What Our Family Buys

This entry is a snapshot of the food we consume as a family, as viewed through the lens of our grocery list.

I have to admit that my food and nutrition story has changed since becoming a mom. I met my husband at Syracuse University when we were studying architecture. We moved to Chicago after graduation and sailed along in our careers for over 10 years before we decided to start a family. We both worked in the Loop (downtown Chicago), so we commuted to work together. We usually had a breakfast/cereal bar in the car on the way in and we both ate lunch at someplace near our offices, like Potbelly's, on a lunch-run with co-workers. We didn't think about dinner until 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening on our drive home. When we got home, we were really hungry and made whatever was super-fast, like Rice-a-Roni or pan fried meat of some sort. We didn't eat fruits or vegetables very often because we just didn't have any on hand. Grocery store trips were usually unplanned on the weekend or last minute on the way home from work. We did not have a very well-balanced diet and relied on our lunches to bridge the gaps.

Now, we have two boys, ages 5 and 2, and after the first was born, I took my maternity leave and in that time-frame decided I wasn't going to return to my job. Our lives changed dramatically at that point for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which was my ability to correct our nutrition. But, my leaving work also meant that our income was half of what it was previously. That happened in late 2008, and after the holidays of that year, we realized that we had to seriously tighten our budget. Since groceries were one part of our expenditures that we could control and reduce, I did research online to teach myself how to buy them cheaper. I learned a lot that year about how to shop for groceries from an economic perspective and it has helped us tremendously. They were important lessons I wish I'd known sooner!

As a stay-at-home mom, it is a priority to shop regularly, plan meals (to some degree), and bring a sense of balance to what we are putting into our bodies. My husband and I feel healthier than we did five years ago. My grocery list changes somewhat from week to week; but, for the most part, I have settled into a routine and the staples we buy are on the perimeter of the store and I shop the weekly ad's sales.

(As an aside, our Dominick's grocery store, my go-to store 5-minutes from our house, has closed as of December and my "smooth" routine is in a state of disarray. I haven't figured out my new go-to store; we have a lot of options, but I'm missing "my" Dominick's. I'm a little lost at the grocery stores these days.)

So, first I buy fruits and vegetables that are either in season and on sale or specific things that I want to use for the week. I consciously try to not dole out extra money for the out-of-season produce that is imported from foreign countries. The exceptions are the tropical fruits we love that either aren't grown in the U.S. or are grown in limited supply, like bananas, mangos, avacados, and kiwi to name a few.

Next, I buy meats that are on sale and I usually buy more chicken and pork than beef. It's cheaper and also, we feel healthier if we only eat beef once or twice per week. After the meats, we buy a lot of dairy. We eat a lot of cheeses, yogurt, and eggs; and we buy a lot of milk - about 4 gallons per week! I always look for the 2% milk that is on sale and we pay about $2.89, sometimes even $2.49 per gallon. I think that is really inexpensive compared to other places I've seen.

After the perimeter, moving to the aisles of the store, I regularly buy breads, frozen vegetables, snack crackers, nuts, canned vegetables, canned soups, Kraft Mac N Cheese, bottled juice, cereal (and more cereal), pasta, and rice. Occasionally, when they are on sale, I buy packaged frozen pastas or frozen Stouffers meals that I can have on hand for a quick meal, deli meats, chips, candy, and ice cream. I almost never buy soda, frozen snack foods, kids fruit snacks (not anymore), or individually wrapped snacks (not yet, anyways - I don't pack lunches yet). 

My mom gives us canned fruits and jams and I bake homemade cookies (with the exception of Oreos!). I buy real maple syrup by the gallon from a family within two miles of my parents farm and it is worth every penny!

I don't buy organic, unless it's the only choice like YoBaby yogurt, because it costs more. We have a grocery store called Caputo's that has nice produce and it's priced well. They have clear signage at all of the produce telling me price and country of origin and they always have locally grown in-season produce. I like that a lot. When my husband and I were both working, we would frequent the summer Farmer's Market in our town on Saturday and in the Loop on Thursday or Tuesday. I didn't realize what a luxury that was. When I started paying closer attention to prices, I realized the premium I was paying at the Farmer's Market. There are still a few things I prefer to buy there, like sweet corn, peaches, cherries, and fresh berries. Farmer's Market produce is definitely worth the extra cost if you can afford the expense. It is fresher and tastes better. It hasn't been picked prematurely and traveled for miles (and miles and miles).

As I said in an earlier post, every family makes their own choices and has a comfort level with those choices. For us, with a family, our grocery budget is at the front of my mind and I try to make the healthier foods the priority and limit the foods with little or no nutritional value.