Your household’s grocery habits
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I’ve always thought I’d enjoy the Euro village thing, going to the market daily to see what’s fresh and good for dinner.
@Mik said in Your household’s grocery habits:
I’ve always thought I’d enjoy the Euro village thing, going to the market daily to see what’s fresh and good for dinner.
Sydney was the absolute fucking best for that. I lived WAY out in the sticks (read: 2 damn miles from downtown) and in the main drag through town there were still two great grocery stores—one mostly Aussie, one mostly Asian so, take your pick of produce. Get on a bike, ride over, pick up stuff for one day, ride back. Going to class there were plenty of takeaway stands where you could get something awesome and not mass-produced for $5. It was a lot more comparable to groceries than here.
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Nice. My mom shopped once a week and was very organized with her lists so there was never any intra-week shopping. Part of that was we had one car which my dad drove to work most days. In Thursdays she would drive him to work and keep the car, so we’d go shopping. I remember when we got a little older we’d fill two shopping carts worth of food. But it would easily fit in the trunk of the 76 impala.
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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.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
We have about 3 months of emergency food and water stashed because yeah that's right, I'm one of those people.
Ha! I have a bin in the basement with a similar thing... emergency food, water, as well as some basic survival things that'll get us by for a few weeks at least. Crank-radio, chargers, lantern, tools, blankets, etc.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
We have about 3 months of emergency food and water stashed because yeah that's right, I'm one of those people.
Ha! I have a bin in the basement with a similar thing... emergency food, water, as well as some basic survival things that'll get us by for a few weeks at least. Crank-radio, chargers, lantern, tools, blankets, etc.
@89th said in Your household’s grocery habits:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Your household’s grocery habits:
We have about 3 months of emergency food and water stashed because yeah that's right, I'm one of those people.
Ha! I have a bin in the basement with a similar thing... emergency food, water, as well as some basic survival things that'll get us by for a few weeks at least. Crank-radio, chargers, lantern, tools, blankets, etc.
I just got a cot a couple weeks ago. Freaking thing is an absolute legend. Comfortable as all get-out, packs down to something way smaller than a deck chair, reassembles in seconds and can be used darn near anywhere. The zombies may come, and come they will, but my bunker is going to be awesome.
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I grew up with my mom doing the groceries once a week. My husband grew up being asked everyday what he wanted for breakfast and dinner. Since he does all the cooking, he goes everyday to different markets. (And yes, that may mean Costco). It used to irritate me, but after 20 years I'm used to it now.
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I remember my mother buying several gallons of milk per week. One time a woman in the checkout line asked her if she freezes it. She said no, her family consumes that much. She was incredulous. We kids had a big glass of 2% milk with every meal until I don’t know when.
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The H.P. Hood milk man stopped to see if we needed milk.
We used to get a 5-gallon container (6 kids) of homogenized milk with a spigot on it.
My grandmother used to get non-homogenized whole milk, from the milkman, and scrape the cream off the top to be used in coffee etc.
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My dad told me that during war rationing, the milk men gave up their trucks and used horse and carriage to deliver. After the war the trucks came back and his local milk man wasn’t happy about it. Why? The horse knew the route and would stop at all the right houses on his own.
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We had a milkman in Ohio. By the time we moved to Florida (1977) we had to buy. I don’t know if milk men were ever a thing that far south.
@jon-nyc said in Your household’s grocery habits:
We had a milkman in Ohio. By the time we moved to Florida (1977) we had to buy. I don’t know if milk men were ever a thing that far south.
In town, they were.
Where we lived, about ten miles out, no.
Where Grandpa Jolly lived, it was milk your own cow.
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@jon-nyc said in Your household’s grocery habits:
I basically shop every day.
Still pretty common in Taiwan (and most of Asia). My mom used to walk down to the wet and dry market every day. Doesn't do it every day now, but a few times a week.
The younger generation does not do it as much as the older generation, but still quite common.
Here are some pics of one of the bigger local markets down by me
I used to love going to the various open food markets in Russia and Central Asia. Each one was unique. My favourite though was the Georgian market in Moscow. The different cheeses were to die for; smoked suluguni was my favourite. It is available in North America in specialty shops although the flavour in the processed version is not the same as what was offered in local markets abroad.
