Category: Shopping

Mission Difficult: Finding Asian Ingredients in Tennessee

Posted on by Laura & Brett
Old favorites and new ones to try!

The #1 thing that’s been difficult, for us anyway, to find since we’ve been in Tennessee? Asian ingredients! They’re here, but finding them is at times like being on a challenging treasure hunt.

One of the most exciting gifts I received this past Christmas was 10 different CookDo sauces our son brought from Japan. We’re trying to limit ourselves to one packet a month, but it’s hard because he brought our favorites plus a few new ones we’re dying to trying. YaYu also gave me two jars of pad Thai sauce; rice noodles for that dish are somewhat easy to find but not the sauce.

Trader Joe’s carries a few Asian ingredients we use somewhat regularly: rice vinegar, dark sesame oil, tofu (both regular and baked), furikake, and occasionally miso paste. They just started carrying a fantastic peanut satay sauce. However, their rice selection is limited to basmati and jasmine – we enjoy them, but don’t use enough to warrant the purchase of a whole package. We also find some of their frozen Asian offerings to not be worth purchasing, although the current Korean products they offer are very good (Korean customers are snapping them up).

I order the Japanese-style rice we use from Amazon where a five-pound bag is $6.73. A few weeks ago I found two-pound bags of the same brand at a local supermarket for $6.89! Thankfully five pounds of rice lasts for a while as Brett and I typically cook just a little at a time.

The Asian sections in local supermarkets are woefully small with limited offerings, mainly a few sauces and marinades and a limited selection of (rice) noodles and ramen (instant and regular). Sprouts market has a larger section of Asian items, and some of the produce we can’t find elsewhere (things like bok choy, bean sprouts, Chinese pea pods, napa cabbage), but their prices are high. However, we can bulk buy jasmine and basmati rice there (meaning just enough for the two of us and not a whole package that would take forever to use). The same goes for Whole Foods: more Asian produce offerings but higher prices that make us think twice.

Some of our information about where to find ingredients has come from our daughter-in-law. There is a small Japanese market in Nashville we’ve been to with her although it’s somewhat difficult to get to, expensive, and has a limited variety of goods. Once a year is about the extent of our visits there. But, they carry a limited selection of CookDo sauces, soba noodles, and a few other products we like. World Market also carries some Asian items but again the selection is limited and can be expensive: a bag of KitKats is $9.00! It’s a good place though to find Japanese curry cubes, yakisoba noodles, Kewpie mayonnaise, and a few other things.

We recently discovered an Indian market just down the road from us, in the back of a nearby strip mall. Indian neighbors in our apartment complex say it’s a good place to shop. We can’t read any of the packages in the store but we’re going to stop there more often this year as their prices are good for things like lentils and produce. Next door to the store is a wonderful chai and samosa place – everything the sell is delicious so we’ll be stopping there as well – two big cups of fresh, hot chai and eight big vegetable samosas are only $10. We also recently learned of two other international markets that we are eager to check out, even though we dread going in and out of Nashville.

I can only imagine what it’s like for our daughter-in-law and other Asian immigrants in the area to find familiar foods or the ingredients necessary to make dishes from home. The markets are here, but often hard to find or with a small selection of foods and ingredients. We were incredibly spoiled in Oregon and Hawaii when it came to ethic stores and ingredients (especially Asian) but although they exist here finding them remains a challenge

Big Plans for Some Gift Cards

Posted on by Laura & Brett

Between the two of us, Brett and I received several generous but random gift cards this past Christmas: World Market, J. Jill, Starbucks, P.F. Chang’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. They’ve been sitting in a pile on our desk since the holiday because we’ve been thinking about how to use them to best advantage.

