Weekly Shopping Report

I'd like to start tracking what I am spending where. The chart on the sidebar is not up to date, but I plan to work on it in the next couple of days. To start with, I will put a photo of what my money bought me this week, and from where. This was a significant week, because this is the first one that I haven't shopped at Trader Joe's!

From the farm, I got a bag of produce that included fresh herbs, pears, cabbage, assorted peppers, a small winter squash, tomatoes, beets with greens, corn and leeks. I also ordered 1 1/2 gallons of raw cow's milk and a dozen eggs from pastured hens. The bill was $35.

I went to a local grocery that sells a lot of local and organic produce, and bought a loaf of locally made sourdough como bread, spaghetti squash, limes (not local, but cheaper than the non-local lemons that were available,) and quite a few red peppers to roast and pickle for future use. The bill was $11. That sourdough bread was almost $4, which seems pretty expensive-- but the bread is super good. We usually buy two each week, but I didn't buy the second one, with the hopes of baking a loaf myself this week.

Next stop was our local co-op, to find some things I usually buy at TJs, plus some staples. I found some good organic, local butter and cream for a bit more than the organic ones that I usually buy. I also bought organic garbanzo beans, flour (for breadmaking,) mung beans and quinoa. The most disappointing part was looking for chocolate. I usually buy a couple of good-sized bars of dark chocolate each week, never for more than $2 each. There were a lot of organic, fair-trade chocolates available, but were VERY expensive, and the only local ones were EXTREMELY expensive-- $3.69 for a very small bar. I bought one, and then another also smallish bar that was made in WA, also for over $3. I really doubt these will last me the week! My bill at the co-op was $30.

So I spent $77, which leaves me with $23 for the week. I would still like to buy some bacon from our local meat place, Otto's. We also usually buy a bottle of wine each week, but the local ones at the co-op were mostly over $10 each (sad face.) I'll keep looking. I didn't buy any meat this week because I had previously ordered a couple of whole chickens from the farm, and have one left, plus a roast from Jeff's mom. We'll probably need the extra money I didn't spend to order a couple more chickens next week. Also, we are buying part of a free-range, organic steer that was recently harvested-- we are going in on that with Jeff's family, and I don't know yet how much our portion will cost.

Overall, I think this week was pretty successful, but I have yet to cook the meals and see how far these groceries will carry us! I will keep you posted on that.