Your household’s grocery habits
-
The Costco thread got me thinking…
I’m sort of the anti-Cosco guy. Not only do I not buy perishables in bulk, I mostly buy them the day I’m going to use them. At least stuff for dinner. I basically shop every day.
It started when i lived in the city. There it’s not at all onerous, it’s not uncommon to walk by a grocery store, butcher, or fish monger every day between home and the nearest subway station.
I moved to the burbs and kept it up because, why not? I wasn’t working, and if I went out at all I passed at least one of three local stores.
Now I go to the gym every day, a mere 0.5mi from my house. Right next to it is a Mom’s Organic. Another gourmet local chain is 0.5mi another direction And a mile the other was is Stop & Shop, a good place for staples. It’s not uncommon for me to hit more than one in a day.
When you shake someone's deep sense of self-worth, leaving a scar in their ego, they will persistently try to diminish you through petty arguments & obsessive captious criticism of your actions, just to soothe the wound.
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-
Mormons keep one year of food on hand. Wish I did, but I don't. I do have a few month's worth, though.
-
We have about 3 months of emergency food and water stashed because yeah that's right, I'm one of those people.
Aside from that, we buy groceries roughly weekly. I'm completely oblivious to what the needs of the rest of the house are, but I'm pretty tapped in when it comes to the kitchen. So we do a kind of divide and conquer thing; my wife keeps the household items like cat food and TP stocked up, and I keep the fridge and the pantry going. We make it a weekly hangout thing with the kiddo to stock up.
Costco and other huge stores aren't really in the rotation as I don't really buy food in that way. Protein, starch, fruit, veggies, spices if we're out, the odd bread item. I make dinner according to what we have in the fridge; I don't start with a recipe. In the store, if it's in a box or a pre-packaged bag then I want nothing to do with it. I also stay away from exotic ingredients or things just for one recipe. Protein, fruit and veggies are usually organic*. For starches, I go for low GI options and for bread, whole grains always. Compared to boomers, I splurge obscenely on coffee and tea. My parents despair for me when I tell them what I spend on them, because they're Lipton and Keurig people. For me, the cost is still only $0.27 a cup for tea and $0.67 a cup for coffee, but because it's not a tin of Folger's they think I'm insane.
*Last time I had COVID, it absolutely floored me. My wife picked up some fruit for me at the local store, which we never go to because I have my suspicions that it's... unsafe. I ate all of what she came back with except for an apple. That apple has sat on the counter since October and still looks brand-new. I think my suspicions are adequately founded.
-
For me, the cost is still only $0.27 a cup for tea and $0.67 a cup for coffee
Which is probably less than their Keurig cup.
When you shake someone's deep sense of self-worth, leaving a scar in their ego, they will persistently try to diminish you through petty arguments & obsessive captious criticism of your actions, just to soothe the wound.
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-
I make the annoying trip to HEB (12 minutes away) once a week or so. Fruit (non-organic), such as whatever apple looks good that day, bananas, avocados, lemon pepper chicken thigh quarters for the air frier (try these if you ever get the chance, they are excellent), maybe steak, milk, eggs, whole milk plain yogurt, orange juice.
I gravitate towards the David Lynch model of eating, where things are similar every day.
-
@jon-nyc said in Your household’s grocery habits:
For me, the cost is still only $0.27 a cup for tea and $0.67 a cup for coffee
Which is probably less than their Keurig cup.
Absolutely is.
-
When the kids were young, I'd do a major shopping once a week at about 4 different stores, depending on prices/brands, etc.
Then throughout the week, every day/other day stop and grab something Milk/produce, whatever I forgot, etc. Even with a large group, I found buying perishables lead to a lot of waste, and we're 5 minutes from several stores...So it never made sense to stock of on those.
These days, with most of the 'kids', adults, and doing their own thing for meals (students/overnight Amazon workers) Mrs or I will just stop at a store each day for what we need. Sometimes it's annoying if it's dinner time, and neither of us has gotten anything, but we figure it out. And it's still cheaper or at least less aggravating than throwing stuff out that we'd intended to make.
Why not just come up with plan for the week, and make that each day?
I don't like being told what to do. Even by myself.
-
I’m pretty close to the Rich model… We do a larger run every 2 weeks, but there’s almost always something that I need to stop and grab on the way home. Maybe we forgot to put a meat out to thaw, or the amazing tomato fiend went through a week’s worth in 2 days… Milk ran out faster than expected, etc…
-
I subscribe to Amazon's Keurig Cup coffee. When I subscribed, a few years ago, it was the cheapest I could find.
I'm not sure if it is still the cheapest - $0.33 per cup, 32.83 for a box of 100.
I just checked Amazon I have bought the box of 100 28 times.
The last box was $37.80, so the price has gone down.
-
I just got back from my normal Friday pickup at Kroger. i go on Fridays because you get 4X fuel points. I'm mostly a perimeter shopper - produce, meat and fish, dairy. I do buy cereal and some shelf stable or canned goods, but not a lot. Lots of fruit and fresh vegetables. today I got three packs of chicken thighs - they were buy one, get two free. Couldn't pass that up.
