Grocery Shopping Simplified
I love going to a Farmer’s Market to choose produce fresh from the farm. Never having been refrigerated, the fruits and vegetables actually smell the way they are supposed to smell!
I enjoy going to the butcher shop here in town, where the owners call me by name, and know exactly what I want before I get the words out of my mouth. Nothing is finer than a visit to my favorite local bakery to get the breads I love. Oh, that place smells heavenly!
Unfortunately, to visit all these shops would take half a day and a half a tank of gasoline. These days I can’t afford that luxury. Heck, I can barely afford food!
Grocery shopping at the grocery store has never been a favorite chore for me. I try to get through it as quickly as I can. I want to keep grocery shopping simple.
Theoretically, I know the rules I should follow when shopping, if I want the experience to be as painless as possible:
- Shop early, but not too early. At my local chain store, the checkout clerks don’t arrive until 8:00 a.m. If I get to the checkout line before then, I have to use the self-checkout. That’s absolutely no fun with a cartload of groceries!
- Never go to the store hungry - I wind up buying things I don’t need, just because they are appealing while my stomach is growling.
- Stick to the outer aisles! That’s generally where meat, produce, dairy, and bread are located. I try never to go down those aisles marked “Seasonal.” I know if I do, I’ll fall for something I don’t need.
- Have a grocery list and stick to it! My friend SusieJ has her “G List” on-line for you to copy if you like. Perhaps you shop differently and want to make your own. She suggests that you make a list of everything you might buy, and organize it by the department of the store where it is located. Keep that list in a plastic file sheet in your kitchen. As the week progresses, mark anything you need right on the plastic with a dry erase marker. If you take that list with you to the store, you should be able to get in and out of the store in an hour, with everything you need for the week. Bring the list home, wipe it off, and put it back in the kitchen for the next go-round.
- Don’t gaze at the magazines at the checkout and don’t stop at the Starbucks kiosk!
If I remember to follow those rules, grocery shopping is a much less painful experience. At least it is until I have to pay for the groceries!
