This week's Bountiful Basket

I mentioned a week ago that I started participating in the food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. You sign up & pay online and every two weeks a truck comes with a huge basket of fresh and good produce. You can't pick what you receive, you just accept what is in the basket. Half is fruit and half is vegetable. This time I bought an "add-on" which was a bag of assorted fresh loaves of bread (no preservatives). Here is what I got. No photo this week because the parking lot was 9000 degrees and the car was 10,000 degrees and after I quickly stopped at the grocery store I was 12,000 degrees. I came home and stuffed it all in the fridge very fast.

Five vine ripe tomatoes
Bag carrots
2 heads celery
head butter lettuce
2 green peppers
2 onions
3 cukes
whole honeydew melon
6 nectarines
2 bunches bananas
2 lb grapes

still leftover from last time:

1 kiwi
2 mangoes
half cantaloupe

BB Add-on: five loaves fresh assorted bread (no preservatives) $10.00/ $2.00 each. Two loaves were 9-grain, one baguette, and two were English muffin bread.

I estimate that the savings this week was slightly less than last week but the overall cost savings was still around $3.00 or more than if I comparison purchased at the grocery store.

Donation: a friend who keeps chickens gave me a dozen fresh eggs. Thank you!
Donation: a friend who works in the bulk restaurant food industry gave me 18 spinach-feta calzones

All I needed to get at the grocery store this week was

1/2 gal milk
yogurt (for the fruit as topping & smoothies)
sour cream (for Mexican salad)
cheese (for broccoli cheese quiche)
broccoli (froz) for Broccoli cheese quiche
potatoes were on sale
2 avocadoes (for Mexican Salad)
1 small can tomato sauce (for the calzones)

Ripe on the tree in the yard: figs

I didn't list what I bought at the Dollar Store this week, but I cannot escape buying some hard goods, ever. Like kitty litter, TP, and the like. Sigh- those will always have to be figured into my budget.

Lunch & dinners for the week:

Broccoli-cheese quiche;
Mexican salad with black beans, lettuce, Spanish rice, and taco sauce topped with avocado and sour cream;
Quinoa salad with celery, craisins, and figs;
Fruit salad and smoothies.
Not to mention tomato sandwiches!

I'll have to adjust my budget tracking to monthly instead of weekly. The BB only comes around every other week so it represents two weeks' worth of food. And with the introduction of the eggs and calzones I have to spread out the cost over the month from paycheck to paycheck to determine what I've spent in order to compare. I need to make sure that the BB is less than what I was getting at the store. Even if it is more, up to a certain amount more, it will still be a benefit for two reasons:

1. It broadens my produce intake. At the store I always get the same things. I suspect my body will be happier with a mildly forced variety. For example, I like kale and I know kale is very good for me but I never buy it. There were two heads of kale in the basket last time and I enjoyed making kale chips out of them, very much.

2. It is better food than at the grocery store. As long as the quality stays this high with BB then I'll stick with it even if it goes a bit higher in cost than the grocery store.

The BB is growing every fast here in the county. The participation has quickly doubled, and the amount of people in the parking lot this time was noticeable enough to passers-by that several people stopped to see what was happening, and then got further information upon making inquiries. About 45 people participated this time and that is half the amount allowed. BB in Danielsville has a limit of 94 baskets.

On the down side, I hate grocery shopping on Saturday, even though the store is small and my list is small, I still run into too many people. Now that school is starting back up and the store where I shop is so close to school, I will make a quick jaunt on Mondays instead of combining it with the Saturday BB pick-up. Yes, I structure my life so that I interact with as few people as possible. Not that they aren't nice, they are. I just hate small talk.