Grocery Store Strategies

Eating at home - and eating exactly what you intend - is one of the pleasures of life. Of course - savvy shopping at the grocery store makes it a lot easier. Here are a few strategies for achieving the most bang for your time (one trip to the grocery store a week should be the goal) and your money (no wasted food, coupons when applicable, bulk items when possible): 

• Make a list of meals for the week. This is required unless you want to make multiple trips to the grocery store to get ingredients you don’t have on hand. Base your list on the meals you plan.
• Always go to the store with a list. I use an app called OurGroceries that makes it easy for both my husband and I to add items to the list from a PC, iPad, Android phones, and Kindle. When I’m in the store, I use the Kindle to mark items off as I shop.
• Take your own bags. Reusable bags are sturdier and can be loaded with more items (see my bag of bags at right). You’ll make fewer trips to get your groceries unloaded when you get home. And it is much better for the environment. Some stores are even giving cents back for using your own bags.
• Group items for the checker so that items are bagged together that will end up stored together. I usually group items into the following bags: veggies/fruit, meat, other refrigerator, pantry, and other.
• Coupons. Take advantage of coupons for things you are going to buy anyway or an item you want to try. The down side with coupons is they are often for poor food choices (highly processed, very sweet, or non-food masquerading as food) so never buy something simply because there is a coupon.
• Familiarize yourself with the store. Larger stores have a lot of choices and may have similar items in two different places. For example - many times stores separate organic products from nonorganic ones. Make sure you understand what you are buying.
• Freeze produce before it goes bad (i.e. if you find you cannot us it up before it spoils). Use it later to make smoothies, muffins, or soup. A banana that is about to be overripe can be peeled and frozen…and become an excellent addition to a smoothie or make banana muffins later! A frozen tomato will split but that is fine for use in a soup or smoothie. You should always strive to eat all the food you buy rather than throwing it away and buying more.
• Educate yourself on the most important produce to buy organic. Get the Environmental Working Group’s guide.
• Whole grains in the refrigerator. Whole grains can become rancid. Store them in the refrigerator rather than the pantry.
• Buy in bulk only if:
  • It costs less (most of the time sit does…but not always)
  • You will use all of it in a reasonable period of time
  • There is storage space in your home

And enjoy your grocery shopping.

Personal Rhythms - Monthly

This blog item is the third in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is monthly rhythms.

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There are activities that are generally done on a monthly basis. For me, monthly activities clump into two main areas: keeping the household running smoothly and personal metrics. I’ve listed some examples in each area below.

Keeping the household running smoothly

• Bill paying. Usually credit card, utility, and mortgage payment are a monthly rhythm. It is one that causes a lot of fuss and flurry if not done consistently on time.
• Non-perishable household items. Making one major shopping trip a month for non-perishable household items can save money and make the other shopping trips easier. For me, this has taken some getting used to; it took me awhile to realize how much cat food was needed to sustain 2 cats for a month!

Personal metrics - These are tightly linked to personal goals. For me, most metrics are collected daily (things like: weight, blood pressure, books read, blog items posted, time spent in whatever area I’m trying to improve, etc.) and analyzed weekly. On a monthly basis, I look at the overall goals I have for the year and decide if the metrics are still the right things to be measuring…and does the data tell me that I am on track to achieving the 2012 goal I set for myself.

Think about the monthly rhythms most important to enable your life to move along the way you want. Are they firmly in place or ad hoc? Could they be honed to better meet your needs?

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Previous posts in this series about personal rhythms can be found here: weekly, daily.

Being Green – Reuse

The ultimate of being green is to reuse rather than trash. Here are some activities that have worked for me and I’d love to hear about ones that have worked for you:

• Re-purpose. Think of a new use from an item that you would have previously trashed or recycled. Some examples:
  • I have some plastic trays that were used by a caterer that would not go through the dishwasher well…but worked great under pots on the deck to catch the water run off.
  • The candles that come in a glass container with a lid made wonderful canisters. I use mine to hold tea bags and packets of sweetener. To clean out the wax, set them in a shallow pan of boiling water until all the bits of wax melt and can be poured out. Wipe clean with a paper towel. Soak in water to get the labels off then put through the dishwasher.

• Thrift stores. There is no consistency in thrift stores – but it is often worthwhile to at least check out the ones near you. Yes – the selection is totally unpredictable and there will be times you will not find anything you can use. But when you do….it is usually a terrific bargain and the reuse is just an added positive.
• Donate. When you clean out closets or otherwise identify things you no longer need…decide if some of them can be easily donated to a charity. Some charities will even pick up from your porch!
• Freecycle. Post items that you want to give away …or pick up something someone else is giving away. To find a group near you – check out http://www.freecycle.org/ and let the reuse begin! I have gotten rid of a partial package of roofing shingles, an old ice cream freezer, and a box of art project supplies!
• Bring your own Bag - Use canvas or reinforced paper/plastic bags from conferences or received as gifts for charitable donations when you go shopping rather than using the stores plastic bags.