What's on your shopping list?

[KateW]

I was making my shopping list just now and realizing how vague I've become. I started with ingredients for my first attempt at making hummus. To sidetrack a bit--for those who remember another post, a bunch of us missed our family reunion because we went to see my uncle's band play, and the rest of the family missed that portion of us so much that we're having another reunion this Sunday, and I get to bring an appetizer, no French dessert this time!

Anyway, my list went through the specific ingredients, then went as follows

juice

soda

milk

breakfast

lunch

dinner

I wondered, how specific are people on their lists? Do you write ingredients for the whole week's meals? Names of dishes? Food groups?

[Marlene]

I'm bad. I only make lists now to ensure I don't forget what I actually need, like milk and bread. (with old age comes memory lapses. You know, the "why the hell am I in this room anyway?" syndrome. ) Otherwise, I tend to wander the aisles and put things up as I go. Then I'll build a meal around what I bough

I will mae a list I guess if I'm wanting to make a particular dish. Of course it usually helps if I check if I have the stuff already. Mostly I assume I do, and then when I go to make the dish, I find I have to dash out to the store to get an ingredient I was sure I had.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Will tell you about mine, but first, this is perfect for your new thread:

click here for grocerylists.org

Great examples .. look at the Top Ten!

[fifi]

I live alone and cook on a whim so I don't do much planning ahead. I probably go to the store 4 or 5 times a week and just pick up a few things at a time. My lists are usually pretty specific and I am usually assembling ingredients for a specific "project". I don't cook dinners often, mostly "projects". The specificity of the list may even include quantities, brands, whatever.

Even more compulsive... I make my lists on these 3x5 sticky notes. I group things by category, produce, meat, staples, etc. Then I stick the note onto the back of the kiddy seat in the shopping cart. All of the impulse buying traps are pretty much wasted on me.

If I am in the mood for a project but don't have any specific direction, I often see what the weekly specials are and play the what-can-I-do-with-that game.

[Carlovski]

Will tell you about mine, but first, this is perfect for your new thread:

click here for grocerylists.org

Great examples .. look at the Top Ten!

Just as I think I am getting a grip on the weirdness and wonderfulness (Just made that word up I think) of the web, something new just comes and surprises me.

That's brilliant!

[nice_guy1812]

You know, the "why the hell am I in this room anyway?" syndrome.

That's not restricted to just old age, lol......... where am I?

Anyways, I rarely even make grocery lists. I usually just go to the store knowing I need to make something for dinner and see whatever looks good. Most of the time I have a good idea of what I'm looking for, but I never write it down.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Just as I think I am getting a grip on the weirdness and wonderfulness (Just made that word up I think) of the web, something new just comes and surprises me.

That's brilliant!

the weirdness and wonderfulness

.. well, you never met Gifted Googling Gourmet!

I have a patent pending on that!

and then there is the Museum of Shopping Lists .... all of which made me feel much, much better about mine!

[GG Mora]

...wonderfulness (Just made that word up I think)

Sorry to harsh your buzz, but...cliquez içi. But it's a good word anyway.

Because I have Adolescent Raiders® in the house, I'm tempted to order up some pre-printed grocery list pads:

• Milk
  
• Eggs
  
• Bread
  
• Butter
  
• Bagels
  

and then I can add whatever else I need.

[CompassRose]

I've got a notepad with a magnet back stuck to the fridge, and every time A. or I get near the bottom of, or finish, some staple, we write it down. Then that's the list, and things like "whatever's perky in produce" is the frills.

[Susan G]

I group my items by the aisle in which I find them: produce, dairy, meat, cleaning products, paper products. I prefer to use old envelopes as my scratch pads!

[cakewalk]

Periodically I will tell myself that I have to be more organized and start to make shopping lists; then I ususally forget to take the list with me when I go to the supermarket. So I give in, and tell myself that I just don't do things that way and shouldn't bother. Repeat.

[Carlovski]

I always assumed when I see people buying packs of biscuits, starnge novelty foods, huge cakes etc that they were impulse buys.

How wrong I was!

[nessa]

I have a big dry erase board in the kitchen. I have TERRIBLE memory.

Damn. What was I gonna say. Just kidding.

Seriously, I need a list for 3 items. Or, I'll forget two of them and pick up 4 more.

Whenver I think of something we need, or whenever I run out of something, it goes on the board. Then when I'm going shopping I write it down by categories.

