Tuesday, March 24, 2026

You might find this a super boring post! For some reason, I find what people buy at the grocery very interesting.

It’s been a little over a month since Mason moved out. He is thriving living in the same city, working a new job that allows him work/life balance, and cooking for himself. He moved into a bungalow with his college roommate. The house is owned by his roommate’s grandparents, and they are getting a sweet deal.

He is meal planning and picking out some elaborate meals for himself. He sent me this photo of his Friday night cooking.

Roasted carrots and Boursin chicken:

This kid cracks me up. He is the one who wanted to bring in broccoli for his classmates on his birthday.

So, now there are two…

So, let’s talk about this month. I am recording my grocery expenditures and trying to reduce waste. March will be the first full month where it’s just the two mouths to feed.

Let’s start with Tom. He takes this to work with him everyday. He eats his yogurt and banana for breakfast along with his protein shake. He eats his cuties (mandarins) after lunch and sends me photos of his ability to keep the peel in one piece.

He sends me his orange peel photo that he says is an elephant:

Until about a month ago, he went out to lunch every.single.day. He said he needed to get out of the office and I get it. But then I think he got frustrated by how much lunch costs and he was tired of fighting traffic at lunch time. Where are all these people coming from? I have also noticed so much traffic. Does anyone work anymore? (says the person who doesn’t work)

Sometimes I get a nice thank you for his sandwich:

I did not get a rave review from the bulk chocolate candies from Fresh Market:

Tom is like a toddler. He drinks a giant glass of milk with dinner no matter what we are having. So weird.

He eats Raisin Bran on weekends, but only on weekends. He is like Rainman.

We both think Kroger brand is better than the real thing.

Tom loves beer cheese. We get this at Liquor Barn every few months.

He eats it with Scoops. We have way less chips in the house now. We only have tortilla chips, Scoops, and spicy Doritos or something else spicy or BBQ that I won’t eat.

I have been getting some little things like this for his lunch. See? You can still pack a lunch if you miss having little kids in the house. Just start babying your husband! Or yourself!

This is Tom’s preferred bread. I don’t know why it only comes in 1/2 loaves.

He likes Velveeta Slices, packaged ham (carcinogen – we need to work on this) and light Miracle Whip.

He loves tuna on Ritz so sometimes he has this for lunch on the weekends.

I’ve been getting him seasonal candy.

Ok, enough about Tom! He is so spoiled! This is all relatively new, by the way. He got nothing but dinner from me for many years.

Let’s talk about me now. I have been trying to wait until 10 to eat breakfast. I get up at 6 so I have water and coffee and then by 10 I am pretty hungry. I am still enjoying roasting sweet potato cubes on Monday to have for the whole week and pairing them with Amylu chicken breakfast sausage, my Pyrex egg mixture (one egg, egg whites, cottage cheese) and avocado. Sometimes I will sprinkle feta. Sometimes I make an omelet with spinach and feta, and sometimes I make a La Banderita wrap.

Sometimes this can be lunch, too. For lunch I usually don’t need much but I will have leftovers or a sandwich or a wrap.

For dinner, it’s always different. This week we are having salmon, rice, and brussels sprouts that were on sale on night. One night we are having an entree salad that is a copycat from a restaurant we like (lettuce, hardboiled egg, croutons, Bare chicken nuggets, tomato, cheese, cucumber) and one night I’m excited to try this egg noodle, onion, cabbage dish with turkey kielbasa on the side. We both really like cooked cabbage. I usually only need to plan about 3 meals for us now because of leftovers.

If we do need more meals, I have tomato soup and grilled cheese, loaded baked potatoes, and BLTS as options. I try to write the meals down on an index card and keep it on the memo board.

I don’t really assign a night for the meals but look at what I am doing and when I have more time to cook. I also look at expiration dates for what to cook first and last. I’m not always the best at this.

I sometimes cook in the morning. Sunday night we had all of us here for dinner! I made spaghetti, Texas Toast, and dark chocolate brownies. I made the sauce in the morning since I knew I had an afternoon event to attend.

Last week I kept trying to push the grocery store run one more day to see if we could keep eating from what we had at home.

I primarily shop at Kroger and I mostly do pick up. I do know that when I go in I can find the sale priced Brussel sprouts, though.

I fear that I have made Tom out to be super high maintenance. He never complains about what is on his plate and is also fine to eat leftovers. He only gives me an opinion if I ask. I usually get compliments like this: “Sorry, Eddie Otis, this dinner is too good to share.”

Bon Appetit!

Amy

21 thoughts on “Groceries for Two”

  1. once upon a time, I packed “my Tom‘s“ lunch. Then he complained that I “packed too much“ and I quit. Too bad! When we moved to East Tennessee, we were able to purchase a house about 2 miles from his office and so he has come home for lunch every single day for the last 11 years. This is perfect for him.

    You are such a good wife to do so much cooking! I do miss cooking for my family. Neither one of us prefers to cook for two so we rarely eat together anymore unless we go out or make breakfast together on a Saturday morning. I find these posts interesting too – thanks for sharing 🙂

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  2. My husband gives me grief since many of his coworkers have their lunch packed by their wives too but I completely refuse. Mostly because my husband packs A LOT–2 bananas, 2 apples, 2 clementines/oranges, 2 hard boiled eggs, yogurt/fruit/granola mix, leftovers for lunch or a salad with tuna or a sandwich. Plus he leaves the house by 5:30 in the morning and I’m barely awake. I do, however, try to plan meals with leftovers so he has a ready made lunch to go.