After some thought here’s how they’re going to be spent:

  • World Market: We’re not in any hurry to go back as the store remains dangerous, but we want to eventually get some Kewpie mayonnaise, Japanese curry cubes, a couple of fancy chocolate bars for Brett, and maybe some passionfruit curd if it’s in stock.
  • J. Jill: I honestly don’t need any new clothing, but a couple of transitional t-shirts (for the transition from spring to summer, and fall to winter) would be nice, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for something I like. If I don’t find something or get frustrated after a while, the sale rack at the store is always full of bargains.
  • Starbucks: We only stop here occasionally so this card will last us a long time. K thinks at the end of the month we should treat ourselves to something for our “reading contest” so we’ll use some of the card for that.
  • P.F. Chang’s: Maybe a lunch date someday? For Brett’s birthday in April?
  • Dick’s Sporting Goods: Brett plans to put this card toward a pair of HOKA shoes for walking and hikes.
  • Ruth’s Chris Steak House: We’ve decided to go to Ruth’s Chris for dinner on our annual anniversary Day of No Cooking at the end of March – this gift card will make it slightly more affordable.

In a year of no spending and saving, these cards will provide us with some things we’d otherwise go without, and we’re very grateful for every one of them and the givers’ generosity.

Eating Well On $500 a Month

Posted on by Laura & Brett

It’s good for me to visually take inventory once in a while of how we spend our money, especially on food. I haven’t done it in a while, but in September we were starting out with an almost empty fridge and freezer and I thought this would be a good time to take photos of what we bought to not only see how much we spent on food (and alcohol) but also what we were able to buy within our food budget of $500.

I sort of stuck to my plan of shopping once a week: we did one “big shop” on the first and and a smaller fill-ins throughout the month. Truth be told though, I just don’t enjoy food shopping enough to do it every week. Maybe that has something to do with working in a food store.

Gluten-free (and dairy-free) products take up a larger percentage of our food budget these days as they are a bit more costly than regular items. I buy most of our GF products at Trader Joe’s – some are better than others – but we did check out what Whole Foods has to offer and bought a couple of items there. My stomach remains a whole lot happier these days without gluten (and lactose).

Anyway, here’s everything we bought in September:

  • Whole Foods/Sept 1: We bought two packages of GF baguettes which were on sale (and otherwise unaffordable), and a big piece of GF carrot cake that we split for dessert. We plan to get the cake again sometime – it was delicious – but the GF bread was just OK. Total spent: $23.38.
  • Costco/Sept 1: We hadn’t shopped here in a while but wanted to check out gluten free offerings as well as get coffee, tea, and naproxen sodium. The items we ended up purchasing were: Kirkland brand naproxen sodium, a twin pack of Rao’s sauce, a big bag of organic chicken sausage links, a 3-pack of GF cheese pizzas (which are surprisingly good), a package of rice noodle ramen, Thai-style coconut curry chicken, five pounds of organic oatmeal, a pan of stuffed bell peppers, and two packages of GF oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. We also bought a flat of bottled diet green tea with lemon (not pictured), six pounds of coffee (not pictured), two bottles of pinot grigio, and a bottle of pinot noir. Total spent: $188.27. Some of this food and beverage will last into next month and beyond.
  • Liquor store/Sept 1: We bought a bottle of rum and two bottles of club soda for $25.12 (for mojitos)
  • Aldi/Sept 1: Less than $20 ($19.26) for two packages of mild Italian sausages, a package of cilantro, a package of fresh mint, two boxes of graham crackers, two packages of instant mashed potatoes, a can of chickpeas, a bag of mini chocolate chips, a can of kidney beans, and a can of green beans.
  • Trader Joe’s/Sept 1: Our TJ’s total for everything was $145.45 (after discount of $34.48). I’ve divided up what we bought into five photos.

TJ’s afterschool kid snacks: marshmallows, meringue cookies, dark chocolate-covered pretzels, popcorn, and baked cheese curls

Bakery items: two loaves GF multigrain bread, two loaves GF cinnamon raisin bread, two packages GF muffins (chocolate and cinnamon coffee cake), one box GF madeilines, one loaf of multigrain sandwich bread

Grocery items: one pound thick cut bacon, two dozen eggs, two cartons nut milk, a bottle of canola oil, a jar of minced garlic, a bottle of furikake, a jar of vegetable soup, a carton of chicken broth, and a half pound of TJ’s Unexpected Cheddar.

Frozen: frozen blueberry waffles, GF waffles, two packages of beef bulgogi fried rice, frozen green beans, frozen broccoli florets, beef birria, breakfast eggwiches, oat milk chocolate fudge bars, brownie crisp coffee bars, and dairy-free Very Chocolate frozen dessert.

