Food Shopping Is Bad For Your Health

Food Shopping Is Bad For Your Health!

 

We overeat! We buy junk food! Food is expensive!

 

Nope.

 

I do think that food shopping is bad for your health, but not for any of those reasons. If you play along at home with me on Instagram, you may have seen a photo of a dirty foot of mine with some shopping bags. Yep, it’s time for one of those posts again! I did a bulk grocery shop and have most of the receipts. Sharing is caring.

 

So why is food shopping bad for your health? Because if you’re skilled at life like me, you manage to hurt your back while putting shopping away, and then spend a boring evening playing bad video games on your iPad in bed while eating soft dark chocolate licorice and tomatoes.

 

(The tomatoes were to freak out my husband; he hates tomatoes. I was putting the licorice away before I ate the whole bag, and ate two juicy cherry tomatoes while I was at the fridge, making sure he was watching. Then I asked him if he wanted to make out. Apparently not.)

 

You wanna see what we bought? Here it comes:

 

 

Paper towels: I spill shit. A lot. It ruins laptops lives.

Peas: I eat them. And they’re cheap and go well in stir fry’s and chilli.

Corn: See above.

Ice cream: Something awesome I need to blog for you. You’ll have to wait. Ha-ha.

Frozen 1kg: I think this was a pack of spring rolls that were on sale, because I need lazy dinner options on hand.

Scourers: Apparently these are used for cleaning dishes. I wouldn’t know. I don’t do housework.

Corn chips: I try to avoid junk food trips to the shops. Which means pre-purchasing junk food because it actually ends up cheaper in the long run.

Sorbent: I like to have something to wipe with. I hope you do too.

Tinned tomatoes: To make a batch of chili

Tissues: Flu season. Need I say more? I buy el cheapo tissues for day-to-day life and keep a box of aloe vera Kleenex for when one of us is sick and you need the good quality ones.

Kidney stones!! (How awesome is it that the guy on Friends is Abed’s dad on Community?!)

Whoops.

Kidney beans: chili

Cola: For drinking.

Body wash: for the cleaning of ALL THE BODY PARTS!

Tampons: for periods. I know, shocking.

Liners: for leaking tampons.

Sandwich bags: for food to go in.

Red sticks: I have NFI what this is. Can someone tell me what I bought? Seriously, I don’t know!

NOODLE MIX: Remember these? Well they’re on sale (at least in my local Coles they are) so go and freaking buy them! I had to buy two packets as it was pointed out to me that I don’t share. Which was a fair point as I didn’t even let Ben try them the last time.

Atta food: Ok, now I wish I got a pat on the head when I bought these. I think these are wraps.

Wraps: These are wraps.

Rice crackers: Snackey snackey for workey workey.

Milo: Not something we’ve had in the house in years but we’ve both suddenly wanted it lately. The smallest containers were actually the cheapest, which was strange.

Eucalyptus: I should blog about that one day…

Pasta: Ben said we were out. I said go pick some up. He said which ones. I said I don’t care. He said “I like tubey ones”. Penne it is.

Mexican seasoning: Taco, taco TACO!

Licorice: see below:

 

Taco shells: see Mexican seasoning.

Jatz: because I am addicted to cheese.

Soup packet: french onion soup mix is one of a few secret ingredients in an amazing recipe that I haven’t blogged

Chocolate: see corn chips above.

V: because I hate the taste and smell of coffee but need caffeine sometimes

Peanut butter: Mostly Ben’s thing, but also handy for mixing with coconut cream to make ‘satay’ and for smushing on bread for lunch on days when I should have already left the house.

Tuna: see this post from last year about why we buy little tins.

Mayo: I think it was aoli actually. How do you spell Aoili?

Milk: Ben drinks coffee. I know. So gross. You’d never guess he was raised Mormon.

Coconut cream: see peanut butter.

Cordial: because I get sick of drinking water.

Beef: see Mexican seasoning above. Also, chili.

Lamb: cute AND delicious. It really is a winner of foods.

Sausages: Ben’s thing more than mine. Also, why do they taste better in Bunnings?

 

 

You’ll notice there’s no fruit or veg – apart from frozen – in this shop. That’s because we live a few doors from a local fruit and veg shop that does fruit and veg at quality that kicks the supermarket’s ass down a florescent aisle and into the checkout queue. They also give you free eggs if you spend over $20. And that’s about what I like to budget when I’m working full time. Some of it is even grown on site – only a little as it’s a residential area but even so, it’s pretty good. Recently I’ve been going to an egg farm for eggs (a tray of 3 dozen is $9 x large, $10 jumbo) so we don’t collect on the free offer. Just depends what I have time to get. Bread comes from our local corner store as needed at 2 for $4.

 

I also spent $25 at Woolies, but didn’t get the reciept. So you’ll have to go and hunt down the right Woolies and the right time and see what was in my basket from the security tapes.

 

Kidding.

 

It was tinned dog food (only Woolies stock the one we use and as Vala is a Type 1 diabetic we don’t change flavours or brands ever), hash browns (I like the Woolies Select brand ones best) and 4 chicken breasts (because I forgot them in Coles).

 

All up, this was a big bulk stock-up shop for us – we won’t go through all of this but lots of stuff we do use was on sale so we took the chance to stock up.

 

Totals:

$180 Coles

$25 Woolies

$20 (ish, currently not spent) fruit and veg store

 

Final total: $225

 

What do we do with this? We eat pretty simply overall. I don’t use recipes so it’s hard to really say specifically.

 

Breakfast for me is a hit and run affair, sometimes pre-made and frozen banana bread, other time instant porridge, other times a muesli bar on the run.

 

For lunch I try to keep it simple and easy to transport: a wrap with tuna or chicken and some salad bits.

 

Dinner we generally try to stick to a principle of 1/2 veggies, 1/4 carbs and 1/4 protein.

 

Helpful? Crazy? Back sore? What do you eat? How much do you spend?

 

ETA: I just realised I didn’t buy bacon. I need bacon.

 

ETA2: If you live in Melbourne, go enter my competition for Oz Comic-Con tickets. It closest SATURDAY!