Week 4: Budgeting

This week I made ground pork with tofu

Ingredients:

- Ground pork

- Tofu

- Olive oil

- White pepper

- Black pepper

- Soy sauce

To prepare my meal this week I heated up some olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat. While I cooked the pork I cubed my tofu so it would cook faster. When the pork began to brown I put the tofu in to cook while the pork finished cooking.

The 5 items I compared were butter, tofu, olive oil, garlic salt, and eggs. The two stores I scouted for prices at were Cub Foods and Target. Comparatively, Cub Foods was in general more expensive than Target. At Cub Foods the prices were $0.99, $1.99, $5.99, $4.19, and $1.59 respectively. Whereas Target's prices for each item came in at $0.99, $1.59, $3.99, $1.29, and $0.99 respectively . With that in mind, most of the items I bought were for long term storage and use such as butter, olive oil, and garlic salt. In all cases except for butter, Target's prices blew cub's out of the water and I ended up saving money because I shopped at target rather than cub. This might also be due to my employee discount of 10% and red card discount of 5%, but no matter the reason, I saved money.

Estimated cost of of my meal was $5.60. When broken down, 1 pound of ground pork was $3.50, the tofu was $1.99 and the soy sauce used was about $0.05-$0.10. 

A pantry staple would be an item that is always kept in stock, has a longer shelf life has various uses, and is used frequently to cook meals.

The biggest surprise out of this for me was how much I was actually saving when I shopped at target compared to cub. When I take into account my whole shopping list I saved $7 which might seem like a small number, but if I go grocery shopping once a week and save an average of $7 every time I would save a total of $364 a year. While $364 won't break the bank, it is certainly enough to make you consider whether or not it is worth taking the time to actively compare prices and gain that information as a consumer.

Ultimately I believe building a bigger pantry is worthwhile as it allows for more options in how and what I can cook.