Produce: An organic coleslaw kit, a pound of fresh figs, a package organic onions, organic zucchini, a head of cabbage, one pound of organic tomatoes, a package of shishito peppers, two russet potatoes, a bag of organic baby kale, a package of green onions, and five organic bananas

Miscellaneous: a package of toilet paper and a bottle of Mangotini (Bellini made with mango juice versus peach – delicious!)

This first round of shopping left us with $98.52 for the second part of the month. I did a quick shop at Trader Joe’s a week after the first big shop for few more things (mostly gluten free) and then shopped again two weeks later. The first round I spent $36.34 (after discount of $9.09).

Trader Joe’s/ Sept 8: GF chocolate chip brownie mix; GF chocolate chunk cookie dough; GF bagels; chicken salad; lactose free cream cheese; GF hamburger rolls; shaved beef; French fries; and Unexpected Cheddar spread with hatch chilis. I made beef sandwiches topped with the Unexpected Cheddar spread, French fries, coleslaw for our Friday night dinner with our DIL and grands, and served GF brownies and freshly-baked
GF cookies for dessert!

When fall items started rolling in we bought the following must haves for $13.42 (after discount price of $3.35):

Trader Joe’s/Sept 14: Gluten free pumpkin pancake mix, gluten free pumpkin baking mix, and pumpkin-caramel Kringle (for Brett and the grandkids). We’ll be getting a whole lot more of the pancake and baking mixes before the season is over!

We finished up the month with another small shop at Trader Joe’s to get us through until the end of the month. We had $48.76 left in the budget; I spent $53.88 (after discount of $13.33). There were a few things I normally wouldn’t have gotten, but our grandchildren had dinner with us on two nights at the end of the month which meant pizza and pigs in a blanket as well as ice cream cones (they’re not adventurous eaters). We had also run out of dog treats.

Trader Joe’s/September 20: Bag #1: mint, cucumber chunks, a cucumber, bag of carrots, individual cheese pizzas, pork tenderloin roast; mini ice cream cones, tater tots, Pastry Pups (pigs in a blanket), vegan butter spread, and gluten free chicken nuggets,
Trader Joe’s/September 20: Bag 2: whole wheat hamburger buns, (more!) cilantro, roasted seaweed, six organic bananas, organic coleslaw mix, an avocado, one pound of roasted peanuts, bacon-pumpkin dog treats, sweet chili sauce, salmon skin dog treats, ginger-miso broth, and two potatoes.

Total spent in September: $505.12, just slightly over budget. Without all the booze we would have made it.

For all that, some of the meals we enjoyed this month included Zuppa Toscana; baked potatoes with broccoli, cheese, and bacon; zucchini frittata and Italian sausages; pad Thai; California roll salad; beef birria tacos with roasted shishito peppers; waffles and sausage “breakfast for dinner;” soup and grilled cheese sandwiches; coconut curry chicken with rice; stuffed bell peppers; shaved beef with chili cheddar cheese sandwiches; bulgogi fried rice; pork & vegetable fried rice; noodle bowls with roast pork; and more!

And, we enjoyed mojitos on the weekends!

Everything we bought fit nicely into the freezer and refrigerator and was easy to track thanks to last month’s clean out!

Menu Planning with Trader Joe’s

Posted on by Laura & Brett
Sometimes we joke at work that TJ’s is really a snack shop very cleverly disguised as a grocery store.

Working at Trader Joe’s has had an obvious welcome effect on my menu planning. Seeing TJ’s products every time I’m there, and learning about new or upcoming products means my menu plan is almost constantly on my mind in one way or another!

But, does working at Trader Joe’s actually make menu planning easier? The answer to that would be yes . . . and no. Sometimes I feel overloaded with too much information and too many products I want to try.

I love talking to customers and fellow crew members about what products they like. Some things others love are dismissed quickly because of the cost (too expensive even with the discount) or the ingredients – I still can’t get over how many products contain milk and/or wheat.

