Cutting Back
Posted on: June 2, 2011
We returned from our honeymoon on Sunday to a mostly clean apartment. We had left everything in good shape before we left, save for the pile of presents in the dining room. It felt good to walk into a clean apartment.
Once we got settled I realized there was a poignant odor lingering in the kitchen. Nothing was leaking and the garbage had all been taken out, so I headed toward the fridge. When I opened the door I slapped in the face with a wiff-a-something nasty and a reality check.
My fridge contents included but were not limited to moldy grapes, stinky watermelon, funky cheese and fermented pineapple. Everything was rotten. I probably could have thrown the pineapple in a blender and bottled it as moonshine it was so bad. But what did I expect? I didn’t have time to clean out the fridge before we left and I am a notorious overbuyer.
Now that all the festivities are over David and I are focused on saving for a house. This means we’re on a tight budget, which in turn means I have to cut down on the overbuying.
I hate going to grocery stores, but I love going to Kreigers in Cuyahoga Falls. It’s so close to the apartment and everything is always so fresh and interesting. I’ve heard people swear by Trader Joe’s, but I’d have to argue it’s got nothing on Kreigers. In fact, I think I’ll do a whole post about Kreigers sometime soon… but I digress.
This is how a typical Kreigers trip goes for me: I walk into the store with my list in hand. I see bananas and want bananas so I buy bananas. I see they also have ripened bananas on sale so I decide to buy those, too, and do some baking that night. I walk past the tomatoes and even though David doesn’t like tomatoes and they’re not on my list I grab a cluster. Mmmm, juicy tomatoes. Then I think about what goes good with tomatoes. I head to the cheese section and pick out some fresh mozzarella. Then I start searching for basil leaves. While on the hunt for basil I see a head of cauliflower and it looks really good and I think $2.99 is a good price and I know that David likes cauliflower so it cancels out the tomatoes. I find the fresh basil right next to the green onions and I think about that yummy soup David makes with onions and mushrooms. I grab the onions then head over to the mushroom section and my mind is consumed by the variety and freshness of the fungi. I absent-mindedly pick out some mushrooms as I ponder why anyone would ever even go in a supermarket when they could go to Kreigers. As I throw the mushrooms in the cart I drop my list.
Oh, my list. That’s why people must go to supermarkets… so they follow the damn list.
I obviously take the Kreigers experience a little too seriously and end up with far more items on my list then I intended. What makes it worse is that because I’m at Kreigers and not at Giant Eagle everything is fresh and perishable. It’s not like I’m grabbing 5 boxes of cereal that will last for 6 months– I just bought 12 pounds of produce for two people!
In an effort to switch up my shopping habits I came up with a plan for future trips. Hold me to it, okay Hamsapians?
1. Only plan for 3 or 4 days of meals and go to Kreigers more frequently. I have the time and I don’t waste any gas if I go to Kreigers on the way home from work.
2. Only buy the exact ingredients I need for my planned meals. That means if I’m making baked potatoes for me and David, I buy two potatoes, not the 5 lb. bag.
3. Stick to the list; don’t get tempted by the colors and flavors and freshness of everything at Kreigers. It’ll all be there next time, too.
4. Only buy a few fruits at a time. Believe it or not David and I can’t eat 8 bananas, 2 packs of strawberries, a pineapple AND a watermelon before they rot. Again, the fruit will be there next time.
Wish me luck! Now where did I put that list…
June 2, 2011 at 10:04 pm
I hear you. I always buy WAY more than I need at the market. It just seems smart at the time. You have to eat, right? And when you are buying fresh foods it just seems smart. They are healthy, etc… One thing that I have really gotten myself into the habit of doing is really looking at all of my groceries when I get home. I’m I can plan out a few days of meals and see that I have extra I start freezing things. My roommate and I have a bag of pre-peeled frozen bananas for smoothies. When I buy green beans in the summer I blanch a bunch and then freeze them Tomatoes do great in the freezer if you roast them first. The trick is to make sure