How could you possibly do the shopping for only $100? Is that like a week’s shopping or what? Is food really cheap in Texas, or did you just score a case of Dr. Pepper and a frozen pizza? Nah, we know when you cook, you cook, so how can it be so cheap?

To begin with, I am the most frugal of shoppers. Sales are my best friends. Really, I’m serious. That’s what it takes me so long to do the shopping. I am reading, comparing and deciding every step of the way. Also, a lot of fresh fruits and veggies are rather cheap in Texas since they are grown here or just over the border in Mexico. Meats aren’t so cheap, but there’s always something on sale, and if I’m lucky, there will be things that are coming up on their sell-by date, which I have no problem buying and freezing, which I always consider a huge score since it’s usually marked down to about half-price. Also, my grocery store often has deals where you buy one thing (usually a meat) and you get a bunch of other stuff to go with it for free. When it’s stuff I need or would use anyway, I usually go with that if it looks like a bargain. It’s a rare, RARE day when I buy a top cut of cow (way too expensive — might as well go out and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning up). Also, buy whole chickens and cut them up yourself. I know it’s gross, but the savings are amazing. So, we eat what is in season and on sale, and I buy larger cuts if cheaper meats to cut up myself. Stay away from the process insta-foods if you want to save money.

I spend about $100 a week, but because of the way I rotate through stocking my kitchen by what’s on sale, I can actually skip up to two weeks of shopping if I have to (or want to) and still have more than enough food in the house to fix full meals. The only things I really need to get weekly are the salad veggies, because I like them super fresh, and my fridge has a tendency to freeze tomatoes and such if I have too much in the cooler drawer at any time anyway. This week is the week to restock meat, so that’s about the only thing I will spend my budget on … meat and fresh veggies. If I could break Lin of his sweets habit, I could save even more.

The only time I spend more than $100 a week is when I have to buy paper goods, household cleaners and the like. That stuff is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. And if I should happen to wander into the pre-packaged frozen foods aisle (I do try not to), that’ll bump it up too. Fresh food, though requiring a whole lot more work, is far cheaper than anything that comes in a box or bag … better for you too. Not that I don’t keep at least one or two insta-foods around, because you never know when you won’t have the time or energy to spend hours in the kitchen. Sometimes dinnertime rolls around, and I just don’t feel like cooking … or there’s something good on TV I don’t want to only hear from the kitchen.

All this talk of groceries has reminded me that I needed to go back to the store to get fresh veggies last Friday but being flat on my back in bed, I didn’t. Hmmm … maybe I should go do that today. Or not. No sense dragging my just-out-of-the-sickbed self to the store to catch some new nasty germ before my body is better. I guess we’ll just have to survive on canned veggies for a day or two.