Stick to the plan, ma'am

This week I decided to wing it in the meal planning department.

It was a disaster.

Mental meal planning doesn't work for me. It just doesn't. Compiling a list of meals ideas in my head isn't enough. I have to write it down on paper. Plus, I need to ensure I have the required ingredients to make said meals. After dropping darling daughter off at preschool, I had to make an emergency trip to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for meals for the next three days.

Quite simply, I was too lazy to meal plan. In some ways, I still am as I tend to make the same meals over and over again. Today I did manage to get my act together by opening up a cook book and surfing on the Internet in finding at least two new recipes. I've got a grocery list started and I'm ready to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I'd like to think I'll have fun, but I realize that grocery shopping has now become one of my regular and weekly chores. Sending out dear husband to do this task was so much easier, but I've discovered for me to meal plan successfully, I need to involve myself in the entire process, which includes going grocery shopping. Oh, the things I will do to meal plan.

Bulk shopping

About two weeks ago, when I was trying to find an obscure spice (it is likely not that obscure, but if it is beyond salt, pepper, and garlic powder it is classified as obscure in my books) I went to Bulk Barn. The problem with Bulk Barn is that the candy aisle is too big of a temptation for me. Regardless, when I was shopping for spices, which are much cheaper at Bulk Barn, a little thought occurred to me: "Why aren't I shopping here on a regular basis?"

I posed this question on the message board of a local moms group I belong to: can you save money by buying at the Bulk Barn? Respondents said yes it is cheaper to buy some stuff at Bulk Barn. They also noted you have to shop around because you can get some foodstuffs cheaper at other stores.

Last night, I returned to Bulk Barn to get supplies for next week's meals. As you can see from my receipt, no candy was purchased. I bought croutons for 97 cents. White liquid honey cost me $3.05. Steel cut oats, which were on sale, set me back 64 cents. Green split peas, $1.20; non-instant skim milk, $2.28; non-instant buttermilk, $2.38. In total, I spent $10.52. Total savings in regards to items being on sale: $1.19. Sweet!

I like the Bulk Barn for a variety of reasons. Although bulk in prominent in the name, I like the fact you can buy smaller amounts of various products. I have no need for a huge bag of powder milk, but I do need some for my bread machine. It would be ridiculous for me to buy a huge bag, spend $7 to $10 at the grocery store, only to use a bit of it before it expires. I plan on making bulk shopping a part of my grocery shopping routine, but I'll be skipping out on the candy aisle so I don't impact my waist line or my budget.

How a container of sour cream cost me about $13

I will preface this post and say that I'm not very proud of myself.

Darling daughter and I went grocery shopping this morning. Darling daughter is into stacking these days. She even stacked the contents of her sandwich at lunch. While we were grocery shopping, she stacked the container of sour cream I had placed in the cart on top of some canned veggies. Toddler clumsiness and gravity soon took over and the container of sour cream took a header onto the floor.

I was a poor example for my daughter and put the container of sour cream back into the dairy cooler. When I was leaving the store, a heavy feeling fell over me. I knew I should have taken the container with me to the check out counter and offer to pay for it.

I believe in karma. This may sound silly, but I'm afraid that I will be reincarnated into an earwig as penance for the number of earwigs I've killed this summer. I knew when I got behind the wheel of the my car to go home that I would pay for my not-so-good deed. And my payback has come in the form of a club pack of chicken thighs. I bought chicken thighs on quick sale. They expire tomorrow. The lure of 30 per cent off the regular price was too much and I bought them. Since they expire tomorrow night, I started cutting them up for a stir fry. I soon noticed that they don't smell right. In fact, they smell a bit fishy. Now I'm leery of using them. Right now they are sitting in plastic baggies in the refrigerator for dear husband's final inspection. I need a second opinion on the smell.

In full meal planning and budget mode, I called the store to see if I could get my money back. While dialing the number, I knew I was pushing my luck. The woman who answered told me the store's policy is not to refund money on quick sale products. Although she offered to transfer my call to the meat department so I could discuss the issue further with a staff member, I declined I decided to accept this experience as my penance for the sour cream incident.

Although I'm a bit annoyed that I'm likely out $13, I have learned some lessons.

1. Don't let toddlers play with dairy products. It will likely spell trouble.
2. You take your chances on buying quick sale products.
3. Karma always kicks you in the butt so go with your gut and do the right thing.

Not buying groceries isn't the answer to reducing our food bill

I think I mentioned it earlier this week that we didn't have any food and dear husband had to go to the grocery store and pick us up some supplies. It was a combination of laziness and financial frugality on my part. In December, we spent an insane amount on groceries, about $700. I thought initially we were in the $625 range (which isn't exactly good) but I later found a receipt in the bottom of my purse for about $75. I could chalk up our food expenses to the fact it was the holidays, but we did cash in some Sobey points, which helped out.

