I think some of this (over?) planning is paying off.
Of course, this picture is garbage. And since we shopped on five separate occasions, is not representative of the entire food collection. But I took it at eight in the morning, for two very good reasons:
- Almost everything we needed in our main grocery trip was on sale only on that day.
- We were leaving in half an hour to go do this at my brother's house (two hours away):
And let me tell you, shopping (by yourself) at seven-thirty on a Saturday morning is fantastic. You get to drink coffee. And you don't have to stop at the lobster tank for ten minutes. Except for the rushing to get everyone fed, pottied, packed up and ready for an all day trip in forty-five minutes, I'd do that every week if I could.
The food that didn't make it into the picture: rice, steak, raspberries, blueberries, zucchini, beets, cheese, eggs, creamer, milk, bananas, coffee, a pork roast and cloverleaf flavoured tuna. Six cans, good for my lunches with a slice of homemade bread, and my only coupon savings for the week (on sale for $0.99, with a $0.50 off of each pair).
Coupons are fine, don't get me wrong. I'll look for, organize and carry around little slips of paper any day of the week if it'll save me $0.50, because that's the kind of girl I am. But they're not going to change the kind of food we eat, which is this:
You might notice some duplicates from last week's menu plan. One of the great things about trying to reduce our food waste is that it means we often have enough leftovers for supper too. And one of the terrible things about trying to reduce our food waste is that it means we often have enough leftovers for supper too.
We also replaced one of last week's meals with that steak and risotto plate of deliciousness we love so much. And one night we fed the kids, put them to bed and ate Brie and leftover Root Beer Pulled Pork on crackers for supper.
So instead of massive coupon savings, let's be happy about the $24.53 in sale savings instead. And the fact that - for the first time since The $34.27 Challenge - I'm under budget for the week.
I really can learn. Hm. Who knew?
