Happy 2012 everyone! I’ve just completed my yearly review of grocery expenses (2009 and 2010 editions), and you’ll probably be shocked (shocked!) to know that I did not stick to my resolution to hold the line on the amount of money we spent on groceries. We spent about $500 more in 2011 than 2010. But rather than promise to do better next time, I’m just going to say “OH WELL” and dish up some more foie gras.
Just kidding! We did enjoy an amazingly good soup this week, made out of more humble but delicious ingredients:
Christmas Lima Bean Stew recipe, which I followed verbatim from 101 Cookbooks. She’s right: don’t skip the toppings.
If there’s no financial apocalypse (I am skeptical at best), our finances should improve quite a bit when our kids go to Kindergarten in the fall and our daycare expenses evaporate (or at least go down substantially). So to prepare for that joyous (or scary) day and budget for groceries AND everything else, I’ve decided to start a Mint.com account. Will let you know how that goes…
My only other real resolution for this year is to bike even more — specifically to make at least half of all my grocery store trips by bike — this means I’ll have to bike more than half the time during the summer months to make up for the winter. We have a cargo bike; time to use it for something besides hauling kids! If this winter continues as it has been, I’ll be able to start this week.
What about you? Any resolutions?
Stacking Functions Garden 
January 23, 2012 at 10:43 am
Hi Jen! Love this post. We’ve been fretting about the grocery budget for some time. I think one thing you could take into account is the RISE in grocery prices. I noticed a steep rise in bread, produce, dairy and egg prices over where they were 12 -18 months ago… although they seem to have leveled off recently. And unfortunately, it has led us to abandon alot of our co-op shopping. I no longer do all my shopping at one place. I make a curcuit: the Produce Exchange at the Midtown Market for produce on the “must be organic” list (stuff where we eat the skins, potatoes, etc), ALDI on Lake Street for basics and pantry stuff (cheap chocolate, pasta, sugar, spices, bananas, citrus, grated cheese, greek yogurt); and then the coop for specialty items and bulk flours, grains, etc. Even then, it still works out to more than we would like.
Our biggest problem is impulse buying…. I’m not big on meal planning, and often find myself making a trip for one ingredient and coming home with ten things. So I guess that’s my resolution of this year: better planning!
January 23, 2012 at 11:02 am
Hey Carol! Nice to hear from you. Hopefully will see you at some MG events this year. And yes, careful planning is the only reason we are able to still do all of our shopping at the co-op.