How often do you buy groceries?
What types of things do you consider “essential”?
Do you make a list when you go shopping, or just have an idea of what you need?
Do you do one big trip all at once, or do you pick up just enough to make what you’re eating that night/the next day?
mostly produce (this is the cheapest food, don’t let anyone fool you), but that usually doesn’t last a week before you cook it. shop is a 2 min walk away, produce markets 3 and 10 mins away, so we go often.
I pretty much eat depression meals, with occasional cooking. Trying to be better, but I still eat a lot of food that isn’t the greatest for you, like frozen meals, that kind of thing. I really should be better, and I don’t know if I should be sad or motivated seeing everyone else’s food in this thread.
A shopping list on Google Keep has been a game changer. We have a shared list with my wife. Whenever we run out of something essential or need something, we add it to the list. Whenever one of us is in a grocery store, it’s easy just to go through the list.
My groceries aren’t interesting, but I had a friend who only ate what went into a mug.
He carried around a ceramic mug, either collecting free stuff or telling people about his mug to see if they’d put food in it. Free samples, a few grapes, and occasional hand outs all went into the mug. I filled it with soup when he came by.
Was this wherever he went?
Did he take it when out to eat with friends or on a date?
How much did this mug effect his day to day life?
For the couple months I knew him the mug was either in his hand or clipped to his bag.
I didn’t see his dates and I didn’t ask, but he came by for dinner once and ate his portion from the mug.
As far as I saw, it was a great conversation starter, he made a lot of friends and ate reasonably well.
This would get old real quick.
I was a smoker in a past life.
Occasionally you encounter other smokers who are trying to cut down, or quitting, and limiting their intake by refusing to buy a pack of smokes and simply bumming smokes off the people they encounter.
Sounds nice in principle but obviously this very quickly deteriorates into a parasitic arrangement.
What I mean is, if I went to work every day and there was a guy there with a cup, obviously I’d happily give him whatever, but at any given lunch break if he was hungry he’d know he could search me out for a bite to eat.
I thought it was interesting and uplifting to see people come together to support this guy in a fairly simple way. He just told people about his mug if they asked and didn’t belabor it from there. Even shared candy when he got it.
I worked at a restaurant, where there’s a lot of food waste, so I was happy to help someone out while he found his footing. He didn’t come back on his own, I told him to see me when I’m working.
It’s weird to spin that into a “parasitic” relationship.
Sure ok. I’ll readily acknowledge that I’m a pretty weird guy.
I probably also have a lot of left over baggage from being a substance abuser of minimal socio-economic means. That is to say I just like to pay for my own stuff, and there’s a short list of people I might be very generous with but beyond that I’m not generous (with money) at all.
I guess it’s a bit different if the guy is interacting with a lot of different people every day.
I had envisaged a situation where I work in some kind of cubicle hell scape and every lunch time I need to sneak past old-mates cube in case he sees me and tries to swindle me into contributing some crisps or something.
Fair enough, I can see how that would taint your view of the world. Admittedly, that was a time when a lot of us were poor, in a place where a lot of young people go to get away from their lives. We were all just trying to get by, so we shared what we could.
I probably wouldn’t have met mug guy, if not for the mug, and he was a delight. I say that as someone who grew up in a pretty insular, toxic, pay-your-own-way sort of family. Mug guy showed me it’s okay to ask for what you need and some people genuinely want to help you.
My sibling works at a grocery store, so I’ll text them what to bring home. So it’s more daily then weekly. Sometimes we go to the Asian Supermarket but that’s more monthly.
My wife comes up with a menu for the week and buys everything needed to make it.
Once a month, we go to Sam’s club and buy bulk meat which gets portioned and frozen, and other bulk non perishables like coffee, rice, pasta etc.
The weekly trips are about $200-$300 and the monthly trip is about the same.
We have five kids between us.
I shop at our local grocery store 2x a month to get essentials as needed. “Essential” to us is anything we utilize the most, which usually boils down to milk, eggs, bread, fresh fruit/veggies. Every 4-6 months or so my spouse and I go to Costco and get items in bulk. Those trips are typically reserved for buying meats that we can freeze long term, along with frozen veggies, and non-perishables.
I always make a shopping list to make a point of not returning any sooner than necessary (but hey, sometimes I forget stuff anyways).
I tend to be the primary cook, but I make a point of making recipes that involve using dry, frozen, or canned ingredients as there isn’t a rush to use them since they don’t quickly spoil. Any fresh items are used within the 2 week frame between local grocery trips.
