Tales from the grocery store

I haven't done one of these in a while, & I was shocked at the price of produce yesterday, so I thought it might be interesting to track what I purchased again.

This was a Costco shopping trip.

Produce:

• Brussel sprouts - $3.99
• Grape tomatoes - $4.99
• Six pack of peppers - $6.49
• Celery - $2.99
• Cucumber - $3.29
• Bananas x2 - $2.78
• Butternut squash - $4.99
• Grapes - $6.99
• Plums - $5.99
• Pears - $5.49
• Apples - $8.49 (?!!! We're in Washington, & live in apple country. Holy smokes!)
• Kiwi - $5.49

Total on produce = $61.97

Dairy:

• Yogurt dip (this is my indulgence. Buying it ensures I'll eat more vegetables) - $6.59
• Plain Greek yogurt - $6.99
• Cottage cheese - $4.99
• Milk - $5.33

Total on dairy = $23.90

Pantry items:

• Pancake mix - $6.45
• Peanut butter - $9.99 (again, holy smokes!!!)

Total on pantry items = $16.44




Snacks:

• Pirate's Booty - $5.29
• Zbars - $10.79

Total on snacks = $16.08

Prepared food:

• Fresh tortellini - $9.39

Bread:

• Bagels - $5.49

Health:

• Vitamins - $9.69

Christmas gift:

• Nerf set for my nephews - $44.99

Total spent = $187.95

Percentage of each category (slight off due to rounding, but close enough):

• Produce - 33%
• Dairy - 12%
• Pantry - 8%
• Snacks - 8%
• Prepared food - 5%
• Bread - 3%
• Health - 5%
• Christmas - 24%

How about you? What do you spend the majority of your shopping dollars on? This was somewhat of a rarity for us, because we didn't purchase any meat. With the exception of the Christmas gift, the rest of the spending was about in line with my expectations.

Now I need to make sure I use up all of that fabulous (&, expensive) produce before it goes to waste. I'm planning on making butternut squash soup, roasting the sprouts, & using the peppers and celery with my jalapeno yogurt dip. We didn't need to buy tomatoes this week, as our plants are still producing thanks to the fall sunshine.

We try not to buy too many prepared snacks, but Pirate's Booty is N's favorite lunch item. The Zbars are perfect before sports practice, & I have experimented with making my own. They weren't a hit, so I should continue my recipe search. I'm starting half marathon training again & love cottage cheese as a high protein, healthy snack. Oh, & the tortellini was an impulse purchase, but we had it as a side dish last night (1/3 of the package). It's delicious. :-)

ETA - I randomly found a post from last October, where I purchased many of the same items. Here's how the duplicates stacked up:

• Brussel sprouts - actually less expensive, by $.80
• Pancake mix - same
• Zbars - same
• Bagels - same
• Cucumber - same
• Bananas - same
• Grapes - $.20 more
• Milk - $1.04 more
• Apples - less expensive by $1.50  (who knew?!)

I was pretty surprised by the results. With the exception of the milk, most of the other prices are similar.