The week before we shop is spent going over a tentative menu plan and the accompanying shopping list, making sure nothing is left off or forgotten. I have yet to make a plan though that isn’t changed more than a few times; same for the shopping list. There are products at TJ’s I’d love to try and they get added to the menu plan and shopping list again and again but get removed again and again as well, as they’re wants and would take us over our budget. Case in point: the spatchcocked lemon rosemary chicken. It has appeared and disappeared off my shopping list more times than I can count. Customers rave about it, it looks and sounds delicious, but I just can’t justify the cost (and that much chicken) for the two of us.

While menu planning has always helped me save, working at Trader Joe’s has had one great benefit: impulse buying rarely happens. There is almost always a product, both new and old, to sample in the break room, but those tastings have kept me from buying more than a few things that sounded good but turned out to be something we wouldn’t like. Working at the demonstration cart has also helped change up my menu plan more than a few times, introducing me to products I might otherwise have passed up.

So, does working at Trader Joe’s help the menu planning process? Yes . . . and no. I’ve learned to be patient about products and bide my time and let the budget rule. Still, there’s an awful lot of good food at TJ’s to wrap my head around which keeps planning a bit more difficult than imagined.

Yes and No at Trader Joe’s

Posted on by Laura & Brett

One of the things I’m enjoying about working at Trader Joe’s (besides that fantastic discount) is the opportunity to learn more about all the different and delicious items they offer. Some Trader Joe’s products have been around for a while, but I’ve been discovering lots of new things and have found much I can’t wait to try.

We’re buying most of our groceries at Trader Joe’s now, but avoid items that we can get other places that are just as good and priced lower. Aldi sells great cheese, for example, at lower prices and in sizes that make sense for us, and I like the fresh meat sold at Aldi as well.

There are many things I won’t/don’t buy at Trader Joe’s, even with a discount. It’s not that I think they won’t be delicious or we can’t afford them, but in some cases they contain too many empty calories or seem too frivolous, or I know I can find equally good products for less at other locations.Some of the items we skip buying at TJ’s include (with exceptions noted):

  • ice cream: we do like the tiny ice cream cones once in a while, especially limited edition flavors like the mint, coffee, or pumpkin ginger ones.
  • frozen breakfast items
  • bread & bakery: we like TJ’s whole wheat English muffins, flour tortillas, and flatbread pizza crusts, and occasionally we’ll get some scones and pita bread but that’s it.
  • desserts, frozen or otherwise: a New York cheesecake will come home once in a great while and we’ll occasionally buy a baking mix.
  • cookies & candy: mint JoJos are a requirement at Christmas, and the new cocoa-peanut butter marshmallows are absolutely delicious . . . and I don’t even like marshmallows!
  • dips or deli items: wine country chicken salad is the exception although I recently tried a Toscana cheese and wine spread that I plan to buy.
  • anything spicy: although their spicy products are very popular, most everything spicy from Trader Joe’s is too much for me these days. I have become super sensitive to the heat as I’ve gotten older.
  • beer and sodas: neither of us drink beer, although we did buy a can the other day to make the new beer bread mix, which was very good.
  • frozen pizza: the Bambino mini pepperoni pizzas are the one exception, perfect for an evening when I don’t feel like cooking
  • chips & crackers: the pickle potato chips could be a deal breaker because they are very delicious, but I’ve been able to resist . . . so far. The new mee krob snack from Thailand however is the most delicious snack ever IMO. I just bought six packages as they sell out super fast. I’m eating them sparingly though because I don’t know when they’ll be back in stock again.
  • dairy: eggs, shredded cheese, and the occasional cream, sour cream, or half & half for a recipe are exceptions.
  • coffee
  • flowers
  • toiletries, cleaning, & paper goods: we’ve decided to buy toilet paper and tissues from TJ’s going forward as they’re a good deal with the discount applied.

Some of our new Trader Joe’s favorites are:

  • Korean-style short ribs
  • bulgogi fried rice (love, love, love this!)
  • japchae
  • turkey and stuffing fried rice (a seasonal item)
  • butter chicken
  • mee krob
  • sweet potato gnocchi
  • schwarma chicken thighs
  • lemon scones (when they’re in stock)
  • Danish kringle (in any flavor). We’re glad that this only shows up once in a while because it’s soooo good
  • lemon or blood orange cake mix
  • beer bread mix

A few of these items have made an appearance in the break room since I started working so I was able to try them. Others we’ve bought have come from customer recommendations. My all-time favorite Trader Joe’s product remains the Gaetano d’Aquino pinot grigio, from Italy. I have been drinking this particular wine since it sold for $3.99/bottle, about 15 years now. When we moved to Hawaii in 2014, I sent along three cases in our shipment because I knew how much I would miss it. It’s currently $5.99/bottle, but remains as delicious as always. Brett tries different bottles of red from all over but I remain faithful to the d’Aquino.

