Week 3 – 2nd Trip
I stopped a couple extra times last week, just because I am now feeling I need more. Is still have stayed easily within my budget. But as my staples dwindled, of course, I needed to spend more.

02/09/12 (Week 3)
Tangerines 1.28
Chocolate raisins (bulk) 1.63
Bananas .95
Nut mix (bulk)4.06
Flax cereal (bulk) 5.07
Subtotal  12.99
Tax .78
Total 13.77

02/11/12
Kale  2.29
Bananas .95
Sour cream 1.09
Pork chops 3.54
Subtotal 7.87
Tax .47
Total 8.34

Budgeting, eating and cooking – they all obviously take time. I do not mind taking the time since the food I cook and my meals are really important to me, not just in the sense of being frugal – but of making the effort to eat whole foods. Being with a very low food budget is not something new to me – I was a single mom and I had to make what I earned work for us. I don’t bother with coupons anymore since that’s mostly only processed foods – I used to cut coupons and I saved a ton. However, now I can see what that was all about with getting people to buy processed foods – people get a taste of something and they want to continue to buy that product – it’s a marketing strategy, something I no longer want to buy into. Seriously, just whole foods is the way to go – I’ve been doing this for almost two years now, so taking the time to document this for people who are interested and on a budget can see and realize it is not a deprivation to eat well on a budget.