October Grocery Accountability--Aldi Trip.

Well, I'm disappointed.  I don't know what I expected.  I've been to Aldi's plenty of times in the past.  There are still plenty of good deals to be had there, but there were a number of things that have definitely gone up.  The thing that kills me, is some things are still printed at a lower price on the package (every package has a price printed on it somewhere), but they have been marked up.  Maybe I'm mistaken, but it would seem to me that the fact that the price is marked on the package is telling us that they paid a particular price for that item, and so it shouldn't be marked up, right?   

Part of my problem is that I am a bit of a food snob.  I don't want preservatives, colorings, or high fructose corn syrup (and, yes, there are reasons to avoid it, though a recent PR campaign would try to convince us otherwise).  I nearly passed up the spaghetti sauce, and then went back and got a couple of jars, but the Meijer brand is not far off on price (especially on sale), and it doesn't have HFCS.   I am frustrated by the fact that it is so difficult to find real food without crap added in, and that it requires 1)searching to find it, and 2)more money to buy it.  

Anyway, here's what $143.71 bought at Aldi's:

2 packages String cheese spirals

12 14.5 cans chicken broth (not great stuff--I need to make my own)

4 lbs. ground turkey

Honey Puffs cereal (like Honey Combs)

2 boxes Bite Sized Shredded Wheat

Frozen peas

Moo Tubes (like Gogurt.  Disgusting.)

Premium OJ

2  juice concentrate

2 packages fresh broccoli crowns

3 pack green peppers

2 onion soup mix

4 packages wide egg noodles

2 brown gravy mix

1 can cranberry sauce

2  turkey hams

1 boneless ham

2 jars pasta sauce

1 32 oz. bag pinto beans

1 32 oz. bag navy beans

2 boxed mac and cheese

2 1/2 lb. bananas

2 lemons 2 limes

12 tomato sauce (8 0z)

6 tomato paste (8 oz)

Instant Corn Masa

2 garden salad mix

1 caesar salad mix

liquid soap refill (this smells better than the Meijer brand of the same style--I need to return the Meijer stuff).  

2 bags Party (Chex)mix

tomato ketchup

2 lbs. brown sugar

4 packages cream cheese

4 yellow cake mixes (planning on gooey butter cake for Thanksgiving!)

2 devil's food cake mixes

Wheat Thin-type crackers

Decorated paper plates (these were 2.19 and said 99 cents on the package) these are pretty flimsy

Deluxe American cheese slices (dropped in the cart when I wasn't looking)

6 cans 15 oz. pumpkin

1 package instant vanilla pudding

2 jars salsa 

1 Bottle Chardonnay

2 packages chocolate chips

1 can evaporated milk

1 jar dry roasted peanuts

cooking spray (canola--I think canola is awful, but sometimes spray oil just makes life easier).

1 can tomato juice

6 16 oz. sour cream

1 can cream of celery soup

Some of the things on here are not things I would normally buy, but they are for new recipes from the meal plan I mentioned.  I didn't buy cheese, flour, or sugar there because all three are cheaper at Costco (at least last I was there).  Obviously, I have to buy in bigger quantity there, but these are things we tend to use a lot of anyway.

So, I've already spent over $350.  We need a couple of things in addition to the above cheese, flour, and sugar, and I'm not sure how much more that will be.  We have plenty of food, though; that's for sure.  I'm wondering with the things we will be buying that we won't need more of for awhile if we will be able to spend less next month, or if there will just be other things that we don't have to buy every month that we will need to buy.  Pffft.

I still need to list Ben's Meijer trip.  Then I'll tell you what we plan to do with all these groceries. :) 

Running total: $388.41 not including the McDonald's.