So this month I'm on a mission to reduce our grocery bill. Eating leftovers for the first little while helped immensely. But the leftover train has run out and I'm back to planning and making meals.

Earlier this week, dear husband started complaining that darling daughter didn't have all that much fruit. She did, but I guess cutting apples and clementines isn't all that appealing when you can wash and rinse berries. But we did start to get low on the basics so I had to break down and buy food. Now, I want to point out that I wasn't going to let my family starve in my mission to reduce our grocery bill. But I have discovered that we waste a lot of food when we have a lot of food in the house. It is easy to not use soon-to-be expired produce or leftovers when it is hidden in the back of the refrigerator. Although I still have a close eye on the bottom line, I've eased up on the purse strings a little. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them. I'll let you know how we fared at the end of the month.

How do you grocery shop when you live in a bubble?

The inside of my refrigerator tells a subtle tale of the last week.

Yep, it is clean, but we had no food.

It was last Thursday when I officially realized we had no food. I managed to make dinner with some frozen pork chops that I found in the freezer and apples left over from a jaunt to an apple orchard in September. And it was tasty. Thank God for the Internet as it is a great resource in finding recipes that meet paltry ingredient list requirements.

The following night, dear husband had the left over pork chops for dinner and I ate a English muffin with cream cheese, along with some blueberries and yogurt that was set to expire in a couple of days. I wasn't too concern about the yogurt's level of quality. It’s yogurt. Isn’t it already spoiled milk?

It was Saturday afternoon before one of went to the grocery store. Dear husband blinked first and he did the thankless, but necessary, task. It is out of pure laziness that I didn't go out and fix this problem earlier in the week. On Thursday night I went to a spinning class, followed up with a Body Step class on Friday evening. What was dear husband’s excuse, you ask? He claimed he was too tired to do anything other than put darling daughter to bed and pick up toys off the living room floor.

Now, since I’m a stay at home mom, it would make sense that I would go out to the grocery store and buy my family groceries. But since all this H1N1 stuff has happened, I am very careful where I take darling daughter. I thought about stuffing a couple of disinfectant wipes in a Ziplock bag to wipe down the grocery cart, but that still wouldn’t prevent her contracting a cold or the flu if someone was to cough or sneeze. The poor kid. The only time she has left the house was a week ago tomorrow for Kindermusik. And now since Kindermusik is now over, I have no clue when she’ll leave the house. We were suppose to go to a playdate this morning, but I had to cancel because I have a cough and it looks like I may be coming down with a cold. So much for bubble living because it seems the germs can still infect my imaginary force field.

So basically we are suffering from bubble syndrome. And I’m not alone. I surmise from conversations from other moms many feel like they are living in a bubble, trying to limit their children’s interaction with the outside world. And who can blame them or me for that matter? But living in a bubble is boring. And I’m unsure how much longer I can take of this. A woman can only listen to Fred Penner so many times. But that, my loyal readers, is a whole different post for another day.

Being eaten out of house and home

I didn't think the teenage years started, well, until the teenage years. I thought I'd update my readers on the baby food making situation. About a month ago, I ditched the purees for finger foods. (No more baby cubes for this kid, except for the ones that have been forgotten in my freezer). Except for the mess they leave on the highchair tray and seat, finger foods have made life a lot easier. No more feeding darling daughter with a spoon. No more screaming baby when I hit the puree button on the blender. Yes, meal time has been a lot easier and quieter with the introduction of non-mushy food.

But lately, it seems like dear husband and I are always running to the grocery store to stock up the refrigerator. The above photo shows a sampling of some of the food I bought today. Darling daughter is a cheese fiend. I can't keep enough of it in the house. We buy cheese by the bricks. Blueberries are the best finger foods ever. All you have to do is wash and serve. Although we have yet to try peppers, they will complement the quiche I hope to make for her later this week. (We are having an issue with meat. Darling daughter doesn't like it. Therefore, I'm searching for other meat alternatives).

But holy moley, it seems like our food supply in the refrigerator is dwindling on a constant basis. Tonight I spent $70 at the store, and most of that food will go towards sustaining darling daughter's energy levels. I'm not complaining, but I am amazed at how much food a 13 month old can pack away. On the weekend we went to a birthday party. As the dutiful mother that I am, I fed her before we went. While we were there, she packed away several cubes of fruit, had a bit of pasta salad and couldn't get enough of a hamburger bun. And this was on top of the fact that she had only eaten an hour before.

In the last month I have become a master chopper of cheese, plums, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, honey dew melon, cantaloupe, nectarines. Cheerios are a big hit. Sometimes I sneak in vegetables. (It is a work in progress). Yes, finger foods are easier. But it seems like we are making a lot more trips to the grocery store, though.