grocery shopping

[mllesays]

Grocery shopping is the worst chore in the world for me.  How do you make yourselves do it?

It's not that I think I'm particularly bad at it — I definitely never buy enough produce, but it's always because I'm scared I won't eat it in time — but rather that I loathe it with a passion and would rather eat all the food in the house before I force myself out to buy new things.

Any tips, tricks, suggestions?

Comments

[twowrens]

Are you in an area with grocery delivery options? I've used Safeway and Amazon Fresh and been fairly happy with both. The produce through Amazon Fresh, in particular, has been very good.

I just throw something in the online cart whenever I think about something I want, click the order button once a month, and presto--no more wasting precious hours of my time thinking about food. :) You can also create model orders of items you know you're going to need, to save time.

(Since the delivery is coming from the stock at your local grocery store, where you'd be shopping anyway, I don't think the ecological footprint is much worse than shopping in person, if that's something you're into.)

If you're outside everyone's delivery area, I don't have any useful suggestions. :( When I have to go to a physical grocery store, I try to go in around midnight.

[mllesays]

I've never tried delivery service. Is it comparable in price?

[twowrens]

Item price is comparable; for Safeway, its exactly the same. Some places charge a delivery fee ($5-10 per order, in my experience).

I think shopping online does make it more difficult to compare prices--standing in the aisle, it might be easy to see that the other brand of rice is on sale. I think this does lead to some additional cost, but you could minimize that by being a careful shopper.

[rydra_wong]

It could also be worth seeing if there's a CSA or fruit/vegetable box scheme in your area. There's obviously an element of unpredictability when it comes to the contents of the box, but that can be a plus or a minus, depending on how you function.

It takes away some of the decision-making pressure, and means you've got at least part of your shopping covered.

[littlebutfierce]

I second the CSA/veg box suggestion. For us, the unpredictability has been lessened a ton b/c now we live in the UK (we're from the US, & did a CSA there) &... our box scheme, at least, seems to like reliable. Every week: potatoes, carrots, & onions w/o fail, & then a few more varied things. This is good for local & fresh & also it helps w/planning (though I admit I really miss the more varied stuff we used to get at home: what we get now is good, but we never get showstoppers).

Also, if you are worried about not eating produce before it goes bad, perhaps depending on what kind of produce you get (& available space) you could freeze some of it? When we were drowning in fresh corn on the cob w/our CSA a few years ago I froze the kernels in baggies; I've also frozen carrots etc. etc. etc.

[ciaan]

I also order groceries online (Giant via Peapod) and have them delivered to my house. This is especially good since I don't have a car, which makes carrying anything more than just a few items home really annoying. So I make one huge grocery order each month (there's an $8 delivery fee) and get all my staples and stuff that will keep. Then about once a week I stop by the store on my way home from work and get some fresh produce or bakery items that won't keep. This does mean I generally buy from one store and don't shop around. But it's really easy on the website to compare between brands of an item - they show the ingredients and nutritional info, they show the price, they also break it down into price per ounce or whatever so you can tell whether the larger item is cheaper than the small item or not. And they do run sales.

CSAs are also great. I'm living by myself and so don't have one now, but I've done it in the past. It can be more expensive, and you don't get to control what you receive, but it's exciting in its way.

Seriously. Getting food delivered = so much win. If you hate leaving the house for groceries do look into whether you can get them delivered.

[recessional]

Grocery shopping online with delivery is LOVE. I still tend to get my produce by wandering over to the local greengrocers, because I live on Vancouver Island and local means local and it tastes better (I am very bad at being Morally Obligated to shop local, because I am Contrary, but the Rootceller's produce is just BETTER, and cheaper), but for the "grocery" part - cereals, milk, eggs, butter, juices, meats, etc, online shopping with delivery is my saviour.

My store-with-delivery requires a 50$ order with a small delivery fee, but as I do not own a care, the delivery fee is pretty much comparable to what I'd be paying for a taxi, and by the time I do groceries it's always over 50$, so.