The mundane. Every week I postpone this activity for various reasons. 1. I am annoyed by how much I spend. 2. I shop at safeway, barf. 3. I usually go shopping with both kids. That’s as much fun as having a sharp object through my ear. Today I went on a small grocery trip with my friend, Jenene, to my fave, Trader Joe’s. So much fun. I highly recommend group shopping. The painfulness of spending money is lessened by the ability to bitch about it to someone.
Here’s my question. How much do you spend? Every week I spend at least $150 on groceries alone. I don’t consider myself a poor shopper, I don’t buy crap, we only occasionally buy soda, and I don’t buy a lot of meat. I will admit we absolutely must buy *spirits* or else we will be plain old crabby. Other than ETOH I don’t feel like I can cut anything out. I am not a coupon clipper. I recently was perusing this lady’s grocery blog. She is trying to spend only $50/week on groceries. An interesting idea and definitely admirable. It did guilt me into buying the sunday paper and clipping out ALL the coupons it contained. Other than that I have a few problems with it. First, I don’t want to just buy shitty food. I am not a food snob, but I want to buy my family healthy, good food that is preferably organic. Mostly, I feel BAD giving my kids food that is full of hormones and pesticides. In the end I know they will be fine, but it matters to me. As I age, and probably get more crotchety, I care more about what food I put in my body. Admittedly I don’t buy all organic, nor do I think anyone must. I buy Addy organic milk and yogurt, I buy some organic fruit and vegetables but mostly the ones the kids eat. The damage is done for us. As for meat, the kids don’t really eat much meat and sometimes i buy “regular” and sometimes organic.
This post is so boring. I am getting bored just typing this crap. Help me feel better about myself. Thanks nene for making the mundane fun.
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oh, kit kat. don’t be so hard on yourself. good food costs good money. we ought to line up a group grocery outing bi-weekly. i had great fun today. so enjoyable.
i’m waiting for a frisky post. tonight you did the mundane, now i await tomorrow.
oh, & i would say we spend around $75/week, on average (not including spirits). i’m afraid to actually add all of that up.
ha. crotchety.
i’m probably miscalculating the $75. who am i kidding?
KIT KAT PATTY PACK,
I spend USD20, at max. Maybe you should move the fam here to uruguay. We can share my room, but I warn you, in the winter it is wicked cold. But damn if we don’t drink a lot of spirits.
This post gave me an idea for a blog post, and since you asked me to blog more, you can consider it a personal dedication.
A quick google search led me to this: a list of organic manufacturers who offer coupons and instructions on how to get them.
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/foodsavings/tp/Organic_Coupons.htm
omg, totally hear you on groceries and the blech of grocery shopping, spending money and at least for us, never seeming like we have enough food to eat in the house!! In china we spend about 200$ a month on grocerys/eating out combined - but we’re always feeling hungry and both lose about 10 lbs when we live there, its ridiculous. i’ve been reading that $50 a week grocery budget blog too and been thinking a lot about coupons. lately i have decided that unless the thing is already on my list, im not going to get it just cause its a screaming deal with a coupon, or even free, who wants more sutff around their house anyway? i make my grocery list and then i go to the computer and search for printable coupons, but even then im like - is this really worth it? shame on me, i just shop at walmart when im in the usa. its so smack cheap.
First I will start by saying that I LOVE to grocery shop, only because I love the deals and coupons and seeing how much I saved at the end of the trip!!
I always clip coupons, but only for the things I use. I also try to only buy things when they are on sale. I just freeze the food. I even freeze my milk. I spend about $130. every two weeks, that does not include the alcohol though.
I have, on average, 400 diapers in Madeleine’s closet at any given time. I refuse to by diapers without a coupon and when they are on sale. I really like when you get a $5. gift card from target for buying two!! I also love rebate checks…. mail then in ALL the time!! : )
Ok girl, we are right there with you. We buy almost ALL organic EVERYTHING. Which means Ben has $12 soap on his precious body and $12 lotion as well. So just our Whole Foods bill each week is typically 150-180 and that makes me gag even though it has been our life for the past 4 years. My mom says, you can’t put a price and good health so that is what I tell myself. I agree though, the damage is completely done on us but I refuse to let Ben have the same fate…at least give him a fighting chance. So I just swipe the card and know that he is getting the best I can give him. It is sad though when you buy a can of $5 F’ing Tuna. Come on!
Are the rich countries imposing the richest of tastes on the poorest of people?
“The post-modern dreamers of the North are the reason for the harsh reality of the African peasant. However oversimplified this can be, there is a core of truth in it. As the organic dreamers of the rich countries in the north gained the momentum and all the more adherence, the support for science-based farming in the 1980s sharply diminished. This resulted in catastrophic neglect for the modernization of farming. When the U.S. Agency for International Development was still devoting 25 percent of its official development assistance to the modernization of farming at the end of the 80s, it is merely one percent today. The statistics for the World Bank aren’t any better with a drop from almost 30 percent to the current 8 percent.
Agricultural modernization is the way out of poverty and Europeans should know that. For the agricultural revolution has once enabled the European farmers to escape poverty with the British agricultural revolution in the 18th an 19th century spreading across Europe and eventually facilitating the industrial revolution. But some official donors and nongovernmental agencies are non the less still trying to block farm modernization in Africa. And then we don’t even speak of the European governments and NGOs who promote regulatory systems that block the use of genetically engineered crops, including crops capable of resisting insects without pesticide sprays.
In Europe only 4 percent of cropland is currently being farmed organically (and less than 1 percent in America), but Africa, so does the West seem to demand, has to be 100 percent organic. By this approach, perhaps unknowingly, the affluent countries are imposing the richest of tastes on the poorest of people. This way the African peasant stays organic but poor. This way the rich are starving the poor.”
I spend at least that much Kat…and I really don’t buy extra crap either. I think you have to spend that much to really eat something healthy…not something out of a box. we were more disciplined last year but we really were hungry all the time, and its just too much on top of all the other stresses in life. I’ve started focusing on saving in other areas…eating out, haircuts, toys, clothes, extras…. I know you spend next to nothing on this stuff since you are both so thrifty–so don’t stress about the groceries. Things are just dang expensive right now anyway.
Oh, I’m so bored skim my comment: I do the same. Around $150/week at TJ’s. We buy organic dairy and meat and the necessary fruits and veggies. I never use coupons from the Sunday newspaper because I’m not in the habit of buying fruit roll ups or gushers anyway.
PS: Since comments are closed on your goals post I just thought I’d inform you that I have already achieved all those goals that you’ve outlined for yourself in 2009. In fact I achieved them in 2008. I’m in med school and my first lab will be to deliver my third child who is not impeding my career aspirations. Just thought you’d like to know. K. Bye.
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