We all know girls take five hours for a shopping trip that ought to take them twenty minutes and buy way more than necessary. On the flip side, when it comes to grocery shopping, men go in needing 5 things and come out for three, which they overpaid for. Yay for gender stereotyping.
If anyone has any tips that will actually get a woman in, out, and under budget, I'd love to hear them. However, I do have a few tips to help keep the men from having the typical bachelor pad fridge. Last time I told you things to consider when making a grocery list, if you're sweet I may even create a quick first time stocking the kitchen list for the average bachelor. However, right now there are a few useful tidbits to consider when going to the grocery store.
Before heading to the store, clean your kitchen. When returning you'll need to be able to put sacks on the counter as you put objects away, and it's easier to put away groceries in a clean kitchen. I dunno about you, but once I've finished at the grocery store, I just wanna get home, put it away so it doesn't spoil, and then head for bed. So make it easier on yourself, at the very least, declutter the counters and make sure that you have room in your fridge/freezer by throwing all the old food out.
Never, ever go to the store hungry. Always have some sort of snack beforehand, even if it's just a frosty you picked up on the way to the store. I have a tendency to spend about double what I normally would if I wasn't hungry going in. I know that sounds cliche, but it actually is true. The food sounds better than it normally would when you're hungry, so you get more of it, and often that's more than you need.
Don't forget your list! Once your kitchen is regularly well supplied the best way to make your list is to get a magnetic notepad, stick it to the fridge and write down the name of anything you finish off/toss. Then you can't forget that you ran out of milk, or skip the bread, and you don't have to sit down and think about it before you go. Just grab the list off the fridge and go.
When selecting an item off the shelf, pick the one with the sell by date that is furthest into the future. It'll last longer, meaning you'll have more of a chance to eat it before it goes bad. If you can't find a date on a canned item chances are they are using the Julian Dating System. Instead of dates formatted in a manner we are accustomed to the Julian system uses random letters and numbers and requires a chart too figure out...Waaay too complicated, and I don't entirely trust this system of dating. To avoid it choose Walmart. They are starting to require that their suppliers put 'normal' dates on their cans. One of the few store policies I've agreed with.
I'd like to point out that in the cases of things like milk the freshest bottle is usually the one in the back. This makes it a little more difficult to get, but unless you gargle with it, chances are the couple extra days is worth the effort. In stores that stock multiple brands, you may want to check to make sure that you aren't spending extra money for nothing. 2% milk is 2% milk. Viva tends to cost more than say, Meadow Gold, and there's no reason for why. It's not like Viva has bottle caps made of gold or anything. Alot of people, particularly single people, are also better off getting a half gallon rather than the normal gallon. If you have trouble finishing off a whole gallon before expiration, you may want to consider this.
Bread is delivered to the store daily, but they don't empty their shelves of the old bread when the new stuff comes in. So check the twist tie. The days of the week that the bread was made on are color coded by those. Generally they use the following format, Monday = Blue, Tuesday = Green, Thursday = Red, Friday = White, Saturday = Yellow, however this may vary depending on the baker.
When buying a bottled item, like jam, always check the poptop to make sure that the bottle is still sealed. if you can push the lid down and have it pop back up, someone has opened it, select another jar.
My house has always used an inordinate amount of cheddar cheese. Growing up, our favorite snack was a cheese quesadilla, and often my mother added black beans and chicken. They were delicious, but even the 1 lb block of cheese disappeared quickly. My mother got in the habit of buying them on sale and freezing them. Same thing with our butter. We always had an extra four pack of it in the freezer. These are a couple of items used often enough that keep better if you store part of it in the freezer. Just avoid thawing and refreezing, as this can ruin the flavor.
Low budget actually means grocery shopping is a better idea. Eating out costs you at least five bucks a pop. For that you can make three or four meals out of groceries. PBandJ sandwhiches are the best example. Six bucks for the jam and peanut butter, 2 for the bag of bread, and 3 for a large bag of chips and you've got enough for about ten meals, and then only becuase you'll need more bread/chips. That's only one example, most meals from home are similar. 10 bucks can feed you for a week, if you'll eat the same thing over and over.
Next article- Shopping list for the fridge/freezer...
Labels: food, groceries, homemaking, shopping
