The Grocery Market Mission

So about 10 weeks ago i embarked on what i have lovingly deemed "The Grocery Market Mission".  After a few bouts at the grocery store this past year of spending $200 or more for only 1 week of groceries, i felt like i was bankrupting us with my liberal love of food. So i decided to go on a mission.

Some background:
I adore food. I love, crave, dream, desire, and am completely smitten with food. If you know me, you've undoubtedly seen me practically make love to a spoon or dance and wiggle in my seat while eating. I have very strong beliefs about food too. Yes, i subscribe to the "food as medicine" philosophy, but i also subscribe to "food as therapy" (chocolate as antidepressants). I believe in organics (when affordable and can be found). I believe in growing food, eating meat (and hunting in a sustainable way), whole foods, and the occasional "half" food (as long as it contains good ingredients and is affordable). I believe in pizza parties and making fancy ice cream. I believe in making donuts in the fry daddy ever fall because they're just amazing and a world without donuts would mean there are a lot of a'holes running around...

All that said, the 'mission' was to see if i could spend less money on food without having to compromise my beliefs and joys. I am fully aware that i am prone to indulgence and that we could live quite well on a cheaper diet of tuna noodle casserole (which is good, but only once a year or so).


The mission:
I was spending between $160 and $200 at the grocery store every week.  We are a family of four, myself (34 yr old female, moderate activity most days), my husband (33 yr old male, moderate to strenuous activity most days), my 7 year old daughter, and 5 year old son.

The mission was to save some money. As simple as that. I started out hoping i could spend less than $100 per week on food. We have a small CSA share for veggies and i borrowed my father in law's Sam's Club card and bought some large quantities of things like kid snacks, dried cranberries, nuts, toilet paper, dish soap...  So between the grocery store, the csa, and sam's club i was hoping to spend less than $100/week to feed us all. This did not happen. it worked out great the first week but after that it was bedlam.


The results:
So the first week was a success. Every week after that, it didn't work out. I quickly learned that despite the CSA and Sam's club, i still was spending between $80-160/ week for food.  I have two more weeks to go in my 12 week study. So the absolute results are not quite in yet.  but i did come to some conclusions:

1) It is cheaper if i spread my shopping out to include Sam's Club or better yet Trader Joe's.  Sam's club is cheap alright and even cheaper because we're on my father in law's account. However, they don't have a lot of the things we eat (non-sugary granola bars for example - and yes, i could (and have) make my own, but i have mixed feelings about that which i'll get into another time).  Trader Joe's is great for kid snacks, but it's crowded as all hell and i always buy WAY too much

2) I learned some great things like: how to make yogurt, and dry beans do taste better.

3) Making my own yogurt and cooking dry beans vs. canned, is not necessarily saving us all that much money. Well, maybe the beans are...?

4) Every little bit counts. We did save some money. And while i felt like a failure (because i didn't meet my $100/week goal), we ended up spending an average of $146/week on groceries. This doesn't feel like a huge difference to what i was spending before the mission, but if i add it up we're spending at least $1000 less per year on food. That's $1000 that we can save (or spend on vacations to west africa or buy a motorcycle with).

Summer Lovin'

Last week i turned 34. It did not feel significant perse. I do not feel particularly older, i do not feel decrepit or lost... While at Chincoteague Island the first week of this month, i did go through a very slight mental crisis of realizing that instances of being hit on by young men are becoming more and more rare. I miss being hit on... i know it's shallow and vain and that this is just another demonstration of my large ego that continues to trip me up in life. I think i'm mostly beyond that little crisis though...

I adore my birthday. I adore holidays in general. Any reason to dote on my loved ones (and myself), eat decadent food, sing, dance, shout, visit with all the people i love but hardly ever see...  Ben's present to me this year was to help me throw a giant party complete with shrimp boil.  We crashed a wedding in New Orleans a couple years ago (Thanks R&R) and the happy couple threw a shrimp boil during the weekend of joy and ever since then, i've wanted to host our own. To top it all off, my mama did a trade with some friends of ours: artwork for a performance (they're performers, Fairie Ring Theater). So they came and did a small story telling performance which was fun and funny. So many people came. So much good food was eaten. So many children and babies!!!! Years ago, Ben and I were practically the only ones with kids... In the last two years, it seems everyone we know has gotten  knocked up. It's pretty amazing seeing all these babies around and getting to enjoy babies without having to have any more of my own (this kitchen is closed!!!).

In other news, have i discussed my obsession with yoga this year? I have always enjoyed yoga and have had an on-off practice for probably 18 years or so now. But only this past year have i given it significant attention. It helps that I have more resources this year (can afford classes and workshops) but it also helps that I have new friends who are yoga instructors (Hi Nichole and Stephanie!!!) and can discuss and share the challenge of trying to bring the practice of yoga into all facets of my life. Grace, accepting limitations, strength, breathing, patience, and flexibility are not just for my mat. I have even gone as far as considering getting my 200 hour certification and possibly an aerial certification on top of that (i'm struggling with this in that is this ego or is this something i very much want to/feel driven to do). Not that i can afford it in time or money but it's an idea...

It has been a wonderful summer so far. I relish getting up an hour later every day and not having to pack lunches and backpacks and meet the bus. I LOVE spending the day with my kids, even if it can be frustrating trying to work and keep them occupied at the same time. I love the long days and the trips and vacations and feeling spoiled. I love our gardens and our bees and our chickens and this feeling of having enough (love, food, space, daylight, dollars, things to do). Soon as summer waxes and fall looms the feeling of enough will bloom into abundance and then back again to the deficit of winter... but for now, for this moment, it is all enough.