Budgeting #2

For the second Budgeting assignment we were supposed to chose two recipes and shop for the ingredients at a grocery store and a convenience store and compare the prices between the two stores and five ingredients in each meal. For my two meals I went with simple go-tos of mine one a breakfast and another a dinner. for breakfast I went with peanut butter toast and eggs, with a side of milk and an apple. For dinner I went with rice/taco bowls. I chose these to meals because I felt that I wanted to find as many of the ingredients as I could at the convenience store. For the store I compared Cub to Sam's Market, a corner store in uptown a few blocks away from my house.

First Recipe/Price Comparison: Rice bowls

Ingredient Cub Price ($0.00) / Sam's Price ($0.00)

Sour Cream 8oz Cub ($0.99) / Sam's ($1.79)

Shredded Cheese 8oz Cub ($2.29) / Sam's ($3.49)

1 Onion Cub ($0.82) / Sam's ($1.29)

White Rice 32oz Cub ($2.19) / Sam's ($3.99)

Black Beans 15oz can Cub ($0.89) / Sam's ($1.49)  

Total Cost: Cub ($7.18) / Sam's ($12.05)

   Obviously I went with Cub when purchasing my ingredients and by doing so I saved $4.87

The following pictures show the preparation of the meal that I also used turkey sausage in as a quick and easy dinner that had a bunch of leftovers to eat throughout the week.

I love making these because it's basically chop veggies, make rice, cook meat and combine.  

Second Meal/Price Comparison: "Standard" Breakfast

Eggs 1 Dozen Cub ($1.49) / Sam's ($2.99)

Milk 1/2 Gallon Cub ($1.89) / Sam's ($3.19)

Peanut Butter 16oz Cub ($2.39) / Sam's ($4.49)

Bread 1lb loaf Cub ($1.19) / Sam's ($3.99)

1 Apple (Red Delicious) Cub ($1.00) / Sam's ($1.29)

Total cost Cub ($7.96) / Sam's ($15.95)

The difference here is even bigger than the previous one! ($8.01) I knew that shopping at convenience stores cost more but I didn't realize that it was basically double the price, especially if you try to buy the generic brands at grocery stores like I was trying to.  

Reflection

At Sam's market almost everything was name brand products so obviously that helped to hike the price up even more than the Cub prices.

Another thing that surprised me was the lack of real groceries at Sam's. even though the name of the place was market almost all of the food was chips, candy, pop, and frozen pizzas and frozen dinners. I never really went to the convenience store much in the first place because cub is pretty close to my house, but now I know that I'll never go back to it just seeing how much more it costs to shop there.