Analyzing our grocery outing today and man, gluten free foods are pricey!
Photobucket

K3 is getting low on staple foods, ie… cereal, bread and prepared snacks. So, a trip to the market was in order. I have two options, 1- head to Whole Foods (my first choice) which is a 45 minute drive each way or 2- head to the natural food section at the local grocery which is only 25 minutes round trip. Since I was low on time before the bus arrived with K1 and K2, I opted for choice 2.

How it all breaks down… a stop at the local coffee shop on the way out of town for 2 child size soy milk cocoas and one giant sized blended tasty for Mum. Add $8.00 with tip.

Driving the truck for our 20 mile round trip run to the grocery, using about two gallons of gas. Add $8.00.

Forgetting that my reusuable shopping bags are in the Prius which Oregon Dad drove to work today. Add $4 for more bags.

$20.00 spent before getting any groceries! Eeeeeek.

Oh, yes and just a quick rant about children’s medicine. I do not like dyes and artificial flavorings and all children’s medicine is loaded with it! Anyone care to discuss why I should give my ADHD inclined child medicine full of red dye which is shown to affect behavior? I made K3 learn to swallow pills at age 5 to avoid all that gunk! However, Little Critter is only 3 and hasn’t mastered that art just yet (plus dosing is trickier with a kid that young!) She has been running a fever and is showing signs that she too has an ear infection. I ALWAYS wait at least 3 days before heading to the Doctor… however we do rely on Ibuprofen for the pain in the meantime. The grocery didn’t carry dye free Ibuprofen suspension… in this case I would have sprung for the $2.00 price difference to get the Motrin brand suspension, but alas, there wasn’t a dye free variety available there either. I ended up with the bubblegum flavor generic for $3.59.

Back at home, I put away the groceries and prepared boxes for our craft projects. We will be making cereal box (and any other box) wallets (see www.replayground.com). The kids are excited. Stay posted.

Today’s Green Tip- Change your lightbulbs to compact fluorescents. This will shave up to 66% off your lighting related energy costs and if you catch a great deal like I did (.99 each at Lowes) It won’t cost much to get started. Just please, oh please, don’t buy them at Wal-mart.