How often do you buy groceries?
What types of things do you consider “essential”?
Do you make a list when you go shopping, or just have an idea of what you need?
Do you do one big trip all at once, or do you pick up just enough to make what you’re eating that night/the next day?
I or another person go once a week. I wish I went every few days, but I love about 20 min away and it’s not my favorite place in the world. For some reason I always make a list even though I buy basically the same things. My partner never uses a list when he goes.
Red peppers, tomatillos, fibrous cereal, milk and soy milk, yogurt/cottage cheese, tortilla chips, a bag of grapefruit when in season, wasa crackers, hummus, eggs / bread / tortillas when low, and whatever I’m making for lunch for the week. Sometimes salad stuff.
mostly produce (this is the cheapest food, don’t let anyone fool you), but that usually doesn’t last a week before you cook it. shop is a 2 min walk away, produce markets 3 and 10 mins away, so we go often.
I tend to spend a weekend cooking and freezing loads, then not really cooking for weeks.
So it’s a massive targeted shop every few weeks to do that, then mostly small trips (often on foot/bike) to the local shops to get milk and any odd things I run out of, or if I feel like mixing dinner up with something else.
My sibling works at a grocery store, so I’ll text them what to bring home. So it’s more daily then weekly. Sometimes we go to the Asian Supermarket but that’s more monthly.
Weekly for essentials: fresh fruit, fresh veg, any specific food i need for cooking that week or anything that’s run out. Good bread. In summer we have a garden so it’s mostly the fresh stuff we aren’t growing.
Costco monthly for sandwich bread, milk, eggs, any bulk stuff we need.
I get animal protein in bulk from our local farmer about 1x every two years which drops the price. We eat animal protein about 3 times a week, vegetarian rest of the time.
Always with a list, always with a weekly meal plan.
I shop at our local grocery store 2x a month to get essentials as needed. “Essential” to us is anything we utilize the most, which usually boils down to milk, eggs, bread, fresh fruit/veggies. Every 4-6 months or so my spouse and I go to Costco and get items in bulk. Those trips are typically reserved for buying meats that we can freeze long term, along with frozen veggies, and non-perishables.
I always make a shopping list to make a point of not returning any sooner than necessary (but hey, sometimes I forget stuff anyways).
I tend to be the primary cook, but I make a point of making recipes that involve using dry, frozen, or canned ingredients as there isn’t a rush to use them since they don’t quickly spoil. Any fresh items are used within the 2 week frame between local grocery trips.
I go almost every day. It’s a good reason to get out and go for a walk.
What I buy mostly depends on prices/discounts. And only what I can carry in my backpack. Potatoes when affordable, otherwise rice; frozen veggies, ham/cheese, bubbly water, beer.
Potatoes are more expensive than rice in the Netherlands?
Edit: just did the math for my German prices and they seem about equal. I always thought rice was a bit more expensive.
Edit 2: just realized that it’s easier and cheaper to prepare a meal with potatoes for me. I’m cool with plain mashed potatoes or simple pan fried potatoes (about 50c of extra ingredients each) but for rice I need something to go with it, which is gonna be more expensive than what I need for potatoes
I’m not in the Netherlands. Where I live, potatoes were 1.20 eur per kilo last year so I don’t buy it. Normal price should be 40 cents.
Ah, I see. My bad for assuming. Yeah, 1,20€ is way too much.
A mix of pre-planned list if we ran out of something or we want to cook something specific and in-shop decisions seeing what’s on promotion that week or what’s close to the expiration date and discounted a bit more.
We try to have like 3 servings of meat per week, and a constant stock of tomatoes, onions, garlic and lettuce and two other veggies (depending on what’s cheap that week: pepper, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes).
For dinner we usually try to stock: Bread, 3 types of sliced cheese (a cheap “mix”, a cheddar and something fancy like a Camembert or Gorgonzola), and 3 types of cold cuts (prosciutto, krustenbraten, salami, chorizo, Mett, etc).
We keep a big stock of UHT Milk, pasta and rice, and restock when there’s a promo or we run below 2 weeks of supply. Some lazy food like frozen Pizzas or ramen always needs to be available.
We buy eggs every two weeks from a local farmer.
Usually one big trip a week with short visits on a need-to basis if run out of something mid week.
Crate of 24 beers, five pizzas, two large steaks and a packs of French fries.
You ok? It’s never too late to start eating right. It will make you fell better now and definitely in the future.
This is kinda where I’m at, but it’s not conducive to GERD unfortunately.
I can respect this. Beats racking my brain every night trying to think of what I want to eat.
My groceries aren’t interesting, but I had a friend who only ate what went into a mug.
He carried around a ceramic mug, either collecting free stuff or telling people about his mug to see if they’d put food in it. Free samples, a few grapes, and occasional hand outs all went into the mug. I filled it with soup when he came by.
Was this wherever he went?
Did he take it when out to eat with friends or on a date?
How much did this mug effect his day to day life?
For the couple months I knew him the mug was either in his hand or clipped to his bag.
I didn’t see his dates and I didn’t ask, but he came by for dinner once and ate his portion from the mug.
As far as I saw, it was a great conversation starter, he made a lot of friends and ate reasonably well.
The butcher delivers meat once a week on a schedule
About every other week go to the local wet market for variety
Anything else is ordered about once week from the local western style market (free delivery)
When I notice my fridge fails to either 1) hold enough prepped stuff to microwave an entree, or 2) provide snacks or something-pie – it’s grocery shopping time. I mostly keep to the membership stores, so just one/two visits a month, maybe. I only buy as much as I can carry in one trip from car to fridge.
Until yogurt drinks are in season again. Then it’s worth getting delivered by the pallet.
Ayran 🤤
1 lb of salt. 20 lbs of long pork.
Isn’t long porc cannibal slang for people?
Yes, that is the joke…
Anyway, I’ll warn you. The taste of long pork is really hit or miss. It really varies from person to person.
Just making sure I got it (and maybe other people that were unaware of the term)
The richer the better
Shopping is a mix of buying stuff that is pre-planned, and impulse purchases. That depends on a number of factors. If I went to the supermarket to buy e.g. peppers, but the ones they have don’t look good, I can spontaneously change the meal and buy something else for which I can buy good products. Same at the meat frontier, I can easily switch plans if shopping reality dictates differently.
I eat a lot of fresh food that doesn’t last a week; I shop every other day. I also eat a lot of things that last forever and are cheapest in bulk, like beans, rice, pasta. As a result, I honestly don’t know what a week of groceries looks like.
What are you eating that only lasts 1 to 2 days?
fresh bread, avocados, fresh tomatoes, fresh meat
It’s not that they go bad after just two days, but a week is too long