Food: Learning To Grocery Shop

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Learning To Grocery Shop
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

What are you having for dinner? Many people find that this question sends them into a panic. People will spend the last hour of work thinking about what they will indeed be having for dinner. Then they think about what they will get on the way home before stopping off at the grocery store. This type of dinner-planning is destructive for a number of reasons. It is more expensive when you buy meal-by-meal. You also tend to buy, and eat, more than if you planned out your meals, and you will find that you opt for quick meals that are less nutritious. If you are having trouble deciding how to make shopping for food less of a hassle, never fear.

First you should begin by knowing what you like. Do you eat casseroles often? Are you a big fan of fried food? Is Asian cuisine your thing? Now once you know where you stand as far as the big questions, you can begin to prepare for them. You will need to stock up on the foundational items that go with these dishes.

For example, if you like Asian foods, then you should get plenty of rice and soy sauce. You can even pick up several cans of bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and chow mein noodles. You also should be sure that you have on hand all of the items you will need to cook from scratch. That includes flour, sugar, and salt, along with oils and other spices. If you are new to planning ahead for grocery shopping, then you should plan a single large trip when you will buy all of these foods. (Be sure that you have cleared room in your pantry.)

Once you have these items, you will be in better shape. The weekly trips will not take as long if you are just filling in what you do not already have stocked in your pantry. Once you have made this trip, you can teach yourself to shop a couple of days at a time and work up to a week or month (or even longer!) when you get better at it. Personally I would shop for non-perishable items on a quarterly basis if I had the room in my pantry for it.

Before you get started with the meals, think about the foods you like to eat often again. Come up with a list of three to four dishes that you enjoy. Now on your next trip to the store, you should pick up the ingredients to make this dinner two times. That way, if you are in a rush, you will have some back-ups on hand at home, and you will not need to run by the store everyday. Remember that if you had spaghetti on your list, and you have spaghetti next Wednesday, you will need to replenish the stock.

What you have after you have completed these steps are the basics of your cabinet. You should keep these items on hand at all times and add them to your grocery list before you go out. Speaking of, you should have a running grocery list. One of the reasons that people begin to eat out more often or rely on processed foods is that they have not learned that they should use a list. Keep it on your refrigerator and write down when you run out of anything. That way you will know when you need milk. For the next few weeks, you should tear off the top sheet on this pad everyday and take it with you in case you cannot avoid a trip to the store.

You will find that this process becomes much easier as you go along. At any rate, after you have stocked your pantry, you should think about beginning to shop for longer periods of time. On Sunday, since you likely do not work then and are relatively free, sit down and plan out what you want for Sunday night, as well as for Monday and Tuesday. Now take a trip to the store. You know what you will be having those nights. Then beginning on Wednesday, you can make your trips to the store again. You quickly will learn how good it feels not to go everyday.

By Julia Mercer

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