How I Grocery Shop

HAPPY MARDI GRAS, LOVELY READERS

Is it just me or do you love the idea of a day being called “Fat Tuesday?”  Bring on the food!

Anyways…

It seems like every blog I read has done a grocery shopping post (or series of posts) and I’ve found lots of helpful tips just from reading about others experiences.  I thought I might add my own grocery shopping methods in the hopes that it might help someone else.  Pay it forward, ya know?

Or maybe I just like to talk about myself and my daily activities.

For some, meal plans don’t work.  For me, it does.  My favorites folder is chock full of recipes that I come across during the week.  I’d like to pretend that I pull up that list on Saturday or Sunday and just write 5 down to make for the week but honestly, sometimes I struggle with this step.  I get picky, the recipes don’t seem as good as I’d originally thought, it looks too time consuming, I would have to buy too many ingredients, etc.  I just have to remember that every week is not like this and hope that this step will get easier.

After I’ve antagonized for far too long over my meal plan I write the meals down and make two colums underneath: “Produce” and “Other.”

This is where things get tricky.  Produce is cheap, it’s the other stuff that can add up fast. I generally like my “other” list to be shorter than my produce list, but sometimes (like this week) that just doesn’t happen.  Don’t sweat it, everything will even out in the end.

Joey and I switch around between grocery stores every so often but we try to find a place where we can get everything (or almost everything) in one trip to one store.  Personally, I think the money you save by going to different stores for specific items is negated by the time and gas you spend driving to two, three, four different stores.  That’s just my opinon, though.  Do what works for you.

My grocery store qualifications:

• Bulk section
• Organic produce (at the very least, although organic non-produce is even better)
• Specialty items (like alternative flours)

That’s really all, I’m not too picky.  And for the record I just typed pickly instead of picky.  I guess I would consider myself to be pickly.

I try my best to stick to my list!  So when I sit down to make that list I definitely allow myself to add some splurge items, aka things I want, not need.

This week, that list included:

• Goat cheese
• Blueberries
• Dried cranberries
• Lavish wraps — don’t even ask what those are, I have no idea but they looked more fun than tortillas
• English muffins

I know, I “splurged” a whole $2 on cranberries.

Now, I don’t claim to be a grocery shopping expert and some weeks we spend more than usual but I think we’ve figured out what works for us and have a realistic budget of $60-80 for two people.  We also double our recipes to ensure that we have lunch for the following day <— this is key!  Plus, buying two butternut squashes insteadof one  isn’t much of a price jump.

I also like to buy extra veggies, because A) They’re cheap and B) It’s a fast, simple and healthy side dish for any meal.  Plus you can roast them in one big batch and have them around for the rest of the week.

So what did we get this week?

Produce:

Other:

Total: $75.52

This week was higher than usual, but we had a lot of bread/pasta stuff that added up and olive oil is so costly!  Especially when you go through it as fast as we do.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post because I had fun writing it.

What’s your relationship with grocery shopping?  Love or hate?