Grocery Shopping Strategy

For your reading pleasure, here are the stages of grocery shopping that I have been through:

1. Newly married, yet already strict budgeters, my husband and I would go to the closest grocery store together late on a weeknight and stock up for the month. We bought lots of convenience foods since we were both packing our lunches and working a lot of hours. I'd say we ate "balanced" meals, with fruits and veggies, but we didn't really care how much processed food we ate along with them. We occasionally went back to get a few more things during the month, but the end of the months were always lean times because we refused to go overbudget. :) We didn't pay any attention to sales except for some impulse buys while we were at the store - you know, those end-of-the-aisle chip and pop displays!

2. We got our house and started dividing up the chores more. Grocery shopping became mine, and I didn't mind at all. I would shop the sale ads a couple times a month and sometimes put a list of meals we could make on the side of the fridge to cross off as we went.

3. I started shopping at Aldi, and was blown away by how much we could get for our money. I think we even lowered our grocery budget at this point from $200/month, to $180/month, including toiletries and cleaning supplies. We still ate some convenience foods at this point (ie. pop-tarts, boxed cereal, boxed dinners).

4. I started learning what all the additives/preservatives/chemicals in processed food could be doing to my body while I was wanting to get pregnant and having hormone imbalances. I started eliminating these things where I could and trying to stick more to whole foods. I started cooking more from scratch.

5. Then, I was pregnant and basically ate whatever sounded good at the time. I was doing good just to keep something down.

6. I had my daughter, was nursing her, and no longer had as much disposable income. I learned about moneysavingmom.com and tried the couponing/Walgreens/CVS thing for two months. Decided it was not worth my time in the long run - I could do satisfactorily without it, lower my stress, and eat healthier.

7. Our daughter started solids and we decided it was worth it to up our food budget to $300/month in order to afford more fresh foods and also to accomodate for the rising food prices.

8. Started my blog and have been continually learning (mostly from other blogs) about cooking from scratch and using whole foods over the past 10 months or so. Still trying to stick to the $300 budget. Usually do, but not always. It seems the summer is harder because we want more fresh, local produce, which is not necessarily cheaper. And we want more meat to grill, so it doesn't go as far in casseroles and stuff.

Where I shop:
local grocery stores for sales
Costco
Aldi, when all else fails
local produce in summer

My main help: knowing what a good price is for an item.

If it is not a good price, I don't buy it, unless I really need it and want to save a trip to another store. For example, I paid $2 more for tomatoes today at Costco. But it was worth it to me so that I didn't have to stop at another store with my tired daughter. But I could not afford to use that rationale on all the items I purchased.

Here's what I bought:
toilet paper (maybe not the cheapest, but buying it twice a year?, can't beat that)
bread
flatbread wraps
avocados
tomatoes
fresh spinach
bananas
frozen vegetables
mozzerella cheese block
milk
yogurt (more pricey, but organic)
oatmeal
brown sugar

The other night at the local grocery store I bought:
ground beef
chicken breasts
apples
oranges
blueberries
lettuce
butter
peanut butter
pasta sauce
all on sale

Basically, I have certain items that I always need. (Bread, milk, cheese, eggs, oatmeal, fruit, meat, pasta, veggies, etc.) I know where the best prices are for those items. That's where I buy them unless there is a sale at another store. *And best price, doesn't always mean "cheapest" price to me. It means biggest nutritional bang for the buck. When I need whole-wheat bread, I buy the Costco kind, which has brown sugar, but no hfcs (high fructose corn syrup). I will pay 30 cents a loaf more for that.*

Then, there are other items that I like (avocados, Izze, etc.), but don't always buy. I wait for sales on those items.

Ok, not to make you think we are health nuts and eat a perfect diet. I bought frozen burritos last week. We enjoy dessert and snack foods once in a while. My husband likes Kool-Aid and soft drinks in the summer, especially when he has been working outside all day. But we try not to purchase the ready-made stuff on a regular basis. It is for treats. But do you know what? After we eat something like that, we feel gross, and want to get back to our healthier diet.

I am slowly eliminating ingredients from our foods. I think we are doing pretty well with the msg and partially-hydrogenated oils thing. Trying to stick to whole foods helps tremendously with those. Still need to watch the condiments. Just became enlightened on oils in cooking in this past year. Sometimes doing well with that, sometimes not. I am just now really paying attention to hfcs carefully and trying not to buy any new foods with it. We still have regular sugar in our foods at this point.

Why bother, why care about all this? We can tell a difference in how we feel. (I've had the health problems that can be affected by this sort of thing. Maybe that's why I care more than someone who eats whatever they want and is still in perfect health.) I like that we know what we are eating. Plus, I think it actually allows us to buy more food for our money!

Does anyone out there think I cook all the time? I don't. Just look at some of our menus. One of the bonuses about cooking from scratch is it seems to make larger batches of stuff. So, we often have "planned" leftovers. I also try to have easy stuff that does not require daily cooking for breakfast or lunch. So I don't feel like I am cooking any more than before, when we ate more convenience foods.

Finding what works for us seems to be continually changing as our lives change. But making frugal choices with our budget and trying to eat nutrionally rich, wholesome foods is a journey that we plan to stay travelling on, as long as we are able.

I think I just had word vomit; I guess it has been too long since I last blogged :) Sorry for the long-winded preachiness.