Wal-mart vs. Whole Foods

Before you say, "here she goes again, wal-mart bashing", see me through. I know you may think you can write this for me, some of it is just obvious, but I want to tell you of my honest, real attempt at shopping at Wal-mart again. It was last week and I decided that I should start watching every penny a little closer. Maybe if I did so, I could afford to buy MORE groceries in one shopping trip. So I bought everything and anything that we eat on a weekly basis. I stocked up on fruits and veggies, frozen goods, cheese for the kids and sandwich meat, milk, juice, soda. Okay- so I get home and a couple of the pre-packaged produce items have tears in the water thin plastic bags they occupy. Immediately the apples that are pre-sliced start browning, but I think, "oh well, they taste fine". Then yesterday comes along, I had not opened the cubed cheese yet. I start to pack B's lunch and open the cubed cheese and while I'm doing this I smell what I think is A's dirty diaper. I think "its a little early for a dirty diaper and that is so stinky!" I even ask B to go sniff her out, never ONCE thinking it might be the cubed cheddar cheese. Well it was b/c my hands stunk so bad I almost gagged. It smelled like curdled milk when I have cleaned up baby barf. GROSS. I send it to school w/ her anyway, thinking, maybe I'm being psycho about it all. Is it possible I've turned in to a food snob? Maybe it always smells like that and it was just too early in the morning for my senses. Michael asked why I sent her to school with it, and I just said, "I don't know". There are times I do things and I have no good answer for why.
So then there is heavenly Whole Foods. I took the kids yesterday after B got out of school. So much for watching pennies you might say. However, if I can get food that doesn't smell like my infant's a#$ then I'd say it is well worth the extra dinero. Plus, it really is practically Heaven. They have a play area next to the fountain for the kids. They have clean carts w/ little cars for the children that don't look like they've been covered in feces and puke (i.e like every other grocery store car cart does). I bought a few things, nothing overboard, but enough to experience here and there over the next couple of weeks. I also bought their ground beef, pasta sauce and pasta, all organic. I made it for dinner, its the one meal Michael ALWAYS loves. Well, I have to say, its the best batch I've ever made. I was afraid the sauce was going to be yucky or bland but I do add seasoning to the beef. It was so good we both got seconds. The meat was PERFECT and I did nothing out of the ordinary for preparing it. I think I'm sold on Whole Foods. I'm thinking the money spent goes a long way and its still cheaper than eating out. Also, got some kid friendly stuff that I think Michael will approve of b/c of there aren't hidden ingredients that are bad for the kids. Hey, I'm trying. We'll probably be at Mc Donalds later! Another reason I've been sucked in to Whole Foods is because I have been able to use their wireless connection and work on school work in their cafe. I get some of their food and drinks and sit and get so much accomplished. Yes, the food is expensive in the cafe, but the other day I bypassed several fast food places, almost stopping at one but knew I'd have a tummy ache later for it. Instead I got what I love most at Whole Foods- the turkey wrap. Its $6.00 and I can barely eat it all. I have energy not an upset stomach.
I would like to learn more about how to cook better like I did last night. I guess it will be a process. Some people spend a lot of money on things I find useless, so if I end up spending more money on food for me and my family, it is well spent. You can keep your feces smelling cheese from Wal-mart and foreign substances in your ground beef from there (there IS a reason you are getting it so CHEAP- its probably ground opossum)