Costco Haul Vlog - February 2017 - (PLUS a look at our overboard grocery spending)

Yet another big grocery trip - we spent almost $300, PHEW! But we hadn't been to Costco in a full month, and it was time. Here's my vlog of my Costco haul:


For $300, we bought lots of snacks, a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies, some frozen stuff, some pantry items (my kid is set for mac and cheese for at least a month, if not more), and some health and beauty items (I'm particularly excited to see if the Kirkland contact lens solution is acceptable - which I suspect it is - because that will save me quite a bit of money over Target's house brand). The video has details AND prices, so please watch.

According to Mint, we definitely went a bit overboard with grocery shopping in February, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how we went off the rails. We started off the month with a big trip to Trader Joe's, and that certainly didn't help. This was also the month I discovered Aldi and my pantry shows it - I think that my spending at Aldi will come down as I get used to it (and I also bought a $20 steam cleaner there). There was a trip to Whole Foods, but that was primarily vitamins, and another trip to Rainbow Natural Foods, but that was mostly for household items.

What really got us, of all things, were quick little trips to Kroger - we made ELEVEN trips to Kroger in February, and that includes me going for a short walk and spending $3-$8 in a trip, but it adds up for sure. I also bought food to bring to work, which is new - frozen meals and snacks to keep me away from restaurants, food delivery, and vending machines.

We didn't go to YDFM at all in February because I'm the one who usually goes but instead I was at work and my husband was busy and didn't have time. I think we need to do more YDFM and less Kroger though.

I used all the rebate apps, but most of that cash still hasn't come in yet because of cash-out thresholds. Still, that saved us or will eventually save us money. (I really like Mobisave because it's an instant cash out - even if it's just 10 cents.)

I want to keep our spending for our family of three to about $100-$150/week, and we busted that, but I guess what I'm writing around is that some of our spending at grocery stores wasn't food, and I probably should figure out if our grocery budget means "all spending at any grocery store" or "food only."

In any case, we had a lot of fun at Costco and hopefully we're set for groceries for a while to come.

Your Dekalb Farmers Market (YDFM) Haul - The Produce Prices Are Unbeatable - Vlog!

Damn, that post header sounds like a commercial....

Basically, I got really caught up in the wide world of major grocery stores. Costco! Aldi! Kroger! Whole Foods! (Side note: I had a terrible awful no good cashier experience at a local WF, and the team responded by offering me a $25 gift card, but I'm rarely at that store so I haven't picked it up yet. When I do, perhaps THAT will be a video....)

Yesterday my husband said he wanted to run to YDFM (which longtime blog readers know is actually our number one grocery store of choice - for a long time it was our ONLY store, with short trips to Kroger for fill-in items) and I hadn't been in a few weeks so I went along - and I fell in love all over again, which happens EVERY TIME I skip going for a few weeks and then return.

I made a haul video because I thought that since the store's policy of no video inside was so strict, I'd be one of the few who did so. I was wrong - there are various videos on YouTube if you dig around, including videos inside the store. I don't know how they got away with it, but they did. I didn't do that - my video is after we got home, showing what I bought.


In brief, when I shop at YDFM I buy almost NO processed items (not zero but not much). I buy largely organic items. The produce prices are, as I say in my commercial-sounding header, basically unbeatable. Organic apples are, at least right now (prices fluctuate with the market), about $1/pound less than what I have been paying at Costco (which I never should've even done but I swear the first time I bought Costco organic apples the price WAS less than YDFM that week) and also I can pick and choose my own fruit vs. buying a big plastic container. The dried mango (I show this in the video) is half the price of what I paid at Aldi and tastes better and fresher.

Stop here and watch the video - the rest of this post is just my random thoughts and you can totally skip that. (If you do watch the video, hop over to YouTube and give it a Like would ya? Or even SUBSCRIBE OOOOOOH.)

