After a crazy day driving to Dallas, TX the last thing we wanted to do was go grocery shopping. We ended up making the kids some nutella sandwiches out of our food stash leftover from Albuquerque and pushed our shopping to Monday (Greg's birthday) instead.
We were absolutely SHOCKED at the price of frozen vegetables. I think Tom Thumb is kind of like an Albertsons or a Safeway in Oregon. So, not the cheapest food you can buy but pretty comparable to where we've been shopping this whole trip across the United States. I buy small bags of frozen veggies for usually less than $1 a bag. They were $3 a bag at Tom Thumb!!! What?! Who could afford that?!
I'm very disappointed and it definitely affected my meal plan. With Greg's birthday being this week, we based most of our meals around his favorites and just excluded most of the vegetables we would normally add, replacing them with prepared food instead. Because at Tom Thumb in Dallas, TX, it's actually cheaper to buy a big jar of sauerkraut than it is to buy frozen vegetables! I just can't wrap my head around that. How could it less expensive to buy the produce, prepare it, buy glass jars and lids, pack them, label them, and ship them for less than raw green beans in a bag? Well, I digress...
Here is our meal plan for the week:
Monday
Muffins
Sandwiches and chips
Surprise street tacos from our Airbnb host!
Cake for Greg's birthday
Tuesday
Cereal
Cream of mushroom soup over white rice
Corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes with veggies
Wednesday
Cereal and bananas
Frozen burritos
Sautéed mushrooms and onions over fried polenta with veggies
Thursday
Muffins
Mac & Cheese
Homemade enchiladas and rice with veggies
Friday
Cereal and bananas
Potato O'Brien burritos
Leftover corned beef (rueben sandwiches) and chips
Saturday
Cereal and bananas
Our total grocery bill came to $100.88 after removing the cost of drinks. The above food plan made 15 meals x 4 people for a total of 60 meals. This brings our total in Dallas, TX to $1.68 per meal. We seem to be averaging about $15 per person when we eat out which means by preparing our own food this week, we are saving $799.12. This is better overall than what we spent in Albuquerque, NM but the quality of our food is much lower. We are eating a lot more meat this week, a lot less vegetables, and WAY more processed food.
I might have to switch to shopping at more national chain stores in the hopes that their prices will be lower overall on produce because they have so many locations they're shipping to. Maybe Walmart of Target will be better options. I just hate shopping there because they wrap everything in plastic. I don't need my celery to be in a plastic bag, and seriously... who needs to buy individual plastic wrapped cucumbers?! This wasteful packaging has prevented me from giving them my money for a long time but I just can't do multiple weeks of pre-packaged food. It makes me feel terrible. We're heading to Edmond, OK next week so we'll try Walmart and let you know!
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