Do you have a grocery shopping methodology?

Cafe Society
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Do you keep your pantry stocked systematically so you can always put together a meal from there?
Not on purpose, but a small household, so it’s usually not an issue, there’s always plenty of staples, not even counting the expired packages of stuff not thrown away (in case of nuclear war).

Do you always/never use a grocery list?
No for little shops once or twice a week, yes for big shops once a week.

Do you “coupon” (the verb)?
Rarely. There’s only a handful of brand name items I buy occasionally, so I’l clip a coupon for them and then wait for them to be on sale, too.

How often do you Big-Shop? How often "just grab a couple of things’?
Little shop once or twice a week, big shop once a week.

How many people do you routinely cook/shop for?
2

Do you enjoy grocery shopping?
Only when it’s not crowded, which is when I do my big shops.

Use convenience stores or warehouse stores or something in-between?
Convenience stores, never for actual grocery shopping. Dropped my warehouse membership this year because there were only one or two things that were actually unit cheaper than what I can get at the local chain. It wasn’t worth the membership fee and drive any more.
Other habits:
On big shops, I don’t push the cart through the aisles, I leave it at the end of an aisle, somewhere out of the way, and then grab stuff from two or three aisles and dump it in the cart and move on down the line.

Don’t tell anyone this one - just because you have 12 items or less doesn’t mean you have to go to the 12 items or less register. I’d rather be behind one person with a full cart than three people with two items each. Because customers are idiots; half of them seem surprised they have to pay at the end, and god help you if something’s off by 3 cents, the cashiers have no power to do anything other than flip on the blinking light and bring everything to a grinding halt, leaving you face to face with Snooki and her spawn for an unacceptable length of time.

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I don’t know about the OP, but I’m just killing time. Isn’t that what this is for? :confused:

63

I usually shop at Aldi or the discount store near my house. I’m only cooking for one so I can usually keep it around $40-$50 a week. I’m extremely limited on fridge space (it’s about half the size of a full-size fridge) plus my oven is on the way out (the broiler always comes on and it seriously overheats), so that limits what I can buy to cook. I rotate among three-four different meals per week so that helps. I’m on a tight budget, can yout ell?

*Do you keep your pantry stocked systematically so you can always put together a meal from there? *
Pretty much.

*Do you always/never use a grocery list? *
If I don’t write it down, I won’t remember it. I jot down things as I run out and I double check against my pantry/fridge before I go to the store.

Do you “coupon” (the verb)?
No. Aldi doesn’t take coupons and I don’t buy enough name-brand items to make clipping coupons worthwhile. I usually buy generic anyway.

How often do you Big-Shop? How often "just grab a couple of things’?
I’ve got a pretty good supply laid away right now, so lately it’s been “grab a few things.” I’ve got a big-shop planned for the next couple of weeks, though, because I’m about to break out the crockpot and start cooking stews, etc. for winter. For some reason I always think the crockpot is only for winter use. :confused:

How many people do you routinely cook/shop for?
Just me.

Do you enjoy grocery shopping?
I see it as a necessary evil. I’m not one of those women who enjoys shopping. I’d rather grocery-shop than clothes-shop, that’s for damn sure.

Use convenience stores or warehouse stores or something in-between?
Mainly Aldi for everything. For things like coffee and tea or just a quick “ran out of x” I go to the discount store near my house. For non-food items like cotton balls, toilet paper, and razors I go to the Dollar General across from my workplace. I’m trying to get to the farmer’s market once a month to pick up any fresh produce I’m craving. It’s apple season now and I need to get a half-bushel of non-traditional-grocery store apples.

What country do you live in?
US. North Carolina.

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Well, first of all, I’m blessed/cursed with a vast, non-specific curiosity about the details of people’s lives.

Second, I’ve tried to come up with a methodology for myself without success. When I was part of a couple, I had a sort of system, but I can’t make myself be consistent now that I’m single. I try stocking up on stuff but I wind up throwing things out. But then I don’t know what to keep on hand. I am challenged in this department.

