Thursday, March 22, 2012

Groceries out the wha-zoo!

I knew there would many changes in the Heck household when we moved up here to Alaska late last summer.  Essentially, we were going from a 4 person household up to a 5 person household (Marilyn had just been born and was only 8 weeks old when we moved).  We were eliminating a huge commute for both Brian and I and thus saving on gas money.  We were losing my income as a teacher (for at least this first year).  Thomas was going to preschool 3x a week which would now be an additional bill (whereas in Florida VPK is a state funded program).  Finally, and extremely important, Brian would not only be home for lunch each day, but all of us would be home for breakfast, lunch and dinner each and everyday.  May I point out that I underestimated what that would do for the grocery bill and the amount of food that is consumed in our house each week.

To give you a glimpse of the most consumable items by all of us in the house on a weekly basis... take a look:

4 gallons of milk in 7 days
2 loaves of bread in 7 days
1 lb of cheese slices in 7 days
3 lbs of grapes in 7 days
1 bunch of bananas in 7 days
5-6 apples in 7 days
2 lbs of deli meat in 7 days
5-6 tomatoes in 7 days
2 lbs of yogurt in 7 days

People!  This is crazy.  The kids aren't even teenagers yet... they are not even 5 and 3-years old respectively.  And for Pete's sake, Marilyn isn't even a major player yet with eating a lot of table food at just 10 months old.  But the reality is we eat at home almost all of the time.  We eat fresh foods, we cook good food and frankly, like to be at home enjoying our family meals.

It really is a trade off.  The kids used to eat 2 out of their 3 meals each day at daycare - and instead, we now get to enjoy it with them.  While Brian and I usually skipped out on breakfast altogether, he ate out each day for lunch with the guys and I brought a packed lunch to school.  We have always enjoyed cooking dinner at home, but truthfully when we were back in Florida, we would sometimes scoot over to my in-laws for dinner or head out to eat more often than we do now.  The bottom line is we are home more, and thus eat more at home.  And with that... we need groceries out the wha-zoo!   

1 comment:

kpetresky said...

Well at least you guys eat super healthy! Sounds like the foods I eat in college (especially since I now find it more difficult to find time to exercise the way I used to). Only your amounts are about what I by myself would consume in probably 3-4 weeks. That is food out the wha-zoo! Glad you can all eat together now though! That must be a really nice change.