Oh joy! One of my favorite places to spend $….. yet, I don’t get a lot of bang for the buck (duh, it’s Whole Foods, I know, but it’s sheer fun, it just is and you know it).

Here’s what we got:

• Cheddar popchips: I’ve been dying to try these babies.

• Organic Pacific blend coffee
• Lime sparkling water
• Strawberry sparkling water
• Grass-fed, organic lean beef for meatballs
• Natural oreos mmmmm
• 4 granny smith apples
• 4 EVOL burritos
• organic bananas
• organic romaine salad blend
• Roasted veggie pasta sauce
• Local, organic 2% milk: We put down a $1.50 deposit for the glass jar too… so fun! And sustainable.

• Kashi Golean crunch
• Parmesan cheese
• Colby jack cheese
• Falafel King hummus
• Mix1 blueberry vanilla protein shake

This was Mike’s first and my 40 millionth trip to Whole Foods yesterday. Bad news: We spent our entire budget just there. Good news: We didn’t need a ton of other food so we could afford to just grab some things for completing meals and snacky things. You could tell Mike caught a wiff of whatever’s in the air there: he wanted to throw everything in our cart, even if we could get it cheaper elsewhere. He even wanted some reusable bags (whaaaaa?). He was very happy until our total equaled $60, our entire budget for groceries that week. Then, things kind of went downhill. I am not saying that Mike doesn’t care about his health or the environment, he is just like any other consumer out there: it’s not really sensible to spend that much on groceries when you can get them for cheaper.

But, working in the industry I do, it’s hard not to think about the true cost of food: the impact on the environment, on humans and on animals. The petroleum and electricity costs. As a meat eater, the way meat is produced in this country is a biggie for me. It’s sad to know that we spend less on food than any other developed country and that most of us have no idea where our food comes from… and don’t really want to know. Even as someone who’s written a little about environmental issues, I don’t know if I even have the full picture.

I am not saying that shopping at Whole Foods is the answer. As a girl fresh out of college, there is no way I can afford to shop here every week. It’s about making choices. Even at Whole Foods, you have to choose what’s more important to you: the organic apple from Washington or the nonorganic local apple…  I think either side has a good answer. It’s the fact that your actually thinking about what your buying before you blindly throw it in your cart. You can certainly do this elsewhere– there are just more choices I actually feel good about at WF rather than picking the one organic/local/cruelty-free choice I have at conventional supermarkets and having to stick with that.

Although I have yet to figure it out, I am certain there is a finesse to shopping on a budget at Whole Foods. For now, I’m going to stick to: meat, milk, some produce and yummy, healthier snacky things there, the rest should be considered out of budget.