, cinnamon tingle flavor - $43.99?

From Winco:

1.1 lbs. freshly ground peanut butter ($1.98/lb.) - $2.18

0.54 lbs. honey ($3.48/lb.) - $1.88

3.39 lbs. organic coconut flour ($3.18/lb.) - $10.78

4 lbs. strawberries - $4.98

11 bananas - $2.86

1 1/2 lbs. spinach - $4.28

3 lg. lemons - $1.74

1.74 lbs. raw cashew pieces ($2.69/lb.) - $4.68

4.37 lbs. raw sunflower seeds ($1.48/lb.) - $6.47

1.06 lbs. broccoli crowns ($0.98/lb.) - $1.04

1 bunch green onions - $0.58

2 lg. roma tomatoes ($0.59/lb.) - $0.46

2 lbs. cheese, no added hormones or antibiotics - $7.48

5 lbs. butter, no growth hormones ($3.07/lb.) - $15.35

2 lg. containers full-fat Greek yogurt, no hormones ($2.48 ea. sale) - $4.96

2.00 lbs. regular rolled oats ($0.63/lb.) - $1.26

1 bunch kale - $1.48

0.26 lb. ginger ($1.98/lb.) - $0.51

0.40 lbs. poppyseeds ($4.22/lb.) - $1.69

1.45 lbs. black turtle beans ($0.99/lb.) - $1.44

0.22 lb. mung beans ($1.95/lb.) - $0.43

1 avocado - $0.68

1 whole Foster Farms chicken ($1.28/ lb. sale) - $7.53

0.99 lb. red seedless grapes ($0.98/lb.) - $0.97

1 bottle olive oil - $4.98

From Target:

1 box whole grain pasta - $1.29

 From my back yard:

3 dozen eggs ($2.50/dozen) - $7.50

From Costco:

1 bag Kirkland Signature organic tortilla chips - $3.99?
2 loaves Aspen Mills Whole Wheat bread - $4.99

From a previous bulk order on Azure Standard:

2 lbs. organic popcorn - $2.50?

----------------------- Total spent so far (with tax added): $189.20 ----------------------

Wow! That's a long list to type out, and it's taken a big chunk of our budget, but it sure doesn't look like much in our kitchen. Hmmmmmm...

I'll keep you posted on how we use it. The kid is already lamenting the lack of "healthy butter" (his words, not mine) because he has been used to eating "Pasture Butter" that we normally buy at Real Foods Market. In fact, we're both used to "the good stuff" because we did an experiment 2 years ago of eating only what is sold at that lovely store, and we both felt soooooo good that we didn't want to go back even though we really weren't eating an "unhealthy" diet before that. The nutrition was simply better because Real Foods Market focuses on providing the most nutrient-dense foods available. I know that what we're doing here isn't ideal, but I'm working to make food as nutritious as possible within a small budget, and that doesn't always buy us what's ideal. Let's face it - if it were ideal, we would eat a diet made up completely of foods that are grown fresh and organically in our own backyards and neighborhoods & nearby mountains, milking our own cows or goats, catching fish from local streams, making our own cheese & butter & sauerkraut & traditional sourdough bread...but we've gotten far away from that as a society, so there are going to be some compromises. I'm okay with that - for now ;) - and I look forward to learning on this journey with you!