I live in a suburb with many middle class and professional residents, so naturally the grocery stores around here have good fresh produce and frequent price-cutting inducements to lure these well-off shoppers in the door. Poor people should be so lucky. Which is kind of crazy, but that is how it works irl.
I do my damnedest to make rational use of these resources, by making a menu once a week that takes note of what is cheap and on sale, by shopping from a list, and by stocking up our pantry when prices are especially good. I have a vehicle, so I can travel a circuit of three different stores in about 5.5 miles, targeting each one for the best deals and best food.
We eat very well for about $500/mo. A lot of fresh organic produce. Whole grains, legumes. Bakery bread. Usually not factory-farmed meat, although we do eat some. Wine, though it is extremely ordinary stuff, most nights. I could bring that bill down much closer to $400/mo, if my wife didn't have some strong food preferences that increase our total costs.
I am kind of proud of my above-average prowess. (preens self)
― Aimless, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 04:14 (eleven years ago) link
that all sounds preenable. i am very "strong food preferences" about a lot of stuff, but for the most part it's things i feel totally okay about not economising on; like if you buy tea or bread or basically anything that comes in multiple-units, you're spending money on stuff that you're going to appreciate or resent the quality of on like ten or fifty different occasions, so it's worth springin for. a bunch of stuff i eat - beans, say, or grains - is so cheap when you add up how much it costs per serving that it's okay to get the nice option.
my favorite thing to do in any new place I visit, or maybe just anywhere I am, is to go to a supermarket and wander the aisles
― barthes simpson, Monday, 8 October 2012 18:23 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
for real. it's the area with the highest-intensity of small differences.
― unprotectable tweetz (schlump), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 04:24 (eleven years ago) link
i have the luxury of having no kids to feed and no major monthly expenses (except rent and health insurance; i don't own a house and don't have a car), so i like being a little spendy with grocery shopping. i'm a food person; i believe you can/should eat like a mensch even if you don't have a lot of money.
― sriracha bishop (get bent), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 05:03 (eleven years ago) link
yeah mr veg got into into organic (aside from his weird obsession with canned soup for lunch) ...so now the routine is - farmers market in the morning, then to safeway for basics like kleenex and meat, then to the co-op for bulk grains and hippy shit and other organic whatever.
I'm trying to cut back our grocery bill, and the farmer's market has saved us about 50% compared to what the co-op was charging for most of their produce. no matter how much I would *like* to buy organic meat, meat's expensive enough as it is, so we only do organic for special occasions.
but we're spending $100-$150 a week. we don't eat out at all, we make our own lunches, make our own coffee, the whole nine. So I feel okay spending a little more here and there. I would like to spend less but I'm not stressing about that right now..and I know in the back of my mind that if I had to really slash at the bill, I could. But I still get kind of a buzz from bargains so that's where my Grocery Outlet adventures come in
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 05:30 (eleven years ago) link
my favorite thing to do in any new place I visit, or maybe just anywhere I am, is to go to a supermarket and wander the aislesfor real. it's the area with the highest-intensity of small differences.
my people
― these albatrosses have no fear of man (La Lechera), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 12:27 (eleven years ago) link
I can't believe someone app-economied No Frills
https://brandless.com/
― maura, Thursday, 9 November 2017 17:47 (six years ago) link
ha! that's ridiculous.
so generic
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 9 November 2017 17:51 (six years ago) link
I love grocery shopping, hate pretty much every other type of shoppingi live a block away from a 24hr supermarket and sometimes just go there at odd hours to browse for interesting stuff if I'm bored
― ciderpress, Thursday, 9 November 2017 18:12 (six years ago) link
i enjoy grocery shopping when it's not too crowdedand when they're not playing bad music
― brimstead, Thursday, 9 November 2017 18:15 (six years ago) link
I drive from Mississippi to Atlanta for groceries a couple of times a year. Buford Highway Farmers Market and Dekalb Farmers Market always, H-Mart in Duluth and Patel Brothers usually, Trader Joe's, Patak's Meats in Austell and Total Wines in Kennesaw (or Green's on Ponce) occasionally. Next week is my next trip.
― WilliamC, Thursday, 9 November 2017 19:58 (six years ago) link
I love grocery shopping, hate pretty much every other type of shopping
^^this.
i don't understand when people are at grocery store listening to headphones, and not earbuds but huge noise-reduction headphones.
― new noise, Thursday, 9 November 2017 20:09 (six years ago) link
mostly because it looks silly.