There’s lots more at Trader Joe’s that we have yet to try, and new products come out all the time. I pay attention to whether or not something is a limited edition product, because that means it will only be around for a short time, like the pumpkin products in the fall. Although I don’t and won’t stock up, I will buy a couple more of a limited or seasonal product than usual when they are available, like the pumpkin pancake mix in the fall, or the stuffing mix at Thanksgiving. Things sell out quickly at our store, so I know to grab them when I can.

Another Satisfied eBay Shopper

Posted on by Laura & Brett

One of my goals for the year is to not buy any new clothes for myself, and I have limited myself to only purchasing items from thrift shops or eBay (or possibly another clothing reseller).

I have been wanting some additional summer items, pants particularly, as many if not most of my worn-out summer items were left behind when we departed Kaua’i last year, but was finding selections at our local thrift stores quite limited. So, I decided to check out eBay.

My all-time favorite warm-weather pants for as long as I can remember have been J. Jill’s Easy Linen cropped pants. They were an annual staple in the J.Jill catalog (and stores) for years, always available in a variety of colors and prints. The pants’ loose style and elastic waste kept them cool, comfortable, and stylish, and I wore them daily in Hawaii. They were easy to care for, and the linen was high quality and lasted for years. They were also great for travel as there was no worry about wrinkles – linen is expected to wrinkle! At one point a few years ago I had a collection of six or seven pairs of the cropped pants in different colors, all bought on sale over the years.

Wearing my white J. Jill Easy Linen pants (and a J. Jill linen tunic) on our visit to the zoo in sweltering Sydney.

Sadly, the pants disappeared from J.Jill sometime in the past couple of years, most likely due to rising costs and the inability to find quality suppliers. The pairs I owned started wearing out one by one and this year I found myself with just one remaining pair, in white. I wanted to find replacements or a substitute to get through Tennessee’s upcoming sweltering summers (and beyond).

I have only shopped on eBay once, for a denim jacket, and felt I might get lucky again and find at least one pair of my beloved Easy Linen pants there. Not only did I find one pair in my size, I found five! As might be expected, color selection was a bit limited, but I went ahead and purchased all five pairs and all arrived in great condition and fit well. Each pair cost less than half of what the sale price had been at J. Jill (which always has fabulous sales). I am ready for warmer weather this year and into the future!

The black looking pair in the upper left is really a very dark navy blue. I never wear orange, but thought for some cool summer pants, why not? I also typically never wear patterned pants, but love this ikat-like print in black and white.

I’m not looking to spend on anything else right now nor have I bought anything more since purchasing the pants, but I occasionally find myself looking for different items first on eBay these days and the savings I could enjoy if I indulged myself. Count me in as a satisfied shopper!

Grocery Shopping in 2023: Vigilance & Discipline

Posted on by Laura & Brett
(photo credit: Maria Lin Kim/unsplash)

I nearly went into shock at the end of last year when Brett told me our grocery spending had been nearly $1000 a month since arriving in Tennessee. I knew some of that was because of our family gathering at Christmas, but I had no idea I had been spending as much as I did. The fault was entirely mine – I went sort of crazy buying all the things we couldn’t find or afford on Kaua’i and I was not keeping track of my spending. If I wanted something, I bought it, and pretty much just went crazy every time I went into a store. I was so wowed by how low prices were here compared to Hawaii that I never stopped to consider how much I was actually spending.

After recovering from the shock of Brett’s announcement, I resolved that we would spend less on food this year. I knew we could keep our monthly food spending here at $500 a month and initially set that as our goal for 2023. However, I decided I wanted a bit more of a challenge and see if it would be possible to keep our grocery spending to $450 or less.

