Adventures At The Grocery

Actually, it was quite depressing.  Although I had researched the sales, I still couldn't get everything I wanted to get.  It basically equals cutting back on protein, calcium and missing whole meals.

Below is the list of what I had on my carefully crafted shopping list and the actual prices at the grocery.  I have noted the sale items which comprise half the list:

Parmesan	1.99		Sale
Oatmeal	1.69
½ Gallon Milk	2.65
Yoghurt (6)	3.00		Sale
Coffee	1.99		Sale
Pasta	0.99		Sale
Rice	0.99
Canned Tomato	0.88		Sale
Tomato Paste	0.79
Chicken broth	1.39
Kidney Beans	1.09
Ground Turkey	4.99		Sale
Chicken legs	5.36		Sale
Dried Lentils	1.49
Eggs	2.79
Butter	1.50
Peanut butter	2.50		Sale
Small bottle of oil	1.99		Sale
Total:	37.47

Looking at the list and taking into consideration that I only had 24.26 left in my budget, you can see I had to do some pretty creative thinking.  

I dropped the chicken legs.  Although on a great sale, they were packaged in 4lb to 5lb packages.  So I opted to keep the ground turkey.  Still, by stretching the turkey with rice and kidney beans, I will have lost at least 4 meals.  Notice how the chicken was dropped first?  It was the most expensive item. 

Dropping butter and Parmesan was a no brainer. 

I dropped tomato paste and bought two cans of crushed tomato on sale instead of the planned for one can.   I'll need to make up those missing meals with starchy meals of pasta and sauce.

Two boxes of pasta instead of one.  That should add four meals.

I also dropped the oatmeal.  I'll eat an egg and toast every day and just tough it out.  I was planning on eating oatmeal every morning and using the eggs as omelets for lunch and dinners.  That's 7 meals cut out.  

I dropped the can of chicken broth.  I usually make my lentil soup with one can broth, one can water.

Yoghurt too was dropped completely.  Although this omission does not represent a meal, it represents an important component to lunches and means dropping important calcium from my diet.  

So this is the actual list of what I bought:

½ Gallon Milk	2.65
Coffee	1.99		Sale
Pasta	2.00		Sale
Rice	0.99
Canned Tomato	1.76		Sale
Kidney Beans	1.09
Ground Turkey	4.99		Sale
Dried Lentils	1.49
Eggs	2.79
Peanut butter	2.50		Sale
Small bottle of oil	1.99		Sale
Total:	24.23

I just made it with .03 cents to spare.  I'd like to note, that if the sales weren't as good as they were this week, I would have wound up being able to buy only one can of crushed tomato and one box of pasta which meant 4 additional meals would be missing.

What concerns me more is although I think I can make it by on the fruit and veg I've bought, I look at this menu and there is severe lacking in dairy/calcium.  Even though I've filled in with beans and legumes, peanut butter and will stretch the ground turkey with rice, proteins are also lacking.  

I'd like to say I'm sure I can make this a healthy and balanced diet but estimating the above, I've lost 7 meals.  That would have been 11 meals had the pasta and crushed tomatoes not been on sale.  I can fill it in by eating peanut butter on bread.  Filling, but certainly not balanced.  Not unhealthy, but not exactly healthy.  

It's not a fail, exactly, but I'm not sure one could call it a success either.  I'll see how far I can get on what I've bought.