Day One: Shopping With Our Firstborn

Tonight was interesting, amusing, and exhausting.  It brought back memories of when my husband and I were newlyweds in the Air Force, walking around the Commissary while we painstakingly calculated every item on a list. Having to put back one item would probably throw off not one meal plan, but multiple meals.  Discovering we were over our limit at the cash register was too much humiliation to bear.  I think we used a calculator until we had our first son (he was very vocal about how he hated going anywhere), which brings us to victim number one!  I mean, our willing contestant.

He looks so happy with his $33, doesn't he?  And doesn't every boy want to pose in front of pretty flowers?  Oh dear.  He's reading over my shoulder and exclaiming, "Hey, you planned that!"

His original menu included a mix of bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast with apple slices and cereal.  In fact, he thought he would eat two breakfast sandwiches.  I suppressed the urge to laugh.  He also threw in a banana somewhere to make it interesting.  He usually buys lunch at school (for a reduced price), so I figured it wouldn't be an accurate amount if we expected him to buy all of his food for lunch.

Tonight he was going to have a sandwich and an apple.  When he saw how much the lunch meat was, he decided on hot dogs instead that were $1.00.  The lunch meat was about $3.89.  We found buns for 99 cents - 8 of them to go with his 8 hot dogs.  We were able to avoid this scenario.



Instead of mayonnaise for sandwiches, he bought some ketchup for a dollar to go with the hot dogs.  He was determined to make orange chicken that he could eat for a couple nights, but he had no idea how expensive chicken breasts are and that you can't just buy two of them.  You're committed to a whole package.  Ah, I remember being single and having little variety to my meals for that reason.

We went to the produce section so we could get a better idea of how we were doing.  He would need ten apples for everything he planned.  They were $1.49 per pound.  I asked him how much he thought they would weigh.  He guessed about two pounds.  Those alone came out to $9!  He said he would get smaller apples instead, but it still wasn't looking good.  So I offered him a solution, "You can take advantage of the school's free breakfast the whole week."

We put back the bacon, which was about $3.84.

To make orange chicken, he would also need some stir fry vegetables.  I suggested maybe he just do broccoli.  If you buy it fresh, it's 68 cents per pound and you don't have to buy a large amount.  He was happy with that.  He also bought cornstarch as his one staple he was required to pay for.  Salt was the one seasoning he chose.  He gets to borrow my orange sauce, but we remembered at the last minute that he needed vegetable oil.  That was another $1.99.

He was going to use cheese with his eggs and bacon, so we put that back too.  Saved him $1.89 (for a half pound).

He really wanted to make spaghetti with meat sauce.  The ground beef alone would be more than the can of sauce he ended up buying for $1.49.  We looked closer at the label when we got home.  It's meat flavored sauce.

We found a coupon for Fred Meyer cereal.  He will have to plan his own breakfasts for the weekend.  That came to $1.50.

Milk was $2.49 for a gallon.  I'm curious as to whether he will drink the whole thing by the end of the week, but I plan on marking the level with a Sharpie every night to see how quickly it's going. 

Wednesday we are having a friend over for dinner, so he's bringing some excess rice that he's using for orange chicken.  We're calling it a potluck.

After wandering all over the store for over an hour and managing to buy the pineapple and apple juices he wanted, that came to a grand total of $31.44.  He has $1.56 to spend!  But he doesn't get to spend it until this week is through.  He has to prove that he can make the food last without having to buy anything else. 

I already had to remind him to close his package of buns unless he wants to eat the rest of his hot dogs on what would feel like giant, flavorless croutons.

His food is labeled.  Some of it is in the fridge and the rest is safely stowed in a box on top.  He says he kind of likes the idea of having food no one else is allowed to eat.  His brothers have an idea of how painful their shopping trips will be, but they're still throwing out ideas like Eggo's with whipped cream and strawberries. 

Aw, they're so cute!  And they're so not going to be eating that.