Monday, January 10, 2011

HOW much did that cost???

Yesterday I took a lovely trip over to Whole Foods to do our weekly shopping. I had planned my week's menus ahead of time and written my list out in order of the aisles to make my shopping journey easier and more efficient (aka, no grabbing random items that I may not need or have a real use for). I was prepared damnit.

Why then, did the nice young hipster cashier tell me my total was $113.56? Gulp. I know what you're thinking: 1. You're shopping at Whole Foods, aka Whole Paycheck; 2. that Vegan on the Cheap book is a farce and you should stop following it!

Well, I'll take both criticisms in stride. First off, I shop at Whole Foods because I enjoy my experience more. When I go to Hannaford, I'm greeted by angry looking employees, sub-par produce, and angsty customers looking to push me out of the way. When I shop at Whole Foods, I find the obscure products I need (like nutritional yeast or vegetable protein), all of the employees greet me with a smile (one even stopped to help when I looked confused), and actually, as long as you avoid prepared foods, the cost is not that different. As for Vegan on the Cheap, well, I do think it will make a difference in our wallets eventually. The problem is, we haven't been eating vegan for a long time so our pantry doesn't have Asian chili paste, brown rice vinegar, or tempeh. If you subtract out all of the kitchen-long-term stock items (plus the much needed Emergen-C and vitamins- $35 out of the total), the bill is actually quite manageable/reasonable.

So I take a deep breath. I swipe my card and I know that the meals I cook this week will be glorious and we won't keep making little runs to the convenience store for frozen pizza or calls for take out Thai. I believe it was worth it and I know next week's bill will be greatly reduced.

5 comments:

  1. Hey it's Laura L....so my question to you on Facebook has been answered on this blog! I love the blog, and your recipes sound so delicious...I thought about writing a blog too but I'm not as good with words as you are. I wish you luck in your vegan journey...I love the lifestyle so far and I plan to stick with it (it definitely helps that my boyfriend is vegan now too and some of my friends and coworkers are...so if you have any questions let me know!)

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  2. Thanks Laura! Let me know if you try any of these recipes and how they turn out! Sadly, my network of vegans is very small, so it's always nice to know of someone else out there :) Feel free to post your ideas and recipes on here too if you don't start a blog! Keep in touch!

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  3. I have to hit two grocery stores to complete my shopping list, because I need those obscure items from WF and cheap bagels from Hannaford. I do enjoy wandering through WF, but I got stuck there for 45 minutes last week. I find their layout totally confusing, and I ended up with a lot of things I didn't need. Kudos to you on your super organized list!

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  4. Sometimes I just get too lazy to go to two food stores. I know I shouldn't be though :) The list REALLY helps and when you've shopped at WF as much as we have, you don't really get distracted any more because you're just used to it. It does take insane amounts of control to limit throwing things into your cart that just look good but aren't on the list, though. I set a time limit for myself- I have to be in and out of there in 20 minutes, 30 if it's really crowded. And our new rule: only one shopping trip per week.

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  5. Ack! Those trips that involve stocking up on staples hurt! I am so with you there.
    I can't bring myself to go to more than one grocery store, so I just stick to Hannaford and omit rye and wheat flakes from my granola. Hannaford also used to carry nutritional yeast AND seitan, and over the years both have disappeared from the shelves. Might have to bite the bullet and wander over to WF every once in a while...

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