65

I go to the store with a plan to buy one thing. As I walk around the store, I remember all the other things I need, and as I track them down, I remember more things, and I buy those too.

When I get home, I usually discover I’ve not bought the item I went to the store for in the first place.

Seriously. I do that a lot.:frowning:

66

We keep a whiteboard on the fridge with several lists, one for WinCo (general groceries), one for Costco (mostly bulk nonperishable stuff like toilet paper), and one for “other,” for miscellaneous special items we get elsewhere. So, when I go to the store, I can check the board to see if we need anything like bread or flour or olive oil. For meals, usually I think up about two weeks worth of dinners and write down what meats and produce and anything special we need for each. Then I go to the store and get what’s on the list, plus a selection of fruit (whatever looks good that day) and some deli meat for lunches for days when there aren’t leftovers.
Do you keep your pantry stocked systematically so you can always put together a meal from there?

Mostly, yes, unless it’s been a while since we last shopped, we can throw something together.

**Do you always/never use a grocery list? **

Always for “big shopping.”

**Do you “coupon” (the verb)? **

No…I check the Costco coupons for anything we would already be buying, but that’s all.

**How often do you Big-Shop? How often "just grab a couple of things’? **

Big shop very couple weeks, with a few stops in between for fresh produce, bread, or milk.

How many people do you routinely cook/shop for?

Two.

**Do you enjoy grocery shopping? **

Hell no!

**Use convenience stores or warehouse stores or something in-between? **

Mostly WinCo because I like the bulk section for things like flour and spices, occasionally Trader Joes and a local health food store for a few things. Costco for nonperishables and cat food. I’ll go to the nearby small grocery store for milk or bread, but not if I need decent fresh produce.

What country do you live in?.

US, California.

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Hey Thelma,

I want to begin by fessing up to you and telling you that you are my favorite poster here because of they love you expressed for Don Knotts.

Next, I’m very embarassed to say that I do the same kind of binge thing that you do but mine lasts for much, much longer. Typically I find two or three tasty meals that are quick and easy to prepare and that taste good and I’ll eat almost nothing else for months at a time - maybe three or four months before I get sick of them.

Also, I like things that I can prepare huge quantities so that I don’t have to do any food preparation for maybe 2 weeks at a time and all I have to do during that time is grab some food and maybe heat it in the microwave and then eat it. I just can’t see wasting my time preparing food if I can prepare a week or two’s worth of food at one time.

My current choices are breaded chicken breasts (because I can easily prepare one week’s supply at a time) and I like to eat brown rice with a sauce I preare that consists of Campbell’s Mushroom Soup made with a white fruit juice - such as a blend of grape, cranberry, apple, etc. That sauce is really delicious and I think it’s fairly healthy too.

In the past I have lived on processed meat sandwiches - very fast and easy to prepare, cream cheese and smoked salmon on toasted bagels and other kinds of bread.

Anyway, you get the picture?

When shopping, I always measure how good a job I’m doing by avoiding anything that is on the shelf near eye-level and buying the largest sizes of things that are always found on the very bottom shelf or the top shelf. The stuff on the middle shelves is hugely marked-up and is usually a real bad buy.

A list is the most important thing to have when shopping. When I don’t have a list, very often I will forget one or two items that I really wanted and then I wind up making terrible meal choices because I don’t have those items. A terrible meal choice for me is ordering a pizza to be delivered.

68

I have one goal when going to the grocery store: Get in and get the hell out. I park in the first open spot in find. I grab a cart and then I try as hard as I can to not let the wheels on the cart to ever come to a complete stop. I grab the things I recognize from the shelves as I go by. If it appears that what I want is out of stock then I really didn’t need it anyway. If some moron is standing there picking their nose reading labels in front of something I want and I can’t reach around or over their fat ass, then I really didn’t need it anyway. Get in, get out.

