A Week of Groceries

Bob and I are doing this new thing as of yesterday where we only buy a weeks worth of groceries at at time instead of doing 2 major shops a month and a bunch of random little shops every week. Bob and I are both bad for letting food go to waste. I waste meat. I thaw a couple pieces of chicken and they sit in the fridge, and they sit in the fridge, and they sit in the fridge. Finally it's no good and I chuck it. I'm pretty bad for wasting cereal too. I always buy it and never eat it. If Bob doesn't eat it, it sits there forever and then we chuck it and buy more cereal.

Bob is really bad for wasting fresh produce. He likes taking bananas for lunch, but I always find black bananas on the counter. He goes on health kicks and requests snacking veggies, but never takes them for lunch and they go bad. I serve them to the daycare kids too but they literally eat half a baby carrot and are done. I don't even like baby carrots. They're okay I guess, but just not my thing.

I said that's enough of that. One week of groceries is all we will buy. We eat what we eat and then next week we'll know what to buy. I sat down and planned a rough menu for what we will realistically eat for our meals and what I'll serve the daycare kids. It's all mapped out, so I just need to stick to it. We went to the store last night and bought just what was on the list.

Buying only a handful of fruit of vegetables seems really odd to me. I'm so used to buying 2 dozen apples and 2 bushels of bananas and a big bag of oranges. But that's how the food goes to waste. We buy so much, anticipating that it will last us 2 weeks and then we're bored of it and it goes to waste because we stop eating it.

Our grocery bill came to $90 last night. We bought all fresh food, fruit, veg, dairy, chicken, and also crackers, granola, rice, and bread. We didn't get any cat stuff, baby stuff, toiletries, or cleaning supplies so some weeks are going to be more expensive than this one. But, for a family of 3, (that's also a family of 6 for 16 days a month if I include the daycare kids) to spend $360 - $450 a month on groceries isn't absurd. In Canada, the average household of 2.5 people will spend $500 - $600 a month on groceries according to Discovery Finance.

I could reduce my grocery bill by switching yogurt brands and that sort of thing, but price isn't everything. Nutritional value is most important to me. I don't want to buy a yogurt where the second ingredient is sugar. If it costs $2 extra, so be it. I love yogurt, I eat it every day and I feed it to my daughter, so I may as well eat a brand that has less sugar. (Or make my own, but I'm not up for that challenge yet!)

At the end of the month, we'll see how much we spent, we'll see how much food we wasted, and we'll see if we're any further ahead. I think we will be.