The money's in the bag!  Our budgeted/micro managed grocery shopping trip took place this morning.  It was with great restrain that hubby and I walked the isles of sprawlmart, the health food store, and  Costco.  I think hubby is in this scheme just to save money .. not to necessarily eat more healthy.  He thought I was getting too anal when I told him the $1.50 hot dog & coke at Costco (his choice for lunch) would be deducted from the grocery $ .. so I let him buy with his $.  My purpose for eating healthy is different than his purpose of saving money.  This became evident as we shopped today.  He skipped entering the health food store as usual and listened to talk radio in the truck.  Here are some photos of our 'goods' ... my pile ... and his pile.  Can you guess which one is his?

The almighty dollar ruled the day when choosing which organic produce to buy.  There is a list of produce that is highly recommended to buy organic due to growing practices ... and a list of lesser offending non organic produce.  I tried to stick with organic on items I have read are more likely to be most offenders in the way they are grown.  Tomorrow I'll post a list for you to review.  But for today, my organic purchase was:  apples, lettuce, carrots, rutabaga, broccoli, butter, and corn tortilla chips.  Next in the food chain - milk. (Our choice was not labeled organic .. but local, not treated with RBsT (hormones) .. lowest temp 'vat pasteurized', not homogenized .. whole milk with the cream on top.  It travels less than 20 miles from farm to home.  You can read about the benefits here.  Why all the fuss ... it supports a local sustainably run .. green .. eco friendly farm.  Cost is more .. but the product is superior.  This type of milk .. even though being whole milk is easier to digest since it's not homogenized.  Visit Spokane's Family Farm to find out more.) Half and half (RBst free) for coffee ... if I was thinking straight, I'd use the richer milk from the top of the milk for coffee ... hum, that's a thought for next week .. as well as the benefits of organic butter (yum:)..  non organic produce today netted:  bananas, oranges and tangerines.  I know ... these are not local products!  But we've got to eat.  Maybe next year I'll have put away a TON of local fruit for winter consumption! 

Hubby's 'pile' included:  potato chips, non-cured all natural 'hot dogs' (my choice for him), yogurt (for Ann) .. my attempts at yogurt making have failed thrice! Granola bars ... I know these can be  made from my pantry goods. Fishy crackers (Ann), and the ridiculously priced individual cheese servings (Ann & hubby).

Not shown are the dozen of organic eggs hubby buys from a co-worker ($2.00/doz).

Today's big spend for the week cost $68.00, leaving us with $32.00.  This extra $ will be set aside each week for incidentals (if we run out of TP or toothpaste;) .. and any left over $ at the end of the month will be set aside for our yearly quarter beef purchase.