If you’ve been following me awhile you likely know that my daughter, Lisa of Retro Housewife Goes Green, and I like to shop for groceries together once a month. We go to the city and make a day of it. Our last trip was the end of March and neither of us had been able to work in a trip until Wednesday of this week. Fortunately we now have an Aldi in town and they are carrying enough organics to bridge the gap between trips (we do have a Super Walmart in town but neither of us shop there). I somehow still had a fair amount of food on hand – probably because we’ve been out of town or otherwise eaten out a lot recently due to hectic schedules. Lisa, however, said they were down to the point where meals were getting “interesting”.

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw some of these photos. Lisa and I both shared pics throughout the day as we shopped. After we got through at Trader Joe’s it occurred to us we should have taken a selfie of the two of us. However, by that time we had been shopping for several hours in 90+ degree heat and decided we looked a bit bedraggled. Maybe next time!

 

Our first stop in Norman was the recycling center. We can’t recycle glass in our town so we haul it to Norman. We are still recycling bottles from our Happyland Music Fest. Each time we go to Norman we take another load. We are going again tomorrow so hopefully we can get the last of it!

We always start our day of shopping with lunch. You know the old saying about not shopping on an empty stomach, right? This time we opted for burgers at Tucker’s, a local place that uses ground beef ethically produced by regional growers.  We also split a mint chocolate chip shake. We are both somewhat lactose intolerant and shouldn’t have ice cream but threw caution to the wind because, well, look at it:

 

 

With a delicious meal on board, we were ready to start shopping.

 

Michaels

Michael’s can be a dangerous place for me but I exercised self control this time. I wanted some silk flowers for my office and some ribbon to tie back my office curtains. I found a small bouquet in just the right combination of colors AND it was on sale! I didn’t find any ribbon to suit me and now I’m thinking about coming up with something more creative anyway. If you have any cute ideas for tie-backs, please share!

The only other thing I bought was a package of planner inserts for my Happy Planner. And since I have the Michael’s app on my phone I got 40% off.

• silk bouquet
• planner insert

Total: $7.59

 

Target 

Next up was Target. I didn’t have anything specific I needed there but Lisa had some things on her list. She actually takes the time to look up sales in advance of our trip so she knew there were some sales on things I needed, too. I was also able to get Father’s Day cards while I was there.

• Applegate Farm organic bacon
• Applegate Farm organic hot dogs
• frozen organic broccoli
• frozen organic French fries
• two Father’s Day cards

Total: $32.04

 

We then headed to Oklahoma City. We have a particular order we like to follow for the stores there. We start with Sprouts because they often have good sales. Then Trader Joe’s. And finally, Whole Foods. Whole Foods can be expensive if you aren’t careful so we save it for last and just fill in with the things we couldn’t find elsewhere.

Sprouts

 

• two artichokes
• bag of key limes
• asparagus
• organic red grapes
• 4 pound bag of organic oranges
• 1 organic lemon
• organic strawberries
• 3 ears of sweet corn
• bottle of pineapple coconut juice
• organic maple syrup
• large box organic black tea (for iced tea)
• raisin bran
• organic garlic granules
• organic pasture butter
• organic chicken breasts (three to a pack)
• Hawaiian hot dog buns
• box of tissues (made from sugar cane and bamboo)
• organic frozen cherries (2 packages)
• bag of ice
• small orchid for my office

Total: $85.59

 

Trader Joe’s

We are so excited to finally have a Trader Joe’s!

This is what greets you upon entering the store:

It was so tempting to just forget about groceries and buy flowers instead. I limited myself to one bouquet, though.

• smoked salmon
• frozen gnocchi
• frozen organic chicken breasts (individually flash frozen)
• licorice (for David – can’t stand the stuff!)
• organic romaine lettuce
• 6-pack organic yogurt (4 oz. each)
• 2 pounds California peaches (our local ones are not quite ready yet)
• a plum
• organic bananas
• smoky peach salsa
• organic tortilla chips
• cereal
• chile lime seasoning
• lemon pepper in grinder
• saffron
• cocktail sauce
• bouquet of flowers

Total: $67.88

 

Whole Foods

Our final stop…

 

• bar of goats milk soap with patchouli
• organic red leaf lettuce
• carrots
• red bell pepper
• 3 large bagels
• organic cottage cheese
• grenadine
• natural maraschino cherries
• balsamic vinegar
• Kilarree cheddar cheese
• smoked Gouda
• capellini organic pasta
• split loaf of Tuscan bread
• organic cream cheese
• butterfly pork chops
• sliced roast beef from the deli
• chromium picolinate
• insulated grocery bag

Total: $105.16

 

Grand total: $298.26

We were already well-stocked on staples such as rice, pasta, beans, lentils, sugar, flour, and many other things we use regularly. My freezers are still full, too. This grocery haul should see us through a month with just the occasional purchase of milk and eggs at Aldi’s, plus fresh produce from the farmers market.

 

Now, have you been wondering what monthly groceries for two families looks like in a Prius? Here you go:

 

 

And here is what my purchases look like all in one place (minus the bouquet from Trader Joe’s):

 

 

So that’s it for this month’s grocery haul. Lisa is planning to do a blog post about how she grocery shops for a month at a time. Keep an eye on her blog for that – Retro Housewife Goes Green.  Maybe I’ll do something like that someday, too, although she’s far more organized about it. I tend to just buy the things I know we like to have on hand and figure out what to do with them later. She actually plans meals in advance for the month.

How often do you like to shop? Have you ever tried to shop monthly? Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear how YOU shop.

 

~~~~~

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!