The Grocery List

[Dr. Funk]

I used to live in an area where I had 3 supermarkets within a 1 mile radius. I stopped at one of them almost every day. Now, I have 50 miles to drive to any type of grocery store so I'm pretty much limited to once a week. It helps to have 2 freezers and a large walk-in pantry. We also go to Denver about three times a year and while we're there we go to The International Market which has a huge selection of bulk herbs and spices at great prices, rice for cheap, cous-cous, olive oil at less than half of what you pay at the supermarket and all kinds of wonderful middle-eastern foods. By the way Snowangel, how do you have farmer's markets in the twin cities 7 days a week, unless it's just in the summer?

[MarketStEl]

Unemployment has permitted me to do a little more spur-of-the-moment, I-think-I'll-try-this-for-dinner-tonight shopping, but I still stick to my basic routine of doing a major grocery shopping trip every other week and a minor one in the off week.

In between trips, I jot down items that run out and that I do not usually buy on the grocery list notepad that's stuck to the fridge. Then, on Saturday morning, I go through the fridge and pantry, looking to see what's running low and thinking about what sorts of main dishes I might want to serve in the next two weeks. Then I draw up the list, clip my coupons, check the circulars for the weekly specials and head off for the most distant of the three supermarkets I shop, an Acme in South Philly. (Since I've been unemployed, I've tried to hit this store on Friday, when its weekly specials begin.)

Invariably, I end up buying several sale items not on my list.

On the way from the distant supermarket to the two close-in ones (a Whole Foods and a Super Fresh, across the street from each other), I usually survey the 9th Street ("Italian Market") produce vendors and purchase some of my produce there. I may also stop into Esposito's Meats or one of the seafood shops if there is something special or something on sale.

I generally cruise Whole Foods more than I shop there, but there are some items I will pick up there, including milk, spring water and Kettle Chips when they're on sale.

Finally, I hit the Super Fresh for whatever is either (a) on sale for less than at Acme or (b) not on sale at the Acme at all. Invariably, I end up buying several sale items not on my list.

Last but not least, I pick up the rest of my produce at the Reading Terminal on a separate trip. I never make a list for that one.

[nan]

Step 1) Plan out weekly menu for dinner

Step 2) Write out all necessary ingredients on separate page

Step 3) Cross out all things that are already in the house

Step 4) Re-write items remaining on list on another piece of paper

Step 5) Repeat for all lunch items

Step 6) Repeat for all breakfast items

Step 7) Scour cabinets for staples and paper goods running low

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Hmm... perhaps I am neurotic too. I do steps 1-4, but usually don't plan anything for breakfast & lunch, except occasionally I'll figure in one recipe for me to take for lunch (Husband has a strange idea of what lunch is, and Toddler gets lunch at his daycare). Staples & paper goods are bought on a memory basis.

I'm probably the bad one about putting things back in the fridge almost empty... the annoyance I have is that Husband will get a great idea of what he wants to eat for dinner at the grocery after I've already made a plan. I try to remember for the following week, but that doesn't always happen.

nan

[ruthcooks]

Here's a variation: I put items on my list for trying new recipes and by the time I go to the store and get the groceries home I've forgotten what the recipes were or where to find them. Now I've taken to writing "Five spice powder for cranberry ketchup" or "cottage cheese for muffin tin quiches" on the list.

I've always used a list, with items listed in the order of my journey around the aisles. Especially valuable when one becomes vulnerable to senior moments.

[heiskellch]

I decide what to make for dinner while at work, scribble a list, doodle all over it (a trussed chicken plaintively saying "cluck cluck??"), and stop at the store on my way home. I can never remember what I have in the house and what I don't (except if I have a particularly appealing set of leftovers), which is why I end up with five tubes of toothpaste and three bags of carrots.

This made me laugh! Familiary breeds hilarity.

[jess mebane]

I make fabulous lists: organized by store aisles, cross-referencing coupons and future meals, weekly circular specials, etc. If I'm lucky, it's at least five minutes after I've parked and wrestled a basket from its mates that I discover the list is still on the kitchen table.

[dumplin]

That's probably the same gene that makes a friend's husband pitch the milk on the day it expires. Even if it isn't bad, and half the gallon container's still full.

Jason tries to do that too. "You can't use that milk! It expired a week ago!"

Me: "Smell it. Does it smell sour?"

Him: "No."

Me: "Is it chunky?"

Him: "No."

Me: "Hand it over, I'm using it."

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My husband can't tell if something is bad or not.

Him: "The milk is expired."

Me: "Smell it...is it sour?"

Him, in a whiney voice: "I can't tell, YOU smell it"

Me, having to stop doing whatever I'm doing and come in the kitchen. Sniff, Sniff: "Its fine."

Him: "Are you sure?"

Me: "When I kill you, it won't be that way."

It doesn't help for him to smell bad chicken or milk...he can't tell the difference. Of course this was the same man who was 23 before he could tell cabbage from iceburg lettuce.

My grocery list. Think of something we need. Go to write it down. Forget what it was before I write it down. Repeat at least 10 times. Right before I go shopping, I make a list, racking my brain to remember what I need and looking through the pantry and fridge. I'll ask my husband what he needs that he has not told me about. A lot of times he goes with me on Saturday. He's a lifesaver, because my short term memory is about 10 minutes. When I shop by myself, we make about 5 grocery trips a week. For the record, before my stroke I had the memory of an elephant...except I wasn't any better at remembering the list. Then I really didn't need it because I could remember what was on it.

[jess mebane]

My husband can't tell if something is bad or not.

Him: "The milk is expired."

Me: "Smell it...is it sour?"

Him, in a whiney voice: "I can't tell, YOU smell it"

Me, having to stop doing whatever I'm doing and come in the kitchen. Sniff, Sniff: "Its fine."

Him: "Are you sure?"

Me: "When I kill you, it won't be that way." 

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hee-hee! Are we still on grocery lists or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[jsolomon]

Wow. When I make a list--admittedly not often, I am a bachelor who rarely entertains--it usually looks like this:

Milk

Fruit

Rice

TP

PT <--paper towels

eggs

soy sauce

chipotle tabasco

razors

Veg, Meat, and Cheese never make it to the list because I eat so much of them that I'm always wanting some more. Other things are staples that I simply don't use up so quickly. Spices and special things only make it on the list for special occasions... like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. No haldol needed to shop here.

[Suzanne F]

Food piece in today's NY Times Magazine is about shopping lists.

[bleudauvergne]

Here's a link to another thread on shopping lists from a couple of months ago.

[Placebo]

I work at a farmer's market so most of my shopping is done day by day as I need things. There are some things I get on specific days when I know specific vendors will be there. On summer Organic Wednesdays I'd get my Japanese produce from a Japanese farmer and a lot of my leafy greens for the week. Sundays I get most of my mushrooms (today this consisted of a nice little knob of oregon black truffle - last week it was a pound and a half of chanterelles) and super-fresh shallots. Everything else is pretty much as I need it.