Bits for Sunday, June 29, 2008

The last post already gave a preview of this story, but here is a more complete version...

I grocery shop once a month. I have a specific (small) budgeted amount that I spend on food, and I take one evening a month to shop. I spend as much time in line to pay for my groceries as I do buzzing through the store tossing things into the cart. I also have a very specific method for shopping. I have a list that resides on top of the TV in the kitchen, and anytime I run low on or run out of something, I add it to the list. I walk through the grocery store with the calculator in hand, shopping my way through the list (and a few select impulse buys) until I either get tired or run out of money. The only deviation to the once-a-month shopping is when I go back every so often for a new gallon of milk or a random ingredient so I can cook a certain dish.

This has worked very well for me for the last eight years, and I had no plans of making any sort of change to my schedule. After all…you know me and change…

Enter Rachel, the energetic friend of mine from work who last year talked me into a regular exercise routine before I realized what she was doing. Last year, exercise…this year, food. I have no idea how it even came up in conversation, but one day the topic of my (apparently odd) shopping habits surfaced. She sat across from me in utter disbelief as I shared the dollar value of my budget…and that cleaning supplies were part of that amount.

I explained that the limited presence of fruit and vegetables in my diet could be directly attributed to the size of the budget and the once-a-month shopping pattern. After all, that stuff only lasts so long before ingesting it could lead to an ER visit.

Somehow I found myself convinced to trial-run a change in grocery plans. Weekly shopping instead of monthly…AND a five dollar per week increase in the budget…AND the removal of all non-food items from said budget.

It began this week. I sat down with my trusty copy paper, calculator, newspaper ads, and handful of recipes. I made three lists: on sale, must have, and optional. The items on sale would be the first to shop for, the must haves would come next, and then if money remained, I could add a frozen pizza and brownie mix for the future emergency sort of day. I selected three days throughout the week when I would cook real meals, with enough days in between to gobble up the leftovers.

Yesterday I set out with my grocery allotment, calculator, and the recipe list. My first stop was the actual supermarket, a place I shop only for meat and on-sale items. Everything else there is too expensive, in my opinion. The first item on my list was a watermelon (FRUIT!) advertised to be on sale for $2.98. I meandered up to the watermelon bin to find a sign that said, “We’re sorry…temporarily out of watermelon. We will try to be restocked by 1 p.m. Saturday.” Guess what time it was? 12:40 Saturday. Great. I shopped for the meat on sale and hopped back in the car. Drove to the other end of town to the other supermarket to see if they had watermelon left in stock. I pulled over for two accidents on the way…seemed a bit treacherous for an on-sale watermelon. But at least I had success at the second store.

The next stop was Aldis – for absolutely anything on the list that could be purchased at the discount price. I fished the “Aldi quarter” out of the car (a great tip I learned from my friend Julie), rented my cart, and zoomed around the lolly-gagging shoppers. I learned that corn flakes were cheaper than I expected and paprika is not an item they carry.

After driving home to deposit all the cold stuff, I made my way to Wal-Mart for everything that hadn’t been purchased in any of the three previous stores. (The list wasn’t long by that point, but given that my average wait in line at Wal-Mart is 30 minutes, I didn’t want the frozen pizza to bake in the trunk.) I found everything I needed and got in line behind the nicest people (with cart brimming) who let me go ahead with my six or so things, making my wait in line a charming 10 minutes.

I came home, counted my change, and found I had just enough to go BACK to the supermarket for more on-sale meat. Two hours and five stores after I began, I was home, one week’s worth of groceries put away, and twenty-four cents left from the first week’s budget. Ahhhhh…sweet success.

Since shopping, I’ve eaten two salads with added vegetables and more watermelon than I care to admit. Today I cooked a for-real meal. I burned the pork chops, but they were still yummy. And the broccoli and cheese dish…well, the cheese sufficiently stifled the broccoli taste.

This project is definitely going to require an improved flow, but I’m hoping with time, it will come. Just in case, though, I better plan next week’s menus today.