So far this year we’ve managed to stay under $450 but it has required constant vigilance and discipline. Tough choices have had to be made each month, and the value of what we’d like to buy and eat have been weighed carefully with costs. My shopping routine has changed as well with new rules and no exceptions allowed. I basically went back to the way we shopped when we were traveling full time and it’s working for us once again.

Food shopping at the Tennessee Homestead these days means:

  • We only shop twice a month and otherwise do not enter a food store. I work at Trader Joe’s twice a week but don’t carry cash or a debit card when I work so I’m not tempted to shop (but I do get lots of good ideas for meals!).
  • We only shop with cash, and when it’s gone, that’s it. The change, $1 bills, and $5 bills leftover after food shopping each month are a strong, measurable reinforcement for us.
The menu and shopping list on my phone go through several revisions before I actually shop.
  • I start a menu plan for two weeks worth of meals (on my phone) a couple of weeks before the next shopping trip and create a shopping list from that menu. Before making the menu I go through the freezer and pantry and see what can be or needs to be used and start there. I check the menu and shopping list almost daily, adapting them as necessary to make sure we’ll get the most for our money and stay on track with our budget. The shopping list is divided into four main stores: Costco, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Publix. I don’t shop from their flyers but buy what I need to make what’s on the menu. It’s surprising how often what I need is on special anyway.
  • While shopping at Costco made loads of sense on Kaua’i, it doesn’t here, so we only go there now for a few items that we like and are a good value. Our self-imposed rule is no more than six items allowed per trip to Costco (because six items can quickly total $80 or more if I’m not careful).
  • Absolutely NO stocking up is allowed on any item, no matter how good the price. We don’t have room in our apartment to store extra goods, and Brett and I just don’t need to keep ten extra cans of tomato sauce on hand or three roasts in the freezer.
  • My 20% discount at Trader Joe’s is a game-changer, and we’re just starting to figure out how much difference the discount is going to make. I used to buy most of our food at Aldi, but have flipped that with Trader Joe’s, for the time being anyway.
  • We try very hard not to waste any food, or at least as little as possible.

For all this effort at saving, we eat well and although it may appear complicated, this system is really quite simple. We end up with a lot of variety in our meals, eat plenty of produce every day, enjoy both vegetarian meals as well as those with meat, and we have (healthy) prepared foods now and again. Neither Brett nor I eat large servings and that also helps our bottom line; there are almost always leftovers available. I make our own bread now, about once a week, although we are not big bread eaters. We can still fit a couple of “take and bake” items from Whole Foods into our budget most months. We continue to enjoy a small dessert every evening whether that’s a piece of cake, some ice cream, or another sweet treat.

Do I like shopping this way? At first, I hated it. As time has gone by though I am enjoying the challenge and look forward to menu planning and shopping strictly from my list. It’s making a difference to our bottom line.

All that change and those $1 and $5 bills we’re getting back and saving? We’ve got enough airline miles for two roundtrip flights to Mexico and our savings will help cover a vacation there next year!

Menu Planning In Retirement

Posted on by Laura & Brett

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In the past, everything in our freezer, fridge, and pantry would have had a specific purpose. These days it will all get used, but there’s no rigid plan for much of the food we buy.

I have been a menu planner for a long, long time. I was never a natural at menu planning and it was was a task I got better at over a long period of time. Menu planning has saved us a lot of money over the years, but my way of doing it has changed and adapted to my/our needs through the years.

Prior to joining the navy and meeting Brett, I worked as a waitress (food and then cocktail). I made good money for the times, and my menu planning during those days consisted of deciding what I wanted to eat that day and then stopping by the store to pick it up using some of my tips from the day. If I felt like having a steak, I bought steak. If I felt like having a sandwich, I bought a sandwich or all the fixings, and so forth. I was young and had few financial responsibilities, and the idea of planning a daily menu and stocking a pantry never crossed my mind.

When Brett and I got together, we were both in the navy and had very little money left over for food once our monthly obligations were met (military pay was pitifully low then). Our dates consisted of long walks, occasionally stopping at the bowling alley on base to share a 90-cent grilled cheese sandwich and seeing a movie once a month at the base theater for $1 each. We otherwise dined together at the chow hall for free. After I left the navy and our son was born, we had $36 every two weeks in our budget for food, and I menu planned using the pantry method out of necessity. After buying formula, the rest of our groceries routinely consisted of a big box of Bisquik, a couple of smoked ham hocks, a package of chicken breasts, dried beans, pasta, a few produce items, a quart of milk, a dozen eggs, a pound of cheese, flour, and yeast. I baked bread, made soups and quiches and everything else from scratch, and we ate a lot of pancakes. Menu planning consisted of rotating through the meals we could make with what we had on hand.

