Did I mention this would be a large grocery week? Indeed, it was. There were many shopping trips (I count five, in fact), and many kinds of food. At the end of this post, I'll share C-son's cherry smoothie recipe.
The grocery shopping began early with a trip to Maplehofe Dairy, a dozen miles away from us, to purchase their grass-fed beef-and-etcetera. 50 lbs of hamburger at a bit less than $3/lb. 20 lbs of local no-BHT butter at $2.25/lb. 20 lbs. of cheese for $3-4/lb. A few odds and ends. The boys got to gawk at real cows and also to have large ice cream cones. $245 later, we got back in the car for our next stop, the nearby BB's.
BB's (stands for bent and broken) is a modern version of gleaning. Dented cans, boxes of food that fell off the pallet, etc. It's sort of out in the middle of nowhere; the boys stayed outdoors near the horse end of a horse-and-buggy, which was another amusing diversion for them. First cows, then a horse! This is a place that takes cash but not credit cards. The customers are an eclectic mix of the local Amish, resettled refugees, and (now that I've found it) cheapos like me. We got 20 lbs of spaghetti (80¢/lb), a bunch of dijon mustard at 60¢/jar, a few more dented tomato sauce cans and . . . to the ecstatic delight of the boys . . . AXE! Yes, they're going to smell like MEN! Food and fragrance together ran us another $42.
There were two random trips to a real grocery store -- mushroom soup for J-son's stroganoff, pickling salt, and dinky plastic creamer containers that my husband can take along on his army drill these next three weeks. (Apparently, the army provides 2% milk instead of real coffee cream. Military service is certainly a dire hardship). These trips ran us another $36.
And just when I thought I was done, the weekend rolled around. My first solo days with the boys, and I was looking for a way to keep them busy. Our latest issue of Chop Chop Magazine -- and can I say, I LOVE that magazine -- has several recipes for fruit smoothies, and my sons are seriously hooked. In fact, they've experimented with any fruit we have lying around, tricky because there's been less and less of it. So I suggested going cherry picking.
Cherry picking? YES! The younger boys balked, but C-son has lately been on a one-man mission to be as ultra-productive as possible, and his determination was the flame to the moth-desires of the other boys. We picked 25 lbs of cherries ($55). We pitted them with a wooden pencil (the metal end, with the eraser removed -- many thanks to Janeric for the suggestion!).
Now we've got more than a dozen jars of canned cherries,
several trays of dehydrated cherries,
a bowl of cherries to eat,
and also some cherries for smoothies. Here, for your own gustatory pleasure, is my new son's recipe:
C-son's Cherry Smoothie:
- cherries, pitted
- coconut pieces
- water
- yogurt
Mix this together in the blender. Yum.
******
The summary for the week: a whopping $378 this week, bringing the 15-week average up to $160/week.
The grocery shopping began early with a trip to Maplehofe Dairy, a dozen miles away from us, to purchase their grass-fed beef-and-etcetera. 50 lbs of hamburger at a bit less than $3/lb. 20 lbs of local no-BHT butter at $2.25/lb. 20 lbs. of cheese for $3-4/lb. A few odds and ends. The boys got to gawk at real cows and also to have large ice cream cones. $245 later, we got back in the car for our next stop, the nearby BB's.
BB's (stands for bent and broken) is a modern version of gleaning. Dented cans, boxes of food that fell off the pallet, etc. It's sort of out in the middle of nowhere; the boys stayed outdoors near the horse end of a horse-and-buggy, which was another amusing diversion for them. First cows, then a horse! This is a place that takes cash but not credit cards. The customers are an eclectic mix of the local Amish, resettled refugees, and (now that I've found it) cheapos like me. We got 20 lbs of spaghetti (80¢/lb), a bunch of dijon mustard at 60¢/jar, a few more dented tomato sauce cans and . . . to the ecstatic delight of the boys . . . AXE! Yes, they're going to smell like MEN! Food and fragrance together ran us another $42.
There were two random trips to a real grocery store -- mushroom soup for J-son's stroganoff, pickling salt, and dinky plastic creamer containers that my husband can take along on his army drill these next three weeks. (Apparently, the army provides 2% milk instead of real coffee cream. Military service is certainly a dire hardship). These trips ran us another $36.
And just when I thought I was done, the weekend rolled around. My first solo days with the boys, and I was looking for a way to keep them busy. Our latest issue of Chop Chop Magazine -- and can I say, I LOVE that magazine -- has several recipes for fruit smoothies, and my sons are seriously hooked. In fact, they've experimented with any fruit we have lying around, tricky because there's been less and less of it. So I suggested going cherry picking.
Cherry picking? YES! The younger boys balked, but C-son has lately been on a one-man mission to be as ultra-productive as possible, and his determination was the flame to the moth-desires of the other boys. We picked 25 lbs of cherries ($55). We pitted them with a wooden pencil (the metal end, with the eraser removed -- many thanks to Janeric for the suggestion!).
C-son's Cherry Smoothie:
- cherries, pitted
- coconut pieces
- water
- yogurt
Mix this together in the blender. Yum.
******
The summary for the week: a whopping $378 this week, bringing the 15-week average up to $160/week.
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| Average per week for the last 16 weeks. Notice that the average spending is climbing up again. |
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| Total spending per week, for each of the past 15 weeks. Yes, this week has been a doozy. |
What a yummy smoothie recipe! I sure wish I could find a BB store near me. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteOuch! But yes a yummy smoothie recipie indeed! I should average mine for a weekly average, I am just keeping tally so at the end of the year, I can do monthly averages.
ReplyDelete