Less than $100 on groceries!

AND I got everything I needed for 5 days worth of meals to boot!

Believe me, this is a BIG deal. I budget $120 bi-weekly for food, and generally do manage to stay within in, but it's more than frustrating to come home with just a bag or two of food worth $40 - $50 and eat for three days out of it then have to go again. I found a 4 week meal plan in a magazine at work the other week and decided that because they looked simple (not a lot of ingredients, no more than 20 mins to fix, etc) that I would try this out.

This is week 1 and this is my $80.06 shopping trip:

Ricotta cheese: $3.79
Shredded parmesan: $5.49 (compared to slabs of parmeson for well over $10 each)
Dried apricots (.670 kg @ $8.60 kg): $5.76
Coke x 2: $3.38
Yams x 2 (1.060 kg @ $2.62 kg): $2.78
Bananas (1.150 kg @ $1.94 kg): $2.23
Lime: .75
Bok choy (.840 kg @ $2.16 kg): $1.81
Green beans (.335 kg @ $4.17 kg): $1.40
Ginger root (.100 kg @ $1.94 kg): .19
Cajun trail mix (.335 kg @ $9.80 kg): $3.28
Red peppers x 2 (.515 kg @ $7.25 kg): $3.28
Marmalade: $2.79
Spaghetti (organic, brown rice, PC): $2.49
Pork chops: $3.99
Outside round steak: $2.94
Chicken breast: $8.48
Halibut fillet: $10.63
Tinned cat food (Pres Choice) x 24: 10.98
Sourdough bread: $2.19

TOTAL: $80.06!!!

This probably looks like a lot to a lot of people (in fact, I know it does and probably is), but these are the prices at SuperStore in Whitehorse. You tend to pay more at the even the cheapest place in town, and even at the bulk bin (see: apricots), but you have to eat, right? I'm hoping these meals will last me a lot longer than 5 days, actually, because there should be leftovers for my lunches as well (all recipes, apparently, make enough for 4 servings).

If this works out well, then I will continue with the rest of the meal plans. I see no reason that it shouldn't, so as this will also test my culinary skills (and D is still willing to be my guinea pig), I need to focus and start cooking! You'd think that a person who loves to eat would also enjoy the process of cooking, but I don't, mostly because there's finicky stuff involved: cutting, slicing, dicing, etc. When I'm able to, I'm hiring a chef. ;-)

Post (and pics) on Vancouver trip to follow!