As our income eased up over the years I segued into planning a more structured and varied menu. We still shopped every two weeks (based on military paydays), but I learned to go with a shopping list based on two weeks of planned (affordable) meals that offered variety. I enjoyed creating a meal plan and fitting in new recipes as well as fixing favorite dishes. I used this style of planning for the next 40 years, whether we had one child or three at home. Menus were made for two week periods, although for a while I tried making a monthly plan and shopping just once a month. I thought I would spend less that way, but eventually realized that instead of saving I was actually spending more, and stopping at the store more frequently for odds and ends I had forgotten. The two-week planning worked best for us.

Before we began traveling I told Brett I was tired of and done with planning and cooking, and I wanted to use more prepared foods, and eat more soup and sandwiches and Brett said it was fine with him. This turned out to be a great solution for life on the road because there were so many new and interesting foods to try in the countries we visited, and many prepared foods were in a different league all together than what’s available in the U.S. and were more affordable too. We often never knew what we’d find when we walked into a supermarket, and were grateful we could add items that looked delicious and were affordable. We kept to a budget, but we shopped with a very short list and chose items more randomly. The smaller refrigerators in Europe proved to be a bit of a challenge at times, but we somehow made it work.

The new normal in menu planning these days somewhat combines our initial “pantry planning” method with the more structured “menu planning” method. I create our meals these days out of what we have on hand along with adding in more prepared foods we know we will enjoy, but it’s far more random than before. I continue to do the shopping, but Brett and I work together ahead of time to make sure I purchase things he needs or would like to have or try. This new way still keeps our budget in line, but we’re buying and eating less meat than we thought we would and our meals are frankly more interesting and fun. Best of all, I’m no longer worn out, frustrated, or bored when it comes to meal planning and preparation. I have an idea at the beginning of each week of what I can and would like to fix for us based on what we have on hand, and then decide each day what that will be depending on how I feel.

Our current retirement menu planning would never have worked for us back in the day when we were raising our kids, but it’s a great fit for our lifestyle now. However, old skills are being put back into use again as I start to think about meals for when the whole family will be here for the holidays. Three are lactose intolerant, one is glucose intolerant, and one is vegan, so meals will have to be planned around those needs but not break the bank as well. It’s definitely a challenge but sort of fun too. However, I remain thankful this will only be a temporary assignment and afterwards Brett and I can return to our new normal.

Big Shopping in Tennessee

Posted on by Laura & Brett

Brett and I did part of our monthly food shopping yesterday, or I should say he took me to do the shopping. I go into the store while Brett stays outside with Kai and walks him around. We’ve tried leaving him at home a couple of times but there have been less than ideal results, even when he’s left in his crate (he tears his beds to shreds). Anyway, yesterday we did our monthly stop at Costco and a bi-monthly one at Trader Joe’s.

Food shopping is once again a pleasure compared to the struggle it became in Hawaii to not go over our budget. Our current monthly food allotment is $500, $100 less per month than we budgeted in Hawaii, although so far we have been spending less. We do one Big Shop in the middle of the month, and another at the end.

I was a bit concerned about the Costco trip yesterday because we were out of several things that I knew would drive the total up, including two cans of coffee (regular and decaf), a case of oat milk, and three bottles of wine. We were also out of a couple of snack items we keep on hand: peanut butter filled pretzels that Brett enjoys, and fig bars that we all like (K loves them). I also wanted to buy a Halloween House kit for K to decorate when she’s with us today or Friday.

Our Costco swag, and . . .
. . . a case of lemon green tea. We each have one a day (and recycle the bottles).

I found four items not on my list: Pacific Foods organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup (our favorite), two bags Cretor’s Chicago mix popcorn (which I adore), almond thins with papaya and passionfruit, and box of beer batter cod for fish & chips. This is the absolute maximum of bulk shopping we can do now because we don’t have room to store any more.

