I just thought it’d be fun to show what I’m going to buy at Walmart tomorrow. I actually am not going to get the Westsoy unsweetened soymilk I wanted to get, which is about $5, because it appears out of stock (so that would have brought the total to about $70). Of course, the melatonin salt is not food but we like to use it for my kid’s bath to help him get ready for bed. We probably go through a bag every 2 months or so. If I needed to really pinch pennies, the vegan cheeses would go. Over $10 and not a lot of nutritional value but I like to have it on hand and I don’t use a ton of it so overall, I don’t spend a lot on it but I’m completely out right now. It also freezes fine so if I open a bag and think I’m not going to use it quickly enough before it molds, I can throw it in the freezer. The oatmilk lasts me 2 weeks on average. I use it for my morning coffee and afternoon coffee concoctions, but it is a bit pricey so again, if you are penny pinching, it’s not the milk I’d use for cereals and cooking. We use soymilk for that. The soymilk is almost half the price, as you can see. The oats will last a while. I make my husband overnight oats generally with it. Sometimes I might make him something else to take so that will affect how long they last. The organic carrots are just as cheap per pound as the conventional and they only have one pound bags of the conventional. Since carrots last a long time, I’d rather buy the bigger bag. The buns were a bit cheaper per ounce to buy 12. The storebrand is a bit cheaper but I really like Lewis ones so I guess you can consider that a splurge, but we’re talking cents. The freezer pops SHOULD last 36 days if we give the kid one a day and no one else partakes. But my husband sometimes eats one so we’ll see! The Daiya cheese sauce, while kind of expensive, doesn’t overall cost us a lot because I only use part of a packet for my son when I make him mac and cheese and then I put the rest in a sandwich baggy and put in the fridge. I’ve never had it go bad. I think the box will last a few months. The cranberry juice is for my smoothies and I only use a splash so my guess is it’ll last a couple of months at least. It doesn’t have sugar so I’ve never had it go bad. Real cranberry juice might turn before that. The off-brand cinnamon cereal is surprisingly not for the kid but my husband to have on the weekend at night. Might last two weeks, we’ll see! The yogurt will last at least a couple of weeks and its sole purpose is so we can mix my kid’s supplement that only comes in capsules. I got the fudge mints for a treat. I already have half a box of a similar cookie from the Dollar Tree and I got it about a week ago so as you see (that I’ve shared with my kid too) so while I guess unnecessary, it barely registers on the grocery bill because it’ll probably be at least month before I go through it. Now for veggies, I get a veggie box delivered to me for about $30. It generally never has mushrooms and usually doesn’t have green onions but we’ll see when I get it. It has occasionally come with a bag of carrots. My guess is it’ll have zucchini and/or yellow squash, corn, some tomatoes, a head of lettuce, maybe some apples, etc. As you can see, there’s NOTHING that would make a complete meal because I have lentils, beans, TVP/soycurls, tofu, mock meats already. Also, I have a few meals/sides in the freezer. I’ll probably skip a produce box next week because between what I have already and the rate we go through it, I probably won’t need it.
I know inflation is a thing at the grocery store but honestly, these seem like the prices I was paying a few years ago. If it’s more, it’s a few cents. I think meat, eggs and dairy have been hit the hardest. But I still am amazed how a few things to add to the staples we have can cost so much. Fortunately, we are doing fine financially but I remember times during the aughts when $70 was a BIG DEAL to me.
You must be logged in to post a comment.