That saves me from running all over hell's half acre trying to get everything.

It also allows me more time to leisurly peruse the isles for new and interesting things, or see something that reminds me that I needed that and forgot to write it down.

I wrote a big ol' list on Sunday. Left it at home. But Central Market is there on my way home from work. So I tried to remember what I needed. I went in for paprika, oregano and coffee. I came out with coffee, nutmeg, curry powder, herbs de provence, cloves, dill, honey, and balsamic vinegar. Looked right at the oregano, and thought to myself. Nah. I don't need oregano. paprika didn't even cross my mind.

[Marlene]

Periodically I will tell myself that I have to be more organized and start to make shopping lists; then I ususally forget to take the list with me when I go to the supermarket. So I give in, and tell myself that I just don't do things that way and shouldn't bother. Repeat.

That's why I don't bother with coupons anymore. I'd religiously save every coupon and then forget them everytime I went to the grocery store. By the time I remembered them, usually they were expired.

[JennotJenn]

What a great timewaste!!! I thoroughly enjoyed the grocery list site. My favorite was the list that called for eggs and snuff. I have a hard time remembering things sometimes, but rather than write down something like douche or Immodium Advanced, I'd make an effort to try to remember rather than commit them to paper, especially now that I know there's a website that lists lost lists. Of course, those aren't items you want to forget to pick up, are they? But if you really need them, I don't think you'll have trouble remembering. I'm just sayin'.

I always make a list and I generally list things in our silly language, which I guess is sorta embarrassing. Meaning eggs become Yeggs, milk is MY-lac (FIL: "So, formula, fake breast milk, is called Sy-my-lac, right? Whattya call real breast milk then? My-lac? It stuck and is now the generic term in our home for cow's milk). Cat food is cat fud (with umlaut over the u). Blueberries are bluets. Mustard is mus-trid.

I also usually list weight and quantity. My list is also usually about 10 times longer than most of the ones on the site...maybe I'm buying too much food for 2 people.

[Mottmott]

I shop a la Jeckyl and Hyde. When planning a party meal, I make lists.

Otherwise, all bets are off. I pick up whatever looks good the day I shop and cook around that. Last weekend at a little farmer's stand, some spectacular blackberries inspired me to do a tart. Heirloom tomatoes, fresh picked arugula, the tiniest possible green beans, etc. have made wonderful salads.

I'm lucky to live in a city where I can pretty much avoid supermarket shopping, which I realize not everyone can. Different days I shop at different places. It's not NYC, but I do 50-70% of my shopping at a food coop, supplementing it with bakeries, fishmongers, etc., ethnic groceries, the wonderful Reading Terminal and 9th Street "Italian" Markets, and (for non hormone & antibiotic meat) Whole Foods. When you shop at such places, you tend to improvise around what looks good today. But to do this, it's necessary to keep a well stocked pantry.

[FL Heat]

Sometimes I read things here that make me breathe a sigh of relief (like finding out I'm not the only one who "groups" her items on the checkout belt). . .and then I come and read this and begin to think that I really AM a freak. . .

I make a dinner menu for each week (or 10 days) and list, under each night, what ingredients I need to buy to make that dinner (okay, I write down ALL the items needed, then cross off what I already have). Then I write all those items down a sheet of paper. After that, I list what I know I need (milk, eggs, yogurt, etc). Then I go through my coupons (which are in a card file in order of the aisles in the grocery store) and write down items I'll be purchasing via coupons (toothpaste, toilet paper, zip-top bags, Haagen-Dazs. . . ) and each of THOSE items has a large "C" written next to it so I'll know I have a coupon for it.

Then THAT unorganized list is re-written via the "grouping" method in order of the store. . . .and the unorganized list is broken down into different lists as well: Meat Market, Italian Market, Produce Market, Grocery Store, Costco. My favorite guy at the meat market just lets me hand him my list now. 4-thick cut pork chops; 3 lbs boneless chicken breast in 1 lb pkgs; 1 lb ground veal in 1/2 lb pkgs; roast for 8 people, please pkg what is best this week. . .

To be fair, we're in our first house, we aren't rich, and we really watch the expenditure of money. The obsessing over the list keeps me from over-spending and buying silly things, leaving enough room for times like this past week, where we had to stock up for a possible hurricane on short notice.