Rambling thoughts about my recent grocery travels vs. YDFM

The tempeh? With a coupon and sale, that's cheaper at Kroger, but it's one of those "we're here already, just grab it" foods.
YDFM doesn't sell certain food my family likes to eat that I have to get elsewhere.
YDFM also only has food and sometimes it's easier to go to Kroger/Costco/Target and get not only food but also household items.
Right now Aldi has an unbeatable price on almond milk, for example (even with coupon, sale combo). Aldi also is likely the winner in snack food (though YDFM has some higher end items). But YDFM seemed to beat Aldi on fancy stuffed olives (in the video I show plain kalamata olives - unbeatable price for those for sure).
Costco's giant-ass blocks of cheese beat everyone else - but they're nothing special and certainly aren't organic. Both YDFM and our local Kroger (which has an entire special fancy cheese section) can probably beat Costco if I want something different....at least in a more reasonable size.

It takes time, energy, and gas to go to 5 different stores to save money. I could drive myself crazy trying to catch all the sales. I've started ignoring the Target sales. I've been also skipping some of the buy-X-things-save-$Y sales at Kroger even though they often include freebies or super-cheap things because I just don't have the brain space for that right now.

Also we don't go to Publix at all anymore and that used to be our main store - but there's a rumor I'm getting a Publix in WALKING DISTANCE of my house (right now I can walk to a tiny Kroger that has recently upped its game in the organic/healthy aisles). A Sprouts is opening in about 2 months that's around the corner, and soon after that we're getting a nearby Whole Foods 365 (supposedly a competitor to Trader Joe's). Oh speaking of TJs, as I'd hoped, most of these other stores have finally taken over my desire to go there. I simply cannot be good in TJs - but we do need a few specific things there soon (like the cereal bars my kid loves - no other store has an option that is both tasty and priced well).

This is all stream of consciousness rambling and if you made it this far, I congratulate you. I hope you liked my vlog and grocery haul!

A few short updates - October 11, 2013

• The grocery experiment is one week old and going well so far. I did a single big trip last Friday to YDFM and didn't spend a lot and got mostly fresh food and ingredients. (No coupons!) Today, a full week later, we still don't need to do another big trip. On Sunday I went to Publix to pick up some freebies, my husband went to a store for eggs, and yesterday I ran out to get milk (cow and almond). I baked - banana muffins, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, apple cider donuts - and then froze things and we have been enjoying them all week. I also premade steel cut oatmeal (I make four servings at a time). It's working so far, and it's really important. I also set up some other strict budgets and made some plans and I am hopeful that this will help us out over the next few months.
• I had another IEP update meeting with the special education teacher, the general education teacher, and the speech therapist. I walked in worried about what I'd hear and walked out very comfortable and reassured. Again the speech therapist added more time - I actually argued against it for various reasons but in the end we're working it out. The kid is getting more pull-out time, but she still will be in her inclusive classroom a great deal. I don't love this, I have to admit - I want her to be in an inclusive classroom 100% of the time. But there are 25 kids, neurotypical and not, and there has been some staff changeover (we're on the fifth parapro thanks to people giving notice, taking other jobs, and so on, and there's a new person starting Monday). I know that pulling her out will give her more consistency and focus and allow her to learn her academic stuff. ACADEMIC STUFF in kindergarten - this still bugs me greatly as well but it's how things are. And she IS doing well with it (reading! math! Spanish! science!), so giving her a chance to keep up with her peers is important. The IEP is going to be tweaked and updated and I suggested that we revisit it after Thanksgiving.
• AAC-wise, the kid has started pushing her talker away or turning it off. And she's also speaking in complete sentences that are mostly intelligible, so I get it. We're working on finding a balance - sometimes she does need the talker to express complicated thoughts or to be more readily understood. But our goal and the prognosis for her has always been that she'll be completely verbal, so I get it. (Also she can read and she has been reading for some time and I credit the talker with helping her literacy.)
• Four weeks until I turn 40!