The total for everything at Costco was $206.51, including tax. The same items would have cost us somewhere closer to $300 at the Kaua’i Costco, maybe more. I didn’t buy meat (we buy that at Trader Joe’s or ALDI now), bread items, desserts, pre-made casseroles, nor any giant bags of produce, all things we pretty much had to purchase at Costco on Kaua’i. The only produce we buy at Costco now are organic apples and bananas, and an occasional bag of frozen blueberries. It’s very nice to have other options these days.

Everything from Trader Joe’s.

After Costco it was on to Trader Joe’s. I accidentally left my list at home so I knew I had to be on my best behavior there. I picked up the apple cider doughnuts and pumpkin ravioli Brett had asked for, and a couple more boxes of the pumpkin pancake mix to get us through the winter. Otherwise I couldn’t remember much of anything else on the list and did my best to not go crazy. TJ’s has so many pumpkin items out right now, but I was able to pass most of them except for one box of the pumpkin sticky toffee cakes – Meiling told us they were very good. The only splurge item was a chicken pot pie. I didn’t buy much produce because we still have plenty on hand.

Total spent at Trader Joe’s was $75.89, There’s no way to compare that with costs in Hawaii because there are no Trader Joe’s there! I know though we would have paid a whole lot more for the same or similar items versus what we pay here.

Total spent for this October Big Shop trip was $282.40, which means we have $217.60 left to spend at the end of the month. I plan to go to ALDI and may visit TJ’s again, but if all goes well we’ll probably end up with somewhere around $100 left over we can put into savings. For now though our cupboards are full.

Food Shopping In San Miguel de Allende

Posted on by Laura & Brett

Feeding ourselves in San Miguel de Allende is costing us a lot less than we imagined. Today, along with going out to brunch, Brett and I did our food shopping for the coming week. We stopped at three places today: the fruteria (produce store) down the hill from us; Panio, a French bakery located a short distance away; and La Comer, the big supermarket that reminds us of a cross between Target and Costco. As this was a somewhat normal week of purchases for us, I thought I’d share what we spent (in US$) and what we got.

We actually stopped at the fruteria on our way to brunch, and purchased a large honeydew melon, a bunch of five bananas, four mangoes, and two limes. Total for everything: $4.09USD.

After finishing our brunch we headed down the street a short distance to Panio, happy that our stomachs were full so that we would hopefully not be too tempted by their wares (it didn’t work). Panio is owned and run by a French-trained pasty chef, and walking into the bakery we both felt like we were back in Paris. Even though we were not hungry in the least, we left with a big bag of meringues, a big bag of butter cookies, two pain aux raisins, two pain au chocolat, and one large brownie for us to share. The total cost for all this goodness: $23.04USD (actually more than we had just spent on brunch). The pastries are for breakfast tomorrow morning and the day after, and the brownie or a few cookies will be for dessert this week. The pastries are, to put it mildly, exquisite, and we promised ourselves we will make an effort to stop at Panio every week going forward.

Then it was on to La Comer. We had a short list, but it contained two non-food items we hoped to find, a potato masher and an inexpensive pitcher. Our front balcony gets sun almost all day and I’ve been wanting to make some sun tea out there, but had nothing to brew it in. We easily found both items – a plastic Rubbermaid pitcher and a hefty masher, for approximately $5 each. Otherwise we bought a large package of sliced manchego cheese, a can of tuna, a small jar of mayonnaise, a loaf of whole grain bread, a box of herbal tea bags with lemon, two big bell peppers and two carrots (I want to make sweet & sour tofu this week), and two large boxes of Kleenex tissues. Our purchases at La Comer came to $29.79USD. The potato masher will go with us when we leave (along with our olla frijolera) but we’ll leave the pitcher behind for future guests.

A total of $56.92 bought us a whole lot of goodness today, both high quality food and two useful non-food items. We typically make a second trip for groceries on Tuesdays or Wednesdays to fill in, but have yet to spend more than $30 on any of those trips. I can’t remember the last time I spent less than $100/week on groceries, certainly never while we lived in Hawaii. Spending so little and getting so much for our money has turned into another wonderful thing about staying in San Miguel de Allende!