When I notice my fridge fails to either 1) hold enough prepped stuff to microwave an entree, or 2) provide snacks or something-pie – it’s grocery shopping time. I mostly keep to the membership stores, so just one/two visits a month, maybe. I only buy as much as I can carry in one trip from car to fridge.
Until yogurt drinks are in season again. Then it’s worth getting delivered by the pallet.
Ayran 🤤
I go almost every day. It’s a good reason to get out and go for a walk.
What I buy mostly depends on prices/discounts. And only what I can carry in my backpack. Potatoes when affordable, otherwise rice; frozen veggies, ham/cheese, bubbly water, beer.
Potatoes are more expensive than rice in the Netherlands?
Edit: just did the math for my German prices and they seem about equal. I always thought rice was a bit more expensive.
Edit 2: just realized that it’s easier and cheaper to prepare a meal with potatoes for me. I’m cool with plain mashed potatoes or simple pan fried potatoes (about 50c of extra ingredients each) but for rice I need something to go with it, which is gonna be more expensive than what I need for potatoes
I’m not in the Netherlands. Where I live, potatoes were 1.20 eur per kilo last year so I don’t buy it. Normal price should be 40 cents.
Ah, I see. My bad for assuming. Yeah, 1,20€ is way too much.
I shop at Aldi and Lidl, so I’m buying the raw ingredients for meals rather than the preprepped meals themselves.
I’ll spend my sunday afternoon cooking and meal prepping for the work week.
Crate of 24 beers, five pizzas, two large steaks and a packs of French fries.
You ok? It’s never too late to start eating right. It will make you fell better now and definitely in the future.
This is kinda where I’m at, but it’s not conducive to GERD unfortunately.
I can respect this. Beats racking my brain every night trying to think of what I want to eat.
Two trips each week. One to the local farmers shop, for whatever is available there (mostly vegetables, eggs and bread, but sometimes fish, meat, ice cream, etc), and another to a supermarket for the common things (pasta for my gf and couscous for me, rice, flour, some dairy (fresh cream or cheese), sandwich bread and chocolate spread, sometimes stuff that needs to be refilled like oil, soap, toilet paper, etc and usually an extra meal : either rice and fish for sushi-like thingy, chickpea for nugetts-ich fried stuff, or a can of smthg like chili con carne).
We try to do lists for the supermarket, otherwise we always forget something. For the local shop, what’s available varies greatly so there’s no sense making a list.
Yeah this is pretty much me.
I have unusual eating habits so not the same stuff.
I generally go to the green grocer (farmers shop?), then there’s a wholefoods shop for nuts and pulses and things, then the butcher, then at the supermarket it’s just bits and pieces.
We’ve gotten pretty good at getting things in bulk when they’re on special. Some items are way cheaper to buy on-line like toiletries and medications.
Shopping is a mix of buying stuff that is pre-planned, and impulse purchases. That depends on a number of factors. If I went to the supermarket to buy e.g. peppers, but the ones they have don’t look good, I can spontaneously change the meal and buy something else for which I can buy good products. Same at the meat frontier, I can easily switch plans if shopping reality dictates differently.
I tend to buy groceries at least twice a month, sometimes it is more than that because of impulse. Otherwise, I operate on a 35 ~ 65 budget.
I consider my monster javas, rice, pasta, coffee/creamer, oatmeal, almond milk, water, bagels/waffles with cream cheese and things to mix the pasta and rice with as essentials. They’re always staples in all shopping trips.
My shopping lasts no more than 10 ~ 15 minutes, maybe less, because I always know what I’m after. I hate having to hop around stores to find things one other store doesn’t have because while I could find cheaper alternatives, I am sometimes met with more pricier options which may force me to go without one of my essentials for a while.
My goal with grocery shopping is to extend rations as much as possible while moderating how much I eat. I do shop for processed foods like frozen and canned stuff, but I find that it actually helps my rations. I don’t particularly pick up things like loaves of bread or produce because from my experience in the past, I always feel like I have to eat them sooner or they’ll spoil and I don’t really like having to feel like I got to wolf down something as soon as I buy it.
Longevity is key to me.
I eat a lot of fresh food that doesn’t last a week; I shop every other day. I also eat a lot of things that last forever and are cheapest in bulk, like beans, rice, pasta. As a result, I honestly don’t know what a week of groceries looks like.
What are you eating that only lasts 1 to 2 days?
fresh bread, avocados, fresh tomatoes, fresh meat
It’s not that they go bad after just two days, but a week is too long
