Funny Math?

JF: "I like your blog, but aren't your calculations a little disingenuous?"
Pamela: "What? How?"
JF: "Like, 15 cents for a piece of bread. You had to buy the whole loaf in order to have it, right?"

Despite the quotations, I'm paraphrasing a bit here. (I'm a memoirist. We're allowed to quote so long as the truth in the conversation stays intact.) But my friend Jim's question is valid, and I believe represents two concerns that I'd like to address, lest I find myself in a Madoff-esque financial scandal.

Concern #1: How much are you really spending on groceries every week?
Truthfully, I think I'm spending between about $30 and $40, which isn't that far off of the totals I've included here. (I'll save all receipts this week to be sure.) Partly that's because I'm lucky and I pass a lot of low-cost, high-quality options on my walk to and from work, and I'm shopping in small doses and only for the things I intend to use for a specific dish. And things like staples (olive oil, bread, eggs, flour, butter) do have a larger financial impact at the moment I purchased them than I'm accounting for, but then they hang out for several weeks. The 15 cent bread Jim had alluded to had come from a loaf of bread I'd purchased the previous week (as had the eggs for the same cheapie egg salad sandwich) so for me, at the time I used them they actually felt free. Which then raises...

Concern #2: Are you actually using everything you buy?
I sure am trying. The bread, for instance, while it only made an appearance at lunch once in the last two weeks, has been breakfast at least every other day in those same two weeks. For me, keeping good groceries in the house means savings at all meals, not just lunch. Admittedly, I bought twice as many fennel bulbs and potatoes than I needed for the roasted fennel dish earlier this week (for a whopping cost of an additional $1.50) but I'll try to make soup and freeze it.

So, there you go, math lovers. A vote for Pamela is a vote for accurate financial reporting!

Here's the week recap then:
Monday: $8.78/$24
Tuesday: $8.15/$24
Wednesday: $5.65/$24 (shout out to Caleb)
Thursday: $11/$12 (Eva out sick)
Friday: $5.80/$24

Total Savings: $68.62
I think we're getting the hang of this...