Why has it taken me fifteen years to realize...

[castleview]

that I can't do the grocery shopping once a week? I've wasted a lot of money buying produce that went bad, emergency food (usually junk), and always needing more milk - which lead to more groceries than necessary.

Maybe it's because I had young ones. Now that DS (my final child) is in school, I've been stopping at the store every two or three days, getting what we need and saving so much money.

Anyway, thank you for listening to my revelation. Feel free to make fun of me for not figuring this out sooner.

 

[Mermaid02]

that I can't do the grocery shopping once a week? I've wasted a lot of money buying produce that went bad, emergency food (usually junk), and always needing more milk - which lead to more groceries than necessary.

Maybe it's because I had young ones. Now that DS (my final child) is in school, I've been stopping at the store every two or three days, getting what we need and saving so much money.

Anyway, thank you for listening to my revelation. Feel free to make fun of me for not figuring this out sooner.

I feel the same way. I do better if I make at least 2 trips. It goes against the conventional wisdom- but it works for me!

 

[LuvOrlando]

I used to do it your way but some excellent advice from the budget boards had me start to buy on sale and fill up my basement freezer and pantry. If you stop in the folks over there can give you loads of useful ideas to improve things for your family no matter what your budget looks like

 

[The Mystery Machine]

that I can't do the grocery shopping once a week? I've wasted a lot of money buying produce that went bad, emergency food (usually junk), and always needing more milk - which lead to more groceries than necessary.

Maybe it's because I had young ones. Now that DS (my final child) is in school, I've been stopping at the store every two or three days, getting what we need and saving so much money.

Anyway, thank you for listening to my revelation. Feel free to make fun of me for not figuring this out sooner.

Not making fun of you because I have had a similiar revelation. I will shop daily sometimes. The grocery store is 5min away.

 

[m&m's mom]

I have 3 major grocery stores less than a mile away. We go to the grocery store at east every other day. It's kind of "it's 5:30. What do you feel like for dinner? Then we go to the store to get the stuff to make it.
Honestly we were throwing away so much food that this has been the best plan ever.

 

[Colleen27]

What did it for me was going from living somewhere I had to drive to the grocery to having one just a few blocks away. I still do the big sale shopping once a week with the car, but I walk up to the farmer's market and/or the little grocery 2-3 times in between big trips for produce and dairy products.

 

[ccgirl]

What did it for me was going from living somewhere I had to drive to the grocery to having one just a few blocks away. I still do the big sale shopping once a week with the car, but I walk up to the farmer's market and/or the little grocery 2-3 times in between big trips for produce and dairy products.

This is me. I do the "big" shopping every 2 weeks but will get produce/milk as needed.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Not making fun of you because I have had a similiar revelation. I will shop daily sometimes. The grocery store is 5min away.

DW and I are similar as you. We both commute by train to work. We have to drive to the bus station, so on our way to/from work, we pass a grocery store. If we need something, then it's convenient for us to stop on our way home. We do our big shopping trip, but usually wait to get perishables until we need them. So not making fun of the OP, as we to learned the same valuable lesson.

 

[tvguy]

My co-worker stops at the store everyday to buy what he's fixing for dinner. We both get off work at 11:30 am so the store is usually empty.
We do most of our grocery shopping at Walmart. Most of their produce is under ripe, the advantage is we rarely have any fruit or produce spoil, but sometimes we don't have any ripe fruit in the house. I can wait a few days for my 59 cent Walmart avocado to ripen, since the ripe one costs $1.25 at the neighborhood grocery store.

 

[pigletgirl]

Ehh, I still haven't figured it out. I do the same as the most of you by going to the store when need be! That place usually ends up being Trader Joes.

 

[castleview]

Ehh, I still haven't figured it out. I do the same as the most of you by going to the store when need be! That place usually ends up being Trader Joes.

Now that I can only do once a week because it's a 25 minute drive. There's a small IGA near my kids' soccer fields - normally I wouldn't go into one, but it's a family owned small grocery with it's own butcher shop and bakery. Very convenient. I like small too!

