Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

[Bookie]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

I like to shop at the nudist colony's grocery store. [Automated by GetSmile]

It's still grocery shopping. How do you bare it?

[rob62521]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

Drink a bottle of wine first! [Automated by GetSmile]

Bet that makes driving that cart an experience...don't drink and drive!

[rob62521]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

It's still grocery shopping. How do you bare it?

Groan to both of you and your naked jokes! Yikes!

[tinapbeana]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

well, i shop one grocery store, one 'natural goods' store, and have found the best produce at the best price at the flea market, of all places. the grocery store and 'natural goods' store areon the same road & about 3 miles tops from our house. with the price of gas, i can't justify shopping outside of that range, and due to personal experiences the super wal-marts of the world can bite me...

the grocery store is called Bloom, it's a NC/SC chain that's relatively new. the absolute best part is that if you register for their card program, you can scan AND bag your own groeries as you make your way around the store. when you're done, you turn in your scanner, pay, and walk out. yes, they occasionally audit folks to make sure everything's in order, but the overall convenience is worth it. DH loves the scanner and goes shopping w/ me everytime now because of it; it's part of our quality time together.

the natural goods store is Garners and i get bulk coffee, oatmeal, spices, beans, rice, etc. in bulk, the organic version of these are about the same if not less expensive as regular. they sell locally produced dairy and meat products, which i appreciate and try to support. and at this point, organic tomatoes are cheaper than regular ones and most organic spinach doesn't have the same e coli issues as have been in the news. shopping at this store makes me feel good about what i'm buying.

as for the White Horse Road Flea Market (as featured on Turner South's Junkin), well, i guess i have migrant workers to thank. we have a large latino population and SC is relatively close to the boarder, so i guess they truck in mexican produce. i get limes 10/$1, bell peppers 2/$1, romas 3$ for a peck... if you get there saturday morning everything is exceptionally fresh and not picked over, and lasts a week easy. the prices alone make shopping fun, plus there's something i really like about buying produce outside...

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

If I go, I take all three kids, but I also take DH it is fun in many ways, but I try not to be tired, and we use the time to talk about what we buy and why. Plus window shop....

My youngest rides, my older two walk with us/help get stuff.
If they are good they can play on the truck on the way out...hardly ever put a quarter in, but at least it is fun to climb on/pretend.

Normaly DH goes without any of us, no idea what he thinks of it, never asked...and since it takes 10 minutes to buckle three kids, I see no reason to make the trip longer if we arn't planning on enjoying it!

[rusty@saving]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

i think i could swing nudist grocery shopping!(that was bad)
like other people have said, i go late at night or early in the morning. as long as i do not need help from anyone working there, i am good to go.

[rduell]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

To make it a more pleasant experience my husband and I go together and it's our "date night". We go out to eat and then get groceries together. He is the one that picks out what we buy and I keep the tally marks and let him know when we're getting close to the limit.

When I go by myself I just sort of wander and don't really find anything to buy, so that's why he does the choosing. It's worked quite well and gives us time out together without kids around.

[lrjohnson]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

For fewer people in stores, shop after the tenth of the month.

In CA, Food Stamps are issued the 1st through the 10th, RSDI is on the 3rd, SSI/SSP is on the 1st, and TANF is on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd. With so many people getting money at this time, some grocery stores do a lot of extra business. And, a lot of people get paid on Fridays, either biweekly or weekly. So I don't shop the first half of the month if I can avoid it, and I also avoid Fridays, and Saturdays.

(It's not about avoiding certain types of people, for me it's just about avoiding as many people as possible.)

[tinapbeana]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

For fewer people in stores, shop after the tenth of the month.

In CA, Food Stamps are issued the 1st through the 10th, RSDI is on the 3rd, SSI/SSP is on the 1st, and TANF is on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd. With so many people getting money at this time, some grocery stores do a lot of extra business. And, a lot of people get paid on Fridays, either biweekly or weekly. So I don't shop the first half of the month if I can avoid it, and I also avoid Fridays, and Saturdays.

(It's not about avoiding certain types of people, for me it's just about avoiding as many people as possible.)

similarly, a lot of folks get paid the 15th and 30th.

so, monday - thursday the 20th-29th, either early in the morning or later at night are sounding like the best bets overall.

[rduell]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

Our favorite night to go is Wednesday. Seems like it's the least crowded night of the week. Tuesdays is usually Senior Citizen day because a lot of the stores in the area give an extra discount that day. Thursday is normally payday for most in the area so they're out spending what they made. Friday seems to be "fun night".

[shelbylovesmelby]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

Not taking my oldest or my dh with me to the store.

I see the savings everytime I leave no extra $ spent on things not on my list! & no whining from dd about this or that box that has Dora or Sponge Bob on it!

If I do take both dd's it's to Aldi's that way, I hear less whining cause there isn't alot of pkgs with Dora ect on them!

[Homebody]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

My husband also loves to shop and did virtually all of it and the cooking for years 2-26 of our marriage. The past two years I am trying to do more of it, so I am not sick of doing it. In fact, I kind of like to cook and surprise DH and myself with something that actually tastes good.

Dh almost always had a menu and a list made before he went. Now he goes when we need something. We shop at Costco and Winco.

[budgetmom]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

I've noticed that if DH and kids go with me I get out quicker. Sure I have to evil eye DH a few times when they all get so loud it's hard to think, and a little embarrasing, but I find if I shop with other people around I stick closer to my budget/grocery list and won't buy that splurge item that I have a good coupon for that I really don't need.

[Fern]

Re: Your tips for making grocery shopping a pleasant experience?

If you're worried about pesticide sprays, i would try to buy domestically grown produce whenever possible; it's also better for the environment, cus it's not trucked as far, and it's more nutrititous, as less time to get to the store and your home means less nutriitonal loss from sitting around.

I use Veggie Wash which supposedly rinses residue from produce more effectively than just plain water. Commercially grown food today is fraught with risks...if you think that's overstating it, think about the fresh spinach thing recently.

I mean, if women of childbearing age are told not to eat fish more than twice a week due to mercury and PCB contamination, there's something wrong with our culture and priorities.

What most bothers me is that when i go out to eat at a restaurant, do you really think they bother washing produce? I don't think so!