A $20 Grocery Shopping Trip

I thought I’d post next week’s menu here, just so I’d have a little bit of accountability.

Tonight–Fish & chips

Sunday–Mother’s Day Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Monday–Breakfast for Dinner: Pancakes & Sausage

Tuesday–Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken

Wednesday–Beef Tostadas with Mexican Rice

Thursday–Parmesan Pork Chops with Pasta

Friday–Employee Banquet

I got my grocery shopping done in about 20 minutes. I’d forgotten it’s SDSU’s graduation this weekend, so I’m glad I could get in & out of there quickly. I got everything on my list and stayed within budget, although I realized after I made my list that I wouldn’t be able to spend my full $20–I had to allow for South Dakota’s ridiculous food tax. And stuff like that irritates me, because that was an extra $1.19 I could’ve spent on something, or put towards my next trip to the grocery store.

Oh well. The SD politicians like to waive the threat of an income tax (*gasp!* If we had an income tax in this state, we might actually have decent roads and infrastructure, and people might actually might want to come and live here!) if the food tax is ever eliminated. Whatever. Of course, things would be absolutely perfect if I ran the world.

Anyway, here’s what (little) my $20.65 (technically $19.46) bought:

I actually got some produce! The strawberries & pineapple will most likely be gone later today–Jay wanted fruit as opposed to chips or other junk food (and for that I am proud of him), although he could eat both those cartons in one sitting. The blueberries are for some juice I’ve been wanting to make for many months now. Breville posted a video recipe on FB awhile ago for something they called Cotton Candy juice. It’s a grapefruit, some blueberries, and guava. I have an in with the produce department at Hy-Vee, but I didn’t want to be one of those pain-in-the-arse customers who has them special-order one item, which I’d only need one of, and then waste the rest. So I went without guava until Melissa went to the Cities last weekend and found some!

And yeah, I didn’t even know what guava looked like until she brought those back.

Two of those items were not on my original list: The dinner rolls, and the Mexican rice. Both were on sale, and while I was calculating what my total was as I went along, I figured that if I went over, the dinner rolls would be first to go, then the rice. But I had enough, and I figured that since the bambino really likes rice, that would pair well with the Beef Tostadas I’m making later in the week. The dinner rolls are more for me–I figure we can have a couple with our fish & chips tonight.

After I was done at the store, I made partial use of my gift card:

Breakfast! That Apple Cinnamon Scone was EXCELLENT! More like soft bread, but apple-y, cinnamon-y deliciousness. I brought the bambino a chocolate-covered Oreo which he snarfed, but then he wanted some of my scone. I think he ate about a third of it! Choco Latte does such fine, tasty work.

And with that, I’m off to do some laundry. We’re going to spend most of tomorrow in Sioux Falls, so I need to get a bunch done today!