Changing My Shopping Habits

This picture is from my first full "we're eating mainly meat, vegetables, fruit and scrambled eggs" shopping trip.

Combined with the meats, rice and legumes I already had in stock, this should last us two weeks. I say, should, because I'm not sure exactly how much we'll eat! Two bags of salad greens, a cucumber and a bag of fresh broccoli (found on markdown) didn't make it into the picture. Also a few things are hiding under the frozen veggies!

 We'll eat the produce that goes bad faster the first week (strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, bananas) and then eat the other things plus frozen veggies the second week.

I can't believe how much faster it is to shop when one is purchasing mainly meat, eggs and produce. Time will tell how this will affect the grocery budget--I'll keep you posted. While I may end up having to raise the budget to eat this way, there is so much that we will not be buying so my hope is that it will balance out somewhat! Plus we're learning self-control in portion sizes so we are not eating as much.  I'll still use coupons and watch for sales where applicable and I continue to purchase 90% of our personal care and household products by playing the drugstore game. I did a small grocery trip last week and with careful shopping and finding some excellent produce markdowns, I was still able to save 50% percent on a few bags of groceries which were mostly produce. This was encouraging to me!

I could easily become very discouraged if I tried to do all organic on my current budget. Instead, I choose to focus on a couple of items where I try to buy organic and then do the best I can with the rest. This is difficult for an "all or nothing" person like myself! In all things, I have to daily remind myself that God is ultimately in control of our health.

Overall, I really think I'll enjoy the simplicity of shopping this way!