-
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
-
Mrs. Phibes has a weekly shopping plan that she does at Target. I tend to just go when we run out of something, or if I want something that isn't approved of.
We don't currently have a functioning kitchen in the main part of the house, so cooking is a bit of a PITA as I have to go into the basement apartment. Next spring this should change, finances permitting.
-
@Horace said in Your household’s grocery habits:
I make the annoying trip to HEB (12 minutes away) once a week or so. Fruit (non-organic), such as whatever apple looks good that day, bananas, avocados, lemon pepper chicken thigh quarters for the air frier (try these if you ever get the chance, they are excellent), maybe steak, milk, eggs, whole milk plain yogurt, orange juice.
I gravitate towards the David Lynch model of eating, where things are similar every day.
Milkshakes at Bob's Big Boy, or coffee and pie?
-
@Mik said in Your household’s grocery habits:
I buy Starbucks K-cups when they are on deep sale and in bulk. I like to keep a cup down to less than $.50. I like Cafe Verona, Italian Roast, Espresso Roast, Sumatran. I do like to have a variety.
I buy decent on sale. I've gotten good deals on overstock, etc.
Community, Kirkland Organic, Starbucks Breakfast Blend. And yes, some of the Amazon stuff is drinkable.
-
Philistines, the lot of ya.
There's a local kind here that I recently found. The whole operation is to raise money for Bay restoration, which, cool, but holy hell they know their coffee. Usually a can has been resting on the shelves for only a week or so when purchased, and it's extremely well-roasted. I've tried it with a french press, an aeropress and a pourover and it just doesn't make a bad cup of coffee. (It's what I'm drinking now, actually.) They also make one of the few honestly light roasts you can find around.
-
We do Nespresso pods for coffee. I like it a lot better than the Keurig stuff or even the French press option, but it's not cheap. Last week we ran out and I stumbled across some instant coffee tucked away in a cupboard. It was fairly awful, but I forced it down anyway.
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
Philistines, the lot of ya.
There's a local kind here that I recently found. The whole operation is to raise money for Bay restoration, which, cool, but holy hell they know their coffee. Usually a can has been resting on the shelves for only a week or so when purchased, and it's extremely well-roasted. I've tried it with a french press, an aeropress and a pourover and it just doesn't make a bad cup of coffee. (It's what I'm drinking now, actually.) They also make one of the few honestly light roasts you can find around.
Dark roast?
I’m drinking Mayorga, again.
Me/rry/Christmas
-
@LuFins-Dad said in Your household’s grocery habits:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
Philistines, the lot of ya.
There's a local kind here that I recently found. The whole operation is to raise money for Bay restoration, which, cool, but holy hell they know their coffee. Usually a can has been resting on the shelves for only a week or so when purchased, and it's extremely well-roasted. I've tried it with a french press, an aeropress and a pourover and it just doesn't make a bad cup of coffee. (It's what I'm drinking now, actually.) They also make one of the few honestly light roasts you can find around.
Dark roast?
I’m drinking Mayorga, again.
Yeah, they have dark roasts, too. I try to keep a bag of each in the house, but light roasts these days are medium by another name. They're hard to find and when you can, they're usually pre-ground. If you're gonna do that you might as well just brew compost water.
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
@Horace said in Your household’s grocery habits:
I make the annoying trip to HEB (12 minutes away) once a week or so. Fruit (non-organic), such as whatever apple looks good that day, bananas, avocados, lemon pepper chicken thigh quarters for the air frier (try these if you ever get the chance, they are excellent), maybe steak, milk, eggs, whole milk plain yogurt, orange juice.
I gravitate towards the David Lynch model of eating, where things are similar every day.
Milkshakes at Bob's Big Boy, or coffee and pie?
Based on the interview I saw, he ate pretty healthy stuff. Something about tomatoes and mozzarella for lunch. Chicken breast for dinner. But the point is that he ate the same thing every day, which he said was a good foundation for the creativity of his other pursuits. Sort of like Steve Jobs and his explanation for his wardrobe.
Education is extremely important.
-
@Horace said in Your household’s grocery habits:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
@Horace said in Your household’s grocery habits:
I make the annoying trip to HEB (12 minutes away) once a week or so. Fruit (non-organic), such as whatever apple looks good that day, bananas, avocados, lemon pepper chicken thigh quarters for the air frier (try these if you ever get the chance, they are excellent), maybe steak, milk, eggs, whole milk plain yogurt, orange juice.
I gravitate towards the David Lynch model of eating, where things are similar every day.
Milkshakes at Bob's Big Boy, or coffee and pie?
Based on the interview I saw, he ate pretty healthy stuff. Something about tomatoes and mozzarella for lunch. Chicken breast for dinner. But the point is that he ate the same thing every day, which he said was a good foundation for the creativity of his other pursuits. Sort of like Steve Jobs and his explanation for his wardrobe.
Yeah, he had a thing for Bob's milkshakes, too, though. He had one every day at the exact same time (I think it was 2:30) for like six years. But yeah milkshakes aside I don't think he ate anything too awful.
I don't know if I buy the idea that deciding on a shirt every day makes one less creative, but I think there is something to be said for routine. Lynch was a really big fan of finding meaning in the everyday.
