Bi-Weekly Grocery Shopping

A couple of days before my grocery trip I make a menu out for 2 weeks. I plan 21 main meals. That way we have a choice and also use some for lunches on weekend. Next I go through my cupboards and pantry to see what I need and add them to my list. I try to keep a well stocked pantry to help cut costs of my grocery shopping trip.

Last Friday was my shopping day. I took Rich to work at 5:30am and then went to the store. It's nice shopping at that time of morning as there are few people to bother you. There are the guys that stock the shelf but they are friendly and try to keep the isles clear. Anyway I'm looking at my list and keeping track of what I'm spending. Its apparent that my grocery money that I want to spend will run out before my list. So, I make a few adjustments within the grocery list.

Finally I get to the checkout and it's not my usual one. I ask the checker how he wants the coupons......he says it doesn't matter when I give them to him. I had some free items so I handed him the coupons for them as I had placed them on the conveyor belt first. He took care of those items and then checked the rest of the items. I handed him the rest of the coupons. My total came to $80.27 before coupons. After deducting my coupons and 30 cents for using my own bags it was $68.03. I stayed under my grocery money which is $125 every 2 weeks. I didn't want to spend all my grocery money as I'm saving part of it back for buying fruits, veggies, tuna and salmon to preserve later.

I did find some jumbo green peppers that were 2 for 79cents. I'm going to dehydrate them. I have some onions that I had bought for 5 pounds for $1 a few weeks ago. I'm going to dehydrate them along with the peppers (separate trays).

We should soon be able to go pick local strawberries. We have a huge truck farm about 9 miles from our home that has the best strawberries. Rich and I love going there to pick them....they allow you to eat berries as you pick as long as you're not a little piggy about it. They also have all kinds of other fruits and veggies that you can buy already picked.

One of Rich's co-workers has lots of cherries and he told Rich he would let him know when we could come and pick them. He is also going to let us have lots of seedless green grapes this fall. I will can and dehydrate both the grapes and the cherries. A friend of ours has apples that we can pick also later this fall. I will make applesauce and dehydrate them. We want to get some apricots to dehydrate, peaches to can, dehydrate, pears to can and dehydrate. Hope to get some Purple Italian Plums from Bobbie this year to dehydrate. They are so yummy! We will also buy veggies to add to our small garden to can and dehydrate. We are waiting for my Uncle Andy to call and let us know that they are selling fresh tuna and salmon off the boats.