Shopping! The "Cheap" Part of Low Carb Eating!

I didn't post my shopping receipts in December because I bought a lot of things for the holidays that I wouldn't normally purchase. Maybe I should have done so anyway, it's not like I bought a bunch of carby stuff (although I did get a 10# bag of potatoes!) but I didn't, so we'll go on from here.

I also have a lot left over from December in the chest freezer, mostly vegetables that I had really stocked up on. I get my vegetables mostly from GFS, and the closest one is 40+ miles away. Our northern Michigan weather being what it is, I tend to keep better meat-and-vegetable inventory in the winter. Last month lots of pork and chicken on sale, not much beef. Also got some good sales on seafood and fish, most of which is now gone. So this month I was watching for beef on sale, and I found it.

On to the receipts:

I stopped at a meat market we used to frequent when we went to church in the same town; they had a sale on NY strips, sliced free, for $2.99/lb. I usually don't pay that much, even for beef, but they're NY strips after all. I bought about 15# of those, slice 3/4", and all those steaks look real nice individually wrapped and stacked in the freezer :). I also bought a loaf of dark pumpernickel bread, the little 4gN ea. party slices, as I love pumpernickel. 4 of those tiny thin slices make up 2 nice little sandwiches with ham (SF of course) and cream cheese for a nice <20gN lunch. This is the first time I've bought it, and the next day I went a little crazy and ate 10 of them toasted with butter and cream cheese; thankfully I hadn't eaten much else that day!

At Walmart I got a couple of loaves of the lowcarb (6gN/slice) that Pete likes, it's made by Aunt Millie I think, for $2.23 each; (4) quarts of heavy cream @ $3.12 each; a package of Flatout Light for myself @ $2.48 (I use half the slice, so about 20¢/serving); some chicken leg quarters @ 69¢/lb.; some 8 oz fancy shredded mixed Italian cheeses for $2.12 each; a 5# ham for $6.98 for Pete (I rarely eat it), and some baby food for my grandson :).

Then on to Sav-a-Lot: $45.61 for meat, including over 5# of chuck roasts, 4# of ground chuck, 3# of their wonderful bulk bacon (it is the best I've ever eaten!), some smoked turkey drumsticks, 3# of b/s chicken breast strips, 2 packages of sausage links and 2 packages of sausage patties; average price for the meat was $2.75ish per pound; a little high but I already have a lot of cheaper pork and chicken in my freezer. Also $4.9 for 2 heads of lettuce, 2 3# bags of yellow onions, and a 1.25 rutabaga. Then a box of cheese spread (like velveeta) for $3.99 that will last forever because we use very little of it, a box of taco shells (7gN each), 2 jars of pizza sauce (4gN/qtr.cup), and two 12-packs of diet cola for the family (again, I rarely drink it) for $13.34. A 48 oz carton of SF chocolate ice cream for $3.49 was our splurge for the day.

The month is more than 1/3 over and so far I've spent a little less than $150. I have enough meat for this month and most - if not all - of the next, and enough frozen vegetables. Plenty of cream for the rest of the month (unless I decide to do a lot of baking), and plenty of cheese. We will need to fill in with fresh produce and more eggs, and probably some snacking foods of some sort for Pete, but the bulk of our shopping for the month and into the next is done.

The cumulative effect of buying on sale is wonderful, because then there are months like this where we don't really have to buy as much, and it's great!