 

[barkley]

i'm going in the opposite direction. i'm working it to where i realy do not have to go to store (regular grocery) more than twice a month.

a neighbor and i go to costco every month to month and a half. i know what costco charges for meat so unless there's a realy good sale on something at one of the two stores i shop at closer to me, all my meat is purchased there.

for non perishables-if it's a canned good i use constantly i try to get it at the 2 times a year case sales a couple of my local stores have. that way it's always on hand and i get an immense savings (i also buy paper towels this way). stuff i can't get this way i stock up on at once a month (during the winter, every 2 months) trip to walmart (though i hate that they are removing more and more of the brand name items off their shelves in favor of their brands). i get all the cleaning products and other non perishables there as well.

the real issue was produce and dairy. with dairy we've got an out-the way they process milk products localy you would not believe how far out the use by dates are (a month and a half on milk), so that left produce. a friend recently turned me on to "bountiful baskets" so i gave it a try, and i have to say that the amount and variety of beautiful produce you get for $15 is amazing. since their pick-up is every two weeks i find that so long as i have potatos/onions on hand as staples i no longer need to shop for those unless i have a pressing need.

so-unless there's a realy good sale on something OR we just want to prep something i don't have the items to prepare, there's realy no reason i have to go shopping more than twice a month.


disclaimer-one of the things that REALY helps out is the meat grinder on our kitchen aide. if i need ground beef or pork, so long as i have either meat in any form in the freezer i'm good to go. i also have no issue with taking a roast or steak that i've bought on a good sale, and cutting it into stew/soup meat.

 

[sbell111]

This is me. I do the "big" shopping every 2 weeks but will get produce/milk as needed.

That's our formula. Once every couple of weeks, we hit the store to restock the freezer and pantry. Then we just pop in as needed for perishables.

 

[Liberty Belle]

that I can't do the grocery shopping once a week? I've wasted a lot of money buying produce that went bad, emergency food (usually junk), and always needing more milk - which lead to more groceries than necessary.

Maybe it's because I had young ones. Now that DS (my final child) is in school, I've been stopping at the store every two or three days, getting what we need and saving so much money.

Anyway, thank you for listening to my revelation. Feel free to make fun of me for not figuring this out sooner.

I just had that revelation myself a few months ago. I felt bad if my pantry wasn't full and half the food goes to waste. Now, I only buy for a few days at a time.

 

[KadysMom]

I find that I do better when I go every few days. When I shop once a week, I get items that we dont use, or we end up going to visit my mom and eating there, stuff just comes up.

I have a stocked freezer, so I dont buy meats at the store right now. Its just the small stuff. Milk, bread, eggs.

 

[Pembo]

I shop every other week...with a quick stop for milk and bananas in between. I can't imagine going anymore than that. I've always shopped that way as did my mom.

 

[dislaney]

It took me years to realize too! I really do better going every few days.

 

[heatherwillmom]

I do what the kids call my "Big Walmart run" usually every other week. I have a freezer so I can buy meat in advance. I pass a nice grovery store on the way home from work everyday so if there's something that I need like milk or produce, I can run in & get it. On the big run, I try to get canned foods, cleaing supplies, cat food, dog food, & staples like rice, sugar, tea etc. I occoaasional will go to Sam's Club to get some things that we use a lot of, but it's a 38 mile drive each way so I go there when we are going to the area for something else too

 

[jsmith]

used to do it your way but some excellent advice from the budget boards had me start to buy on sale and fill up my basement freezer and pantry. If you stop in the folks over there can give you loads of useful ideas to improve things for your family no matter what your budget looks like

Its not a budget issue-at least in my case its a changing family dynamics issue-i no longer NEED to keep a freezer and pantry stocked-rather i NEED to do quiet the opposite and only purchase what will get used. When my boys were at home we purchased on sale and with coupons and kept cupboards and pantry full-and it got used. However my children are now 25 and 21 and neither has lived at home for sometime-whats more about three years ago i -temporarily-went from a house hold of 4 to a household of 1 for a while-its back to 2 now (at least til the next deployment). I would up donating tons of stuff to local food banks so it would get used before expiring and tossing out tons of produce before i learned to go and buy just what i needed for the next few days-with two working adults-both of whom travel frequently this has cut down the waste-and the budget-signifgantly.