Show Us Your Grocery Receipts, Part 4: Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Target

Show Us Your Grocery Receipts, Part Four: Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Target

Today’s “show us your grocery receipts” installment comes from Billfolder Aardvark in Southern California, who not only provided a week’s worth of grocery receipts but also gave us a full analysis of the purchases including a bar chart.

Aardvark’s receipts and analysis as follows:

Totals

This week I spent:

$38.13 Trader Joe’s

$18.52 Sprouts

$10.79 Target

—

$67.44 Total

Receipts

This is a little higher than usual. I’ll likely spend another $12-$20 at Sprouts at some point during the week.

Shopping at three stores is standard for me. I usually buy household goods at Target, run by Trader Joe’s every week or two for a larger stock-up and stop at Sprouts after work a couple times in between.

I justify both the frequency and total spending above because cooking, baking, and meal planning is a hobby for me. I get a lot of joy out of preparing food.

Who Will Consume It

Most of this food is just for my hedonistic self! There were two exceptions:

1. $13.82 was spent on a shared brunch ($8.54 + $5.28, respectively).
2. $13.28 was for items I will share with roommates (paper towels and canola oil). I also will share the milk, though that’s included in the brunch replacement total above and I didn’t want to double-count it.

I spent $40.34 on food for me.

Impulse Buys

I spent $14.96 on candy and gelato.

In my defense, the gelato was on sale ($3.99 vs $5.99 I think?) and will last me a while. I have no defense for the candy, other than I wouldn’t have bought it if I knew I was also buying gelato.

A Final Breakdown of Food Spending

Differences Between Stores

• The equivalent eggs at Trader Joe’s were $3.19 last week (vs $3.99 at Sprouts).

Point: Trader Joe’s.

• While navel oranges were on sale at Sprouts for cheap, blood oranges were $1.48/lb, vs about $1.15 at TJ’s. Navels are sweeter, but don’t look as pretty in a dipping sauce.

Point: Tie, I guess?

• I bought 3 bananas at both Sprouts and Trader Joe’s. The Sprouts bananas cost $0.82 vs. $0.57, and they are smaller bananas (see photo below).

Point: Trader Joe’s

• Tomatoes are always cheaper at Sprouts, though I don’t have any definitive figures

Point: Sprouts

The small Sprouts bananas are on the right:

All the rest of the points go to Trader Joe’s. (I am the proverbial East German judge and Trader Joe’s is my Yugoslavia.)

Why I Buy Cow Milk

• My roommates like it, and I’d rather mooch off theirs (with permission!) and chip in some of my own sometimes than keep a separate soy-based stash.
• I do a lot of baking and prefer to use real dairy in baked goods when possible.

Also of Note

The paper towels were purchased while on a date. (We were near a Target and needed to kill some time.)

Previously: Show Us Your Grocery Receipts, Part Three: International Edition

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