My Shopping Trip - Sept 18th

Every other Saturday, I do my "major shopping".  That's when I buy my staples for the next two weeks.  This week, I had to really stock up since the freezer AND fridge were getting pretty empty.

I thought I'd document my typical "grocery" run, for those that might be interested in what a normal "paleo shopping trip" is:


Target: ($28.24)

My grocery shopping always starts off with a run to the big Target in Sunnyvale.  It's not the closest Target to me but for some reason their prices are always cheaper.  This is where I buy my eggs ($1.19/dozen), frozen vegetables ($1 to 1.19/lb) and bread for the kids ($1.25/loaf).  This week, they didn't have any "california blend" vegetables (broc, cauliflower, carrots) mixes, which is one of my favorites.  Instead, I bought spinach - something different for us - along with our usual broccoli.

Sprouts Farmer's Market: ($37.52)

Since the grocery store ads sucked this week, I ended up stopping at the produce market near Target for my fruit and vegetables.  They had some great sales.  I probably bought a bit too much for us (HA!) but I just couldn't resist.  This is the time of the year where many fruits and vegetables are in season and cheap - I enjoy it while I can.



Today's basket included:

• Bananas (69 cents/lb - my son was on a banana binge last week so I bought extras)
• Apples (88 cents / lb)
• 2 cucumbers (69 cents each)
• 4 cauliflower  (88 cents / head)
• Peaches  (49 cents / lb)
• broccoli crowns (88 cents / lb - we'll eat these before the frozen stuff)
• Brussels Sprouts ($1.60/lb)
• Tomatoes (88 cents / lb)
• Pears (99 cents / lb)
• 4 cantaloupes (88 cents each -can you tell they like the number 88?)

Asian Market:  ($13.16)

We're almost out of chicken, so I stopped by the asian market down the street from my apartment to buy chicken leg quarters (69 cents / lb), celery (39 cents / lb), and carrots (39 cents / lb).  We always have carrots and celery in the house - I slice them up for quick snacks - but on "chicken cooking weekends", I buy extra to go into the chicken broth...but that's another blog entry.  ;-)

I love love love how dark green that celery was this morning!  I don't think the camera did it any justice.


TOTAL:  just under $80


So, all in all, a good shopping trip. These 3 stops took me about 2 hours to complete, door-to-door, which is really good for me.  Best of all, this, along with the 10 lbs of ground beef and oils (coconut and olive) I bought 2 weeks ago, will easily last us the next two weeks.

Now, yes, that's a lot of fruits and vegetables.  Usually, I buy enough for one week and then refill the crisper with fresh stuff  the following weekend.  But looking at this week's schedule, I noticed that I will be busy next Saturday morning.  So, instead, I bought a wide array of produce, some of which have a short shelf life (peaches / cantaloupes) and some that will easily last the full 2 weeks (apples and pears).  This helps me to not only space out the fruit but also gives us some variety - I get bored eating apples and pears all the time.  And really, this is the time to really enjoy the bounty, right?  ;-)