Budgeting Assignment #2

1. Two recipes that I prepared this week were a Peanut butter Jelly sandwich and a Mexican-style bowl.

2.
 Pb&J sandwich: (Walgreens vs Trader Joes)
Whole grain bread: ((.19/oz vs .15/oz) )
All natural crunchy peanut butter: (.17/oz vs .12/oz)
No preservatives strawberry jelly: (.20/oz vs. .12/oz)
Going to Trader Joes, I would save .17/oz

Mexican Bowl: (Walgreens vs. Trader Joes)
Brown Rice: (.93/oz vs .16/oz)
Black beans: (.79/oz vs .52/oz)
Avocado: (x vs. 1.25)
Sweet peppers: (x vs .24/oz)
Red onion: (x vs .69/oz)
Mexican style cheese: (.42 vs .30/oz)
Chili powder: (.80 oz vs. .80/oz)
Olive oil: (.73/oz vs. .60 oz)
Salsa: (.12/oz vs .12/oz)

x=could not find in store

Going to Trader Joes, I would save on 1.29/oz

3.

Did you find significant differences?  If so, what were they? 

Yes, the brown rice and black beans had a pretty big difference. The brown rice had a .77/oz difference and the black beans had a .27/oz difference. 

Were you surprised by anything?

I wasn’t too surprised by this since I know Trader Joes is known for its favorable choices and Walgreens, being a corner store, wouldn’t have very cheap prices. I am a little surprised that even know Trader Joes has better quality of food, it is still cheaper.

Will this influence your shopping in the future?

This won’t influence my shopping too much since I already buy my groceries from Trader Joes and not Walgreens. If anything, this just deepens my love for Trader Joes

Did you save any money?  If so, how?

Yes, I saved money by buying my groceries for this assignment at Trader Joes, which had the cheaper prices.

4. I prepared the Mexican-style bowl

Recipe name: Mexican-style bowl

No specific recipe to this, just some ingredients that I thought would taste good together

Reflection:

I first started by chopping up my onions and peppers and sauteing them with a spinach mix on medium heat. As they were cooking, I cooked my brown rice and black beans. Once they were both done cooking, I threw them in a bowl together and added cheese, avocado, and salsa. Because this class has expanded what seasonings I have, I recently bought chili powder and added it to the peppers and onions as they were cooking. That made this meal so much more tasty and flavorful, and I'm really glad I started using it. When I would make this before without adding chili powder, it wasn't that it was bland, but adding chili powder was exactly what it needed. I wouldn't change much to this recipe, except maybe adding tofu to add more protein.