December 17: Off to HEB, the best grocery store ever. I’m a firm believer in menu planning and shopping with a list, and I think this is even more important with kids! Some things end up in our cart that aren’t on the list, like when we walked in and they had pineapples on sale for 98 cents!
Here’s what we ended up with. In two pictures because I left out a few things in the first one.

On the menu soon:
– beef and veggie soup (the girls’ very favorite meal)
– chicken nuggets (homemade) with spaghetti squash and roasted potatoes
– pizza bread
– spaghetti and meatballs
– shredded pork tacos with black beans
– crustless quiche with hash browns
– broccoli cheese soup
And I want to make puppy chow at some point for a fun treat; I can’t remember the last time I had puppy chow! Many ingredients for those meals are already in my pantry or freezer.
I do buy organic versions of many products. In this trip, I calculated that I spent an extra $7 on organic and hormone-free products over the conventional versions. I also usually buy cage-free eggs, but they were out. That much extra per week does add up over a year, but broken down per serving we feel it is worth it.
The average family spends $70 a month on cable TV. We don’t have cable, we’d rather spend extra money on food upgrades. I also found an interesting chart with average weekly grocery expenditures in the US. For our family, the thrifty plan has us at $124.20. Our average, including when we have local grass-fed beef, is under $100. Today’s trip was well below that.
I’m glad to have a family of pretty easy eaters. Hannah goes through random picky phases, and there was the whole non-dairy and now gluten-free thing, but, for the most part, cooking and eating in this house is an enjoyable experience.