The Price Is Right!

Well, it's Friday. But you knew that already.

Today is grocery shopping day in our home. So that means I pack up the kids and we go to Whole Foods. We get the items on our list, bring out our recycled bags, try to use some coupons and then I ask the cashier not to tell me the total - I just swipe my card and sigh as I walk out. Loudly. I sigh loudly, not walk out loudly. Although a few times I have done both.......

Now my family has to eat a certain way, we have no choice. I get that. I get that God put a Whole Foods in Orlando just 2 months after we moved here - just as our Trader Joes food ran out. For anyone not familiar with Trader Joes, well, I can't describe it to you. You will just have to visit one. You either "get it", or you don't. I had been shopping at TJ's in California since I was 18. That's a long time......When we started our family, TJ's was a money-saver as we could get organics, interesting foods, groceries, and vitamins for very little money. But they refuse to come to Florida for some reason. So I am stuck shopping at Whole Paycheck.

Don't get me wrong, it's better than the selection offered at Publix (think Pavillions or Von's for my Los Angeles friends) or Albertsons for the food we need. But I miss my Trader Joes, and our money. I read a great comment yesterday regarding the price of food going up and up - someone said - and I'm paraphrasing here -  "that tomato didn't pop out on the vine and decide to raise its price from $.50 to $3.99/lb, someone else decided to". Food is a necessity, and everyone knows that. We will pay whatever we need to for food.

So when I decided to cook thru the book, I wondered if I could afford to substitute the foods I needed to use, in place of what I normally ate and still keep within our budget. I tallied up the cost of eating for a week, and I was shocked.

$35.

Yup.

Really? How is that possible? Simple. It's cheaper to eat healthy than it is to eat not-so-healthy. At least for me.

I would never say to anyone else that they should eat healthier, it's a personal choice. It takes more time and determination to eat this way, but it works for me. I was talking to a friend this week about this little adventure of mine, and I mentioned that this was "just for me". She got that. It makes me happy, and if anyone else in the house wants to try anything I cook, they are welcome to. But this is my thing. And you should have a thing in life that makes you happy. Mine is healthy cooking, for my family. Always has been, always will be.

And I will say this about my body - it's getting pickier with age and eating healthy. I felt great this week eating like this! Absolutely wonderful! But this week, I brought some hummus and 7- layer dip to a pool party. I bought these premade from a grocery store, and dug in when I got to the party. Yum! They tasted so good! I felt terrible after eating them. So terrible afterwards that I didn't feel like eating that night. OK, now you know something was terribly wrong. I never pass on food.

So, I learned that once I removed any food that was really processed or had fillers in it, my body didn't like it when I reintroduced those foods again.  And believe me, I love a good Pop-Tart or Hot Pocket as much as the next person.

This could throw a wrench into my Mom's Night Out dinners..........

Enough of the soapbox. Back to money.

So, I felt great after eating this way for a week. After seeing the total $$, I feel even better. And it can only get better from here. Or at least I hope so, I'm going to Whole Foods again. I hope I don't exit the store loudly.........