Weekly Shopping (sort of)

Becaused I overspent a bit last week, I wanted to keep my spending this week to a minimum. I also looked around and realized that I still have lots of food in the house so I'm not in dire need of much. Before i left last week, I put two qurts of tomatoes in the freezer, half of teh peas that I had, rhubarb, and some rice that I'd already cooked. I still have a cucumber, and some squash in the refrigerator and LOTS of beans and rice leftover. Really, the only thing I need is milk because what I had left went bad (I get it from a local farmer at the farmer's market- it's more expensive than the grocery store but the bottle is recylable and I like knowing the guy who feeds the cow who gives me my milk).

So, my plan this week was to stock up on things I might not normally get. I decided to check out the coupons to the local Safeway (I need to write more about coupons sometime, I have a love hate relationship with them). My housemate was going shopping so this is what I sent him out to buy for me:

Item	Price/amnt	Price/serving	#servings
quinoa	4.15/14oz	.46	9
Bacon	3.99/24 oz	.28	14?
Chicken breast	9.99/4lb	.62	16
milk	1.99/half gall	.25	8
	20.12

I don't love quinoa but it's a "superfood" and I like it well enough to have it around for a little variety. The bacon was purely because it was on a 2 for 1 sale and keeps forever and I can use it for flavoring and in salads and omelettes. Chances are that my housemate will end up eating it anyway. The chicken seemed like a really good deal and I haven't had any in a while and the milk was the thing I most needed.

When I was making my list, I noticed that my thought process hasn't really changed over the last few weeks. It sounds strange but I was feeling almost obliged to spend the full $35 that I had budgeted. It was easy to talk myself out of it because of the overspending last week. But in my head there was $35 to spend and spend it I must even though I didn't need that much food.

I guess I'll still have to work on that