$50 a week

My husband get's paid once a week which means I have to stretch our grocery money for 4 and sometimes 5 weeks. The only way I am able to do that is if I set myself a limit each week.  When he first gets paid I do a big shopping day. Things like meat, butter, milk, and anything else we are out of.  I usually order from Azure Standard around this time as well. I order flour, fruit and herbs because they are much cheaper there. Then after that I set aside $50 per week ($200 total) for things we will need to get each week. Milk and produce is what I usually will need. Anything I don't spend from that money is saved. This way I know I have enough money and food to get by each week.
Today I went to 4 stores that were within a few miles of each other. I only do this once a week because I honestly I really do not like shopping at all. Most of you think I only buy organic but honestly its just not possible for me right now. Having to feed a family of 6 I have to give in on a few things. Here is what I picked up today.

Whole Foods

1 bottle Bragg Liquid Amino's. 32 oz for $5.99.We use this instead of soy sauce because it has half the amount of sodium as soy sauce and its much healthier. They do sell it in bulk there but it was a better deal by the bottle. Usually I would bring my own container. Usually it is $3.99 per lb in bulk.

Organic Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar $3.99. I really need to order it through Azure Standard . Its cheaper because you can order it by the gallon. There are so many ways to use this liquid gold. Check out why its so healthy at Earth Clinic. Anytime I need a remedy to any ailment I go to this site and nine times out of ten it requires apple cider vinegar. You want the unfiltered organic because it has mother in it. Mother refers to the cloudy stuff inside the vinegar.

Sunshine Half n Half .99 cents-Usually its $1.49 but in my Chinook Book I had a 50 cents off coupon and I use this stuff anytime I have coffee so the coupon was nice to have.  Right now most stores have the Chinook Book for only $15 (usually $20). I love this half  n half because the milk from cows are not treated with rBGH/rBST which is a synthetic growth hormone.  Plus this dairy is local to me.

365 large brown eggs free range vegetarian fed $3.49-These eggs were free thanks to my handy Chinook Book! Spend $10 in the store and I got these for free. Usually I pick up their 18 count for $2.99 that are also free range vegetarian fed but hey these were free.

Organic Nancy's Yogurt $4.99 on sale. This is plain yogurt and a great sale. Usually this cost over $6. My girls will add granola, fruit, dried fruit and sometimes even cookies with agave syrup. I also use it when I bake sometimes. Since I do not buy sugar filled cereals this is a morning staple in our home. I have not mastered making my own yogurt urrrrr!!! Still trying though.

BONUS Large slice of pizza for FREE! Again that Chinook book has a wonderful coupon for a free slice of pizza.   No kids and free pizza? Whahoo!

New Seasons

Bulk dishwasher powder $1.99 per lb.  Love this because it involved no packaging! And I can buy as much or as little as I want. I use half the amount it calls for so mine goes pretty far.  I have an amazing Kitchen Aid dishwasher so I really do not need to add much soap.

1 gallon of organic milk $4.99. The most I will ever pay for milk is $5.  If it cost anymore I will go to another store. Thankfully my girls do not drink a ton of milk so I only need one gallon a week. I also buy vitamin D milk because it has healthy fat. Just cannot drink low fat because it taste like water to us. I tried my hand at buying glass jar milk but it was twice the price for half the amount of milk. Just too expensive. But it was nice to be able to recycle that glass jar.

Organic Purple Potatoes .89 cents per lb. Picked up about 6 of these small potatoes to save in my pantry. When the weather gets nice I will plant these in my garden. How cook will it be to dig those suckers up later? My kids are going to love this one! And yes you can buy them from the store and plant them.  Just make sure they are organic. You know when you have old potatoes that start growing? That's when they are ready to plant. Just make sure you plant roots on the bottom. Last year I bought 50lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes and had about 1 lb start growing. Planted them and when all was said and done I had another 20 lbs of potatoes a couple of weeks later. Love potatoes!

Organic Banana's .89 cents per lb. Any fruit that is  organic and less than $1 per lb will be what we eat. I refuse to pay over $1. Usually the stuff on sale is in season anyways.

Costco 


Organic Sugar 10lbs $8.89.  This is the cheapest I have found Organic sugar in my area.  I DO NOT like the fact that it comes in plastic but it is recyclable.

Tortilla Chips $3.39-This is our junk food.  This is a really large bag of them and it goes pretty far for us. Costco does have organic tortilla chips but honestly we just do not like them. They are harder and less flavorful. So this is our usual. At the end of the bag when we have just crumbs I like to make tortilla soup. Basically its a tomato, corn, black olive and garlic soup with some chili pepper.  Then we crumble the tortilla crumbs over the top and add 1 tsp of sour cream. MMmmm. And NO WASTE!

Pretzels 6lbs for $5.29. Once again not organic but these are a great snack for my girls. Endless lunch snacks, after school snacks, and just for taking on the road.  This bag will last us the whole month.  Plastic bag can be recycled. DAMN plastic.

Fred Meyers


Organic Navel Oranges .99 cents per lb. I will only shop at Fred Meyers when and if they have a sale on healthy items. Sometimes their bulk herbs are on sale and sometimes its produce.  5 oranges should get us by for the week.

Dairygold Sour Cream $2 on sale.  Once again organic sour cream is just too expensive. We go through tons of sour cream so this will have to be  a non organic purchase.  Most the time I will try to buy Sunshine Dairy sour cream but I really wanted to just go home so Dairygold it is.

MY GRAND TOTAL:$51.50

Yes I went over my $50 limit but honestly I had a little extra money from last week. This should last us till next Monday.  As you can see i'm not perfect and do not buy everything organic. I try my best to do it as much as possible. But feeding a family of 6 can get expensive. Keep in mind that I don't need to buy these things each week. Liquid Amino's, sugar, and pretzels only need to be bought once every other month. Just happens to be this week. Anyways thats a peek at my weekly shopping.