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  3. I don’t pack my husband’s lunch per se, but I do cook chicken breasts on Sunday afternoons for him (with Greek seasoning). He dices the chicken for salads. He is a great planner: he packs salad mix, cuts up cucumber and maybe adds dried cranberries for a salad and cuts up the chicken and pours dressing into little Tupperware containers, stacks it all together in the fridge to grab in the morning. And then I put leftovers in individual portions, from weeknight meals, into small glass containers to grab ‘n go for his lunches. I enjoy them, too, for lunch.

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  4. Mason’s meal looks so good! I pack Donnie’s lunch every day. His office building used to have a cafeteria and he’d eat there most days but it hasn’t been open post Covid. His lunch is usually leftovers from dinner (he’s not picky AT ALL). But if there are no leftovers, I’ll make him something quick like a sandwich. Jacob is living with us right now but he plans to move out soon then Alyssa will be here for the summer and Abby will be here for part of the summer. So things won’t be our new two people normal until late August. I’ll miss the kids but won’t miss just having to cook for my non fussy husband!

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    1. I’m so tickled by his food photos! You will have some different configurations of kids at home for a while. Is Abby moving north for good?
      Even though I love to cook (usually) it has been so nice to just “cook” for the two of us. Last night I “made dinner” from Tom’s Mexican leftovers from the weekend and he commented that it was a surprisingly good leftover meal. He is really easy, too.

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  6. I used to pack lunch for my ex-husband, too, along with his coffee, water, and a snack. He had it so good here! I got so tired of doing this, too, because eventually I also started packing lunches for the sons who worked and lived at home. It was like they were all back in school and I was making lunches everyday! I enjoy just doing my own now, or mine and Chris’ if he stays over sometimes.

    It’s interesting to me how grocery trips and meal planning ebbs and flows; my situation will be changing again soon, when Noah moves back here! It’ll be an adjustment for both me and Jonah, but we’re glad he’s coming back home. It’s a much needed situation, and Jonah will be thrilled to have his twin brother back in the area. Happy Tuesday!

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    1. He did have it good! I can imagine I would have grown tired of that, too. I did too much for my kids, for sure!
      It really does – there are always changes happening in life. Maybe you will establish new boundaries with the new situation if you want to. It’s time for you to just worry about yourself for a bit!

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  7. I love watching the grocery haul videos on Instagram! HEB is my favorite but they are only in Texas. I too write down a menu plan for the week and make my grocery list from that. I shop at Harris Teeter, Fresh Market and Whole Foods but will limit it to 2 places per haul. We supplement w/ grilled cheese, soup and BLT’s as well! I enjoy these posts and seeing different brands and getting menu ideas. Have a great week everybody!

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  9. It sounds like Mason is doing really well for himself. You must be so proud. Good job to him with the cooking!
    My eldest is the same with milk, she always drinks a glass full with dinner. I find it so strange too.
    I pack my fellas lunch each day now because I missed packing one for my girls. lol
    I love reading posts like this and the normal every day things that people eat.

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  10. I am trying to improve my grocery budget too as well as cut back on sugar & sweets. This week my meal plan includes using up some food from the freezer and pantry. I was doing well at the grocery store until I came to an end cap that had huge bags of a variety Hershey’s chocolate and Reese’s pb cups maker down to $3.71 a bag!! Regular price was about $15!!! I bought a couple and might use them for Easter 😜

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  11. I also shop at Kroger and do the pickups. It saves me from impulse buying. But, there are just times I have to go in. They seem to rearrange the store ever few months so I never know where anything is! Mike is so easy for lunch…he likes instant oatmeal! Ok by me. Dinners are the bane of my existence because I try to get more veggies in, but I’m not very adventurous. Lately, salads of any kind upset my stomach…that’s a weird one, right?

    https://marshainthemiddle.com

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    1. Yes! Sometimes I enjoy going in! I like to see new products.
      I love instant oatmeal! Yum!
      I read that salads are actually very hard to digest. Have you tried roasting a bunch of veg and doing that instead of a salad?
      My bestie microwaves her salad because of her teeth sensitivity! Eek! Gross!

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  12. I also spoil my husband. But I used to make him lunches to take to his office so that he wasn’t eating fast food so much. He’s getting better at fending for himself if I’m gone for a lunch date or when i was in Scottsdale last week. He spoils me so much that i don’t mind spoiling him. We are VERY simple eaters and i don’t spend much on groceries. I’m back to WW again, it’s truly what works best for me and he likes my simple meals. Ps – we think that the Walmart brand is the best Raisin Bran crunch cereal- so much cheaper and tastes better !!!

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  13. I only feed me now, but I remember Hubby having his quirks. In my house, its cook’s choice no matter how many people are here! I do like making dinner for two and freezing half for a work lunch. I was doing curbside for groceries until I realized they are marking prices up = not a free service, Duh, Gina. Shopping in person forces me to make eye contact with strangers and say hello. There are worse things, I guess!

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