69

Absolutely! I do this, too.

Aw, shucks… thanks.

I’m trying a variation on this. A few days ago, I went to Costco, which really isn’t all that practical for one person. BUT they have some really good prepared stuff that can function as you describe, i.e., eat it over several days. Their stuffed cabbage (meat & rice/sweet-ish tomato sauce) is EXCELLENT. One of my favorite dishes, but quite labor-intensive to make. There are four huge cabbage rolls, which can make two or four meals.

I also bought a prepared pot roast that can last several days. The sell-by date was sometime in October, so it’s not like you have to eat it right away. There were quite a few prepared items that I wanted to try, but didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew (hehe) as I launched this experiment. The cost is certainly no more than eating out. The nearest Costco is almost an hour’s drive from me, so I don’t see myself doing this more than once every 3-4 weeks.

What I need is an Ann B. Davis, or Sammee Tong, or Sebastian Cabot in my kitchen to take care of this kind of stuff.

70

I have a food locker and a freezer in the basement. I always keep a “back-up” of everything down there, so when I run out of something I go down and get the back-up, and add the item to my shopping list. This goes for things like detergent and storage bags as well. That way, I never actually run out of anything. I try to keep extras of fresh produce as well.

Before shopping, I rewrite the list in the order the items are in, in the store. I have to walk a lot as part of my physical therapy, so when I get to the supermarket I walk down ever single aisle, whether I need anything there or not. Then I go around the perimeter.

I don’t use a lot of coupons. They’re usually in the Sunday newspaper, and the last time I bought the paper, there were only two coupons I used.

71

Oh! I hope that didn’t sound like I was questioning the purpose of the thread (obviously, it is idle chitchat). I was more curious whether you are getting any ideas for you, given that there isn’t much concensus.

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Hey Thelma Lou,

I got just what you need.

This is the best recipe I have ever found and it is very easy to make and if you get a large pot roast, it can make many meals.

It is called “Delicious Pot Roast” for a very good reason. It is so delicious that when you take a bite, you will think you are in Heaven.

Enjoy!

Delicious Pot Roast

  1. Start with the size of roasting pan (with lid) you want for the number of guests you need to feed. I use a medium pan and that makes a small roast with lots of vegetables and sauce.
    I’m not fussy about measurements. I like to cook by “feel”. You just get variations on the flavor and it’s all good. I guess the best way to describe it is make sure the pan is about twice the size of the roast. That will give you lots of vegetables and sauce.

Anyway, in a medium roasting pan, put the roast - fat side up. Then add:

2 cups of red fruit juice (I like cranberry combined with strawberry or cherry)
2 cups of water (just approximate the liquid to the size of your pan)
1 can mushroom soup
1 package onion soup
1 small tin of tomato paste (3 or 4 TBS)
2 medium onions cut into slices (so you get rings in the sauce)
(but you can cut them however you like)
4 or 5 medium potatoes cut into small pieces
2 or 3 medium carrots cut into small pieces
1 t of nice vinegar (not white - balsamic or brown) (optional)
a few pinches green herbs - thyme, basil & oregano are all good (optional)

Cover it up and put it in a 350 degree oven.

I find it takes at least 2 hours for a small roast but 3 hours is fine too. Sometimes I cook it for longer and it makes the meat softer. It depends how you like the meat. If you’re unsure, just ask the butcher how long it should be roasted in a covered pan. I love to serve it all smothered in the sauce.

Yum! Yum! Yum! I guarantee that Aunt Bee herself never made a more delicious pot roast.

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Step by step, we:

  1. Figure out what meals we can make with what we have.
  2. Figure out how many more meals we need for the week.
  3. Figure out what we want those meals to be.
  4. Write down all the things we need to buy to make those meals.
  5. Write down breakfast and snack items, such as oatmeal, fruit, snacky veggies, etc.
  6. Write down “baby formula”
  7. Add the list we’ve so far created to the list to the already-existing list of non-foodstuffs which we have been noting down as need during the week.
  8. Go to the grocery store.

