It appears that you love talking about grocery shopping and what I buy. My posts on Trader Joe’s and Costco have been popular. Which honestly surprised me a little bit.
I have been blogging since 2008. I have shared a lot of things here on this site, but my shopping trips have never been one of them.
I might occasionally share a picture of something I bought, but I have never shared much about what I buy and where. But after getting feedback and lots of comments on my Costco and Trader Joe’s posts I think I might do a few more of them.
I know a lot of you don’t have Trader Joe’s and Costco. I totally get that because we Oklahoma just got both of those. So you want to hear what I buy other places and I will share that too. I don’t plan to do a lot of these posts, but I will occasionally share some of my shopping trips.
We all have to grocery shop. We all have to spend our grocery wisely. And we are all trying to feed our family healthy meals while living a busy life. I am guessing that you loved my grocery posts because it gives you a look at the keeping it real side of life. And I think it is fun to occasionally share that. So stay tuned for a few more shopping posts over the next few months.
Now for my Costco trip. I did not get pictures of everything I bought, but I did get pictures of a few things.
Salsa. We are a salsa loving family and love to try new kinds of salsa. When I saw these two brands of salsa I knew I had to get some to try. I am really hoping we like the Kirkland salsa because we go through a lot of salsa and it was a good price.
Because of my daughter’s nut allergy we can’t do trail mix. Well, we can but we have to make our own. So we go through a lot of dried fruit. We eat it plain or make our own trail mix. I picked up some of Costco’s Super Berry Fusion and we loved it. My daughter was eating some though and said this needs something else like nuts or chocolate.
Well, nuts can’t happen at our house, so I said add some chocolate. She grabbed a bag of chocolate chips and dumped some right into the bag and mixed it up. Now we have an easy homemade trail mix. It is less healthy with chocolate, but delicious!
I love Kettle Chips. An open bag is a dangerous thing for me. I don’t buy them often, but I do buy them occasionally. I love that Costco has a huge bag of Kettle chips. Not because I need a huge bag, but because it is a pretty good price.
I don’t love the rest of Costco’s chip selection. They seem to be more healthy or more gourmet type of chips. If I buy chips my kids prefer the good old regular brands. Sam’s Club might actually be better when it comes to chips. At least in my opinion.
So far I have been to Coscto twice since it opened and both times I bought Udi’s gluten free bread. We love it. I am still buying other brands of gluten free bread, but I love that I don’t have to go to a specialty store to buy gluten free bread. I can just grab it at Coscto. I also love that it is not frozen. So many places freeze their gluten free bread so that it lasts longer, but the texture is better when it is not. I love being able to buy it fresh and then I can freeze whatever we don’t use up quickly.
The other gluten free product I bought was frozen gluten free chicken nuggets. They were surprisingly good. They won’t be an item I buy often, but they will be nice to keep on hand for quick lunches or dinners.
I bought some of this guacamole too. It was not a great deal, but my girls love this for wraps, salads, and chips. I love the little containers because it wastes less. We have not tried it yet, so I am not sure if it is any better than other brands I have bought.
I will totally admit to giving in to a few conveniences, some that were over priced items. These turkey sausages were one of them. And yes we raise hogs and I bought pre-cooked turkey sausages. I know. I know…
The reason I bought these can be summed up simply by saying I have a 14 year old boy that is 6 ft 2 in and weighs only 140 pounds. And he eats a ton.
The problem is that he eats way too many carbs. I am not anti carbs, but six muffins or three bowls of cereal does not make a very filling breakfast. I need to start keeping easy filling protein on hand for him. I do pre-cook my own sausage and bacon for him to heat up for breakfast. In fact, I often freeze it cooked to make it even easier. All he has to do is microwave it.
However, I have not had time lately to cook it as quickly as he eats it. I can’t keep up with the boy. So prepackaged fully cooked turkey sausage it was. I tasted one and honestly they were not bad and he loved them. So they will probably be going in my grocery cart again.
I only have one teenage boy. I can’t even begin to imagine what those of you that are feeding multiple teenage boys are going through. Your poor grocery bill…
I also bought butter. We go through a lot of butter at our house and it was a good price compared to what I had seen lately.
The butter brought some excitement at my house though.
Did you know that there is a difference between west coast butter and middle America butter? Or maybe it is a difference between west coast and southern butter. I am really not sure, but I do know this there is a difference in butter.
And it has nothing to do with how the butter tastes. It is the shape.
Costco apparently sells west coast butter. Which in my house is now known as the short fat butter. 🙂 Oklahoma, or middle America, butter is now known as the long skinny butter at our house.
I honestly have no clue why butter cubes are different shapes in different parts of the U.S, but it did make for some fun conversation when I came home with the “wrong” shape of butter.
Here are a few other things I bought:
- Tillamook Cheese
- Grapes
- Apples
- Lettuce
- Mushrooms
- Tomatoes- I thought the quality on these was way better than what I usually get at Sam’s Club
- Allergy Medicine
- Sugar- Not a great price, but I needed some and did not want to stop at another store
- Hot Dogs- Yes I bought a package of the famous Costco hot dogs
- Office supplies for our business – I still have some price matching to do, but I think Sam’s Club might actually be better for the business stuff we buy.
- Plastic Wrap- I am loving their plastic wrap. I am picky when it comes to plastic wrap and don’t like most off brands, but so far I love Costco’s.
- And a few other things I can’t remember
Both times I have gone it has been in the morning and I had a ton of other errands and doctor’s appointments to do. So I have not bought their rotisserie chicken yet, but I will. I have had it at my mom’s many times and love it!
I’ve never been to a Costco, but I’ve always wanted to check them out. I’ve heard all sorts of great things about their Kirkland brand and there’s one about an hour from us, right on the way to my sister’s house. Do you still have to be a member to shop there?
Yes you do still have to have a membership.
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I do have 3 teenage boys and one teenage girl, so getting enough protein is a biggie at our house! Does your son like smoothies? We use Greek yogurt, fruit, juice, ice, and a banana or avocado for smoothness. So many combos to appease different tastes and any leftovers either get frozen for another time, or stored for after school snack. My oldest son, same height and weight as yours adds whey powder for extra calories. We also keep Costco rotisserie chicken deboned in a bag and rice for quick snack, easy to mix beans, salsa, cheese, to customize to different flavors. Hope these help!
He loves yogurt so that is a good thing. I buy a ton of it. He likes smoothies if I don’t put anything weird in them. 🙂 And making them himself is too much work. At least too much work for a teenage boy. 🙂 I tried a protein powder a few months ago, but he didn’t really like it, even in smoothies. I need to try a few and find one that he likes. I know that there can be a big difference in protein powders and how they taste. He is by far the pickiest eater in the family, however he is the one that needs to eat the most. One of our problems too is my daughter’s nut allergy. Nuts, trail mix, granola bars, peanut butter and jelly, and things like that are good filling food, but we can’t really do them. We make our own, but trial mix or granola bars without nuts are nearly has filling as with them. Keeping the chicken on hand is a good idea. Costco chicken is a great price for what you get. Thanks for the ideas!