I usually do the ‘bulk’ shopping at the start of the month,frozen foods and consumables like paper towels are picked up in monthly quantities, while I also get bread, veggies and other short shelf-life items, which i replenish over the month as necessary.
Get hungry. Go to store. Buy food. Go home. Eat food.
Probably repeat the process tomorrow.
You guys sure have complicated lives.
My basic strategy involves never going to the supermarket when I’m hungry.
It’s amazing what crap you can resist when your stomach isn’t telling you to BUY NOW.
True. But I’m more motivated when I’m hungry. Although I will concede that “large bar of chocolate” and “habit” probably don’t belong quite as well together as I seem to believe.
Once a week, on the weekend, early in the morning when almost no one is in the store. Shop for 10 minutes getting whatever a I want (most of it is the same stuff every week), and then get out ASAP. Sometimes repeat mid-week if the vegetables are looking tired in the fridge. Every now and again will pick some stuff up at the local farmers’ market.
Have to make a special trip for wine, though. Safeway has the best wine prices, but I prefer a different grocery store for food a bit farther away-- better and more varied produce.
Does anyone else go to multiple supermarkets? One near me has low prices on canned goods, sodas, kitty litter, wet cat food, yogurt, and other staples. But I hate their deli and their fish counter stinks of fish.
Another supermarket about 10 miles away has better fresh produce, and is a DOLLAR cheaper on the frozen cherries that I love and eat instead of candy. This one also has the only fresh fish that I’ll buy and much better lunch meat if I want some of that. So I make a trip every week to ten days (it’s on the way home from work).
(I hit the local farmer’s market when I can, but otherwise, it’s the supermarket for me).
I go to the one on the corner of my street. They have food.
As I said, you guys have it complicated.
We rarely cook at home. So, we go to the store when we need coffee and/or wine. While we’re there we’ll pick up things like eggs and bread. When we are planning to cook a meal, one of us will run to the store and buy what we’re going to make (and pick up some more wine)
I eat a meal right before I go shopping as a worst case. Best case I give a friend a list, some cash, ask them to go for me and tell them to keep what cash is left. Stops me buying stuff I don’t want that is bad (like ice-cream).
Yes.
We have The Market at Birch Bay and Cost Cutter, each about four miles away. TM@BB is more ‘upscale’, and Cost Cutter is slightly cheaper (but not especially inexpensive). I usually pick up the staples from Cost Cutter. TM@BB is better for some things, and is often more convenient because it’s at the exit I use to come home. Except for steaks, I tend to get meat at Cost Cutter. The Market is where I go for roast beef when I make shaved beef salad.
Bay Center Market is the local grocery store (not supermarket). We rarely buy our steaks anywhere else. (They sell only rib-eye, and they’re excellent. $11.99/pound.) They’re also handy for the $2 giant ‘red hot’ burritos I like, and for milk, an impromptu pie, or other things we might need or want, but don’t want to drive for. We usually get our sliced bread there.
Fred Meyer has Bailey’s Irish Creme coffee creamer, and Cost Cutter doesn’t. They sometimes have some good stuff in the ‘Buy It Before It Rots’ meat bin. There are a couple of their nice T-bones in the freezer right now.
Cash And Carry. Five pound blocks of Tillamook medium cheddar and sliced American cheese (yes, it’s real cheese – not ‘cheese product’), six-pound packs of bacon, beef jerky, and occasionally other things.
Trader Joe’s is the go-to place for nuts, as they tend to be cheaper and better than other places. It’s where we get our cheeses, except as noted earlier. They’re usually the best place for avocados. Other items include tuna, frozen salmon, olive oil, pre-cooked carnitas and pot roast, asparagus, Gummi Vites, frozen tamales, chocolate, and snacks. They have excellent pre-made salads, produce, and some good things in their frozen section.
Community Coffee is delivered to my door. It’s $15 for the 32-ounce bags ($7.50/pound), and I take advantage of their 20%-off sales (so $6.25/pound when I do) and free shipping for orders over a certain amount. (I’ve just noticed that they have a 25%-off sale for orders over $45 for Labor Day. But I already have ten or twelve pounds on-hand.)
All this might seem to require a ‘strategy’. Maybe it does. But it’s really more ad hoc. See what we need at any given time, then go get it. If we want something from Trader Joe’s or Fred Meyer, I’ll just swing by on my way back from one of my twice-weekly Seattle commutes. Or I might go to Trader Joe’s in West Seattle on my lunch break.
I’m there with you buddy.
I ask others in the family what sounds good and I go out and get it. Pretty simple.
Sometimes we decide to just have left overs.
I don’t waste time clipping coupons… unless it is one of those attached to the product that says “save $2 now.” But I do use the store’s loyalty card and save a decent amount.
I have three very nice stores within a mile or so of my house so I would rather get the fresh ingredients for what sounds good at the time than worry about saving 30 cents a week or two ahead. It really isn’t complicated.
What are we having for dinner tonight? No clue. We have some leftovers, and some deli meat for sandwiches, and things in the pantry for pasta or soup, or a frozen pizza. Otherwise I’ll wait until my wife gets home and ask her what she wants and maybe toss something on the grill… burgers, steak, chicken, fish, brats, who knows. It is nice to not be locked into a preset menu.
I wasn’t aware that they sold things like milk by the tablespoon. Huh. . . I’ll have to look into that.
I wrap one pound chunks in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, and write what it is with a pen. I also make some of the meat into hamburger patties, wrap each in plastic wrap, and put them into a ziploc bag. That way they are ready for cooking.
The small kitchen scale is really handy to have around.
When food is on sale is not always a good buy , it sometime mean the food is getting old especially meats . I am careful about buying food that is ‘on sale’
is could be a waste of money .
All that travelling there and back, walking around + selecting, queuing to pay:
- Martian Bigfoot, you sure have a complicated life.
I know you are joking, but tonight on the way home from looking at options for redoing our bathroom my wife and I stopped at a store that was on the way home. We didn’t know what we had planned, but parked and walked in and saw some nice fresh sweet corn that we can grill in the husk. A few steps away we found a marinated flank steak that looked good, also some wine, and a package of long grain and wild rice. Cashier was waiting with an open lane. In and out in under 15 minutes.
I’ll admit, we went about 20 yards out of our way and spent about 10 minutes walking around, and a couple more queuing up to pay (technically there was no queue… just the time to take it from our cart and pay for it.
So tonight dinner is grilled flank steak with grilled corn and wild rice. Some Cabernet Sauvignon for me and Chardonney for my wife.
Not complicated at all… and delicious.
You have opened my eyes.
Grocery store once a week (Sat or Sun morning), Sam’s Club every 2 months for non food bulk items (TP, dog food, litter, garbage bags, ziploc, etc). I would love to get fresh veg from farmer’s market or stand but it’s really not too practical. We buy what we need for the week and some staples, really not as organized as I’d like to be regarding staples. Went in pantry the other day and there is 5 cans of refried beans.
I hit the store between 3:30- 4:30. Early enough to beat all the worker bees and get first shot at the discount/markdown stuff and far to late for all the old people wandering down the middle of the aisles like Sleeping Jesus.
I bring my own paper bags. Not because I’m a tree-hugger, because I hate the plastic ones that allow all your stuff to scatter around the car.
Once a week on average. We use an app called OurGroceries which runs on the iPhone. It’s free. We no longer use paper lists for shopping and can share the lists and add/change or delete items off of it. Or mark them off the list.