We make quick unplanned pickup trips for one or two things about twice a week, usually for snack foods we’ve run out of. (For example, bananas and strawberries really don’t turn out to last very long, so we can’t buy a whole weeks worth at once.) I make these trips on the way home after work.

74

Related query. How much do you guys spend at the grocery store on average per week?

For my family of six, $150 per week seems to be average. (Two of the six are infants, and we spend about $30 on formula and $15 on diapers each week so that’s a big chunk of it…)

My mom told me that they (her, my dad, my sister and my sister’s two kids) are spending $400 per week on groceries. Any of you guys spend that much? I found it to be a surprisingly large amount, but surprising things often turn out to be true…

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No prob. Mostly what I’m getting is a sense of how disorganized I am and how much food/money I waste.

Oooo! I just printed it out. Unless you want to make it and tell me what time to be over?

That’s a very good question and one I didn’t think to ask.

76

I would guess about $100-$120 for two for me.

77

I’m not a foodie so I don’t cringe when I hear Rachael Ray’s name so I ended up learning quite a bit about food technique from her. I’m an eat to live, not live to eat so the simpler the better for me.

Usually I’m cooking for one, but sometimes more. I found the best investment I’ve made is for one of those Foodsaver sealers. That way I don’t waste food but I can still buy a decent quantity of something if it’s on sale.

The biggest food related thing that works for me is something I learned from watching Rachael Ray. She described it and it made perfect sense to me. When I get home from the store I prepare all of my veggies and fresh herbs after I’ve unpacked the groceries. I clean them all, peel the ones which need peeled and prepare them for use.

For instance:
[ul]
[li]For onions I normally take most of the bag or so and dice half and slice half[/li][li]For celery I dice about half and then half I cut in two inch pieces for snacking. I put the snacking pieces in a tupperware bowl with water so they are ready to grab[/li][li]Carrots get cut in quarter inch rounds although I do keep some aside for snacking[/li][li]bell peppers get cut in strips. If I want to dice them for a recipe that’s easy to do since they’ve been washed, seeded, and stripped[/li][/ul]
Those are just a few examples. I’ve figured out what type of storage works best for each thing by now (some items get the vacuum bag sealing and some do not due to water content. Some get green bags, some get tupperware, etc).

I’ve found that I am much more likely to cook and eat healthier if I don’t have to fuss with the food right before cooking. It sounds like a lot of work to do ahead of time but you will fall into a system of doing it that isn’t all that time consuming. I will usually grab a cutting board and some bowls and sit and watch TV or a movie while I do my prepping after everything has been washed.

As far as grocery shopping itself, I keep a pantry decently stocked as well as my spice rack. I try to stick with whole foods so I don’t really keep any convenience or boxed foods in my pantry for the most part. I usually do one really big run a month to a warehouse type store and twice a month I go to Trader Joe’s. In between I will get produce or dairy I don’t get at TJ’s at a regular local grocery.

Hate grocery shopping and I don’t use coupons.

78

I’m USian, shopping for two adults (one mildly diabetic). I do tend to keep reserves of non-perishables on hand, both for menu flexibility and so I can wait until sales to restock. Usually use a list (smartphone app both of us can add to), still forget some items. Not organized enough to cope with coupons. Main grocery shopping is weekly (our pay schedule) with fill-in as needed, especially now that we’re in walking distance of a fairly decent grocery store. Don’t actually “enjoy” shopping really, don’t loathe it. I’m definitely a price-based shopper so tend toward the more discount places, with such factors as operating hours (weird household schedule) and location factored in.

79

Are you me? :slight_smile:

I do that regularly.

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I’m finding that for two adults with not much in the way of special dietary needs (DH is mildly diabetic, so does need protein-oriented snack options), we’re spending at least $100/week. I really think we could cut that a bit and still be eating well. (sigh)