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Archive for March, 2020

A month of groceries

March 31st, 2020 at 12:17 am

2 weeks ago I posted I needed to shop, well I didn't. Decided we would make do with what we had and try to last. So we went another two weeks scrounging frozen veggies and luckily the oranges and apples lasted.

Well this month I went to costco first time since Feb 28th for a HUGE shopping trip. I spent $500 on food. It should last about another month. During my Feb trip I spent around $500 and we made it. This time I think we are also okay. I got a package of toilet paper, extra lysol toilet bowl cleaner, windex, large ziploc bags, etc.

I also got unfortunately only 1 package of lactose free milk, I am worrying if I have to go back. I'll wait and limit the kids more. In feb I had 3 packages = 9 * 1/2 gallons of milk. Now I have 3. I also bought 5 dozen eggs non-organic since I was limited to 1 as well. In Feb I had 2 x 24 organic eggs and we have less than 6 left.

I managed to find flour at safeway so I bought 2 - 5 lb bags. I also grabbed 2 - 4 lb sugars. I also snagged 2 - 2 packs of rubber gloves just in case. I was down to my last gloves for cleaning and washing dishes. I also grabbed a spare laundry detergent.
All in all a successful trip and one I probably won't have to replicated for a bit.

I grabbed a ribeye steak roast for tonight DH sliced and we're smoking for dinner. We'll be sharing 2 pieces with neighbors. Twice cooked potatoes, corn, and broccoli for dinner. Then bulgogi tomorrow night with bok choy (i bought 2 cases which will last i hope 2 weeks, we eat a lot of veggies). Then Wednesday our neighbor is offering to cook, so a meal break. Then I'm thinking a loco moco or taco thursday, burger friday, indian chicken curry saturday, teriyaki skewers sunday.

There is fluidity in our meals. I also got bagels for breakfast and will make a couple of bagel egg and bacon sandwiches I also got the girls strawberries 2 packages and we're almost done with 1 today. I did also buy mangoes, asian pears, bananas, and golden nugget mandarins. Again trying to stretch out the fruit.

The cashier said are you an instacard shopper? I said no this is me shopping for a month. I said I haven't been in since Feb 28th. Both the cashier and packer looked at me and said thank you. Thank you for not coming in. Good luck and see you next month. I also bought stuff for a neighbor so I had two overflowing shopping carts.

I ended up spending $500. $500 seemed like a lot (actually it was $850 because I bought Toto Bidet) not sure if we are going to keep and use it. I nearly died when I found out. But the truth is we usually spend about 4x as much eating out and groceries. Usually I spend about $1k a month on groceries and $1k/month eating out. How do I spend so much more on groceries when we eat out?

Because I don't normally shop sales, I got to the store and buy whatever we feel like and prepare it. I host at least 1x/week friends or family dinner and we make something. $100 for cheese, wine, beer, food is par for the course once a week if not more. I also buy lots of fresh fruit in smaller sizes and more expensive prices going to the store more often because it's fresher and less waste. But now we eat everything in bulk since we are at home 3 meals a day. Before I would buy something small and make it fresh. Now it's like well how can I make it stretch for 2 dinners or dinner and lunch?

Anyway I like reading what people are cooking it gives me inspiration. Keep it coming.

This weekend we made spareribs and teriyaki chicken. we also had pulled pork DH made couple of different ways. See dinner below....smoked steak

when the shoe drops

March 15th, 2020 at 06:16 am

The shoe hasn't dropped yet. I need to shop tomorrow and stock up a bit more. I shopped and bought a lot about 2 weeks ago. DH was concerned and said we should. So I did. But we've spent two weeks eating what I bought and carefully using what we had. And now 2 weeks later it's worse and I need to shop for food.

We've been very boring. We've been mostly avoiding people. We've been eating in. We haven't been doing much except work and school. But now school is off till end of April. DH is working from home indefinitely. I am pulling back on working. So we are going to self quarantine basically.

I'll post if things change or maybe tomorrow after I see how the stores are. I'm terrified to see. My friend works at costco and she said it's crazy. It's been insane and they are working like mad.