Diana

[bloviatrix]

I keep a running list on the fridge so that as something gets finished, it gets written down so I know to replace it. Otherwise, the only time I really shop with a list is when I'm cooking a specific menu. In that case, I categorize the items I need by store where I buy them.

Since Blovie does much of the grocery shopping for staples, and inevitably forgets to take the list with him, he goes through the aisles with the cell phone attached to one ear asking me to guide him to what is needed.

[Carrot Top]

Grocery lists!

Well then, there are all sorts of opportunities for lists in my life. And I prefer to make the lists then sort of ignore them.

It feels so organized and sort of sickeningly....righteous...to make the lists, you know. I can pat myself on the back and feel so good about things.

But when actuality hits, and the grocery store looms before you, it seems just too boring to monotonously trudge down the aisles doing what you're supposed to do. Much more thrilling to just go into 'hunt and shoot' mode, you know..."Oh! There's a beautiful melon. Too large? Who cares...I must have it! Let me squeeze in before that other woman gets it, I see her eye on it too...What?! A sale on paper towels? Hurry, smush it into the bottom on the cart. That will save money, the budget will heretofore be a marvel of perfection after this buy...!", and so on and so forth.

The most boring lists are those written for WalMart. There is all sorts of nonsense on those lists, it seems my small family cannot survive a week without piles of ...stuff. Just... stuff.

And WalMart...has the largest list of 'stuff I don't want to buy' which includes most of the things my children enjoy eating, and having survived myself eating the same definitely non-gourmet viandes growing up and thoroughly enjoying each WASP'y bologna and yellow american cheese on textureless white bread with mayo accompanied by potato chips and cookies and ice cream with loads of hallucinogenic sweet toppings...how can I deny them this (dubious) pleasure?

I am going to stick to the Farmer's Market this summer, for as long as it is open. Can't really write a list for going there, just gotta go and be Zen-Like....ahhhhhhh.

[bleudauvergne]

I've been trying to throw my lists away but it's so hard to do it. They are souveniers. Many of my lists just don't make sense. I just took a look around for an example. Right here - the list that spawned the tete de veau adventure. I can't throw it away.

[jgarner53]

I have to have a list, otherwise I'll forget something. We plan out meals each week and shop for those, plus weekly staples like milk and OJ. Additionally, as we run out of other things (laundry detergent), they go onto the whiteboard on the fridge.

From the stuff on the whiteboard and reading the recipes for the week, either Mr. Garner or I make a list (depending on who's doing the shopping).

I am more susceptible to impulse buys, particularly at the farmers' market, where I can easily be seduced by heirloom tomatoes or the perfect eggplant, but I've also been known to throw the odd bottle of wine or carton of ice cream in the cart if I'm feeling like it.

[Mottmott]

. .and then I come and read this and begin to think that I really AM a freak. . .

Diana, face it, we're all freaks, either set in our ways, wallowing in uncertainty and indecision, listing obsessively and marching rigorously to destinations, or wandering among the food bins and sniffing the fruit to see what's ripest, making up our minds about what to have for supper.

Whatever works, works, I say. The beauty of eG is to see how many ways. And sometimes we may even learn something we want to try, too.

Edited to ask, hopefully, did you survive the hurricane without any damage?

Edited August 17, 2004 by Mottmott (log)

[birder53]

I need a list! I haven't reached the point where I can just buy what looks good and plan a meal around it. I need to go through each recipe, check if I have the ingredients and/or enough of the ingredients, and shop very deliberately. When a needed ingredient cannot be found, I border on self destruction. I haven't progressed to where I can comfortably substitute something else for what the recipe calls for. ( I have a very long way to go!) The staples of our weekly shopping trips to Wegmans are yogurt, apples, bananas, pasta, frozen vegetables, seltzer and milk.

[Mottmott]

I've been trying to throw my lists away but it's so hard to do it.  They are souveniers.  Many of my lists just don't make sense.  I just took a look around for an example.  Right here - the list that spawned the tete de veau adventure.  I can't throw it away. 

Lucy, thanks for posting that link. I'm spotty in my attendance here, so I'd missed it the first time round. It looked beautiful and I'd guess as tasty as pretty.

[chile_peppa]

I used to create very detailed lists, one for each store, organized by store layout and food group, sale and coupon items highlighted, quantity and brand duly noted. But I kept leaving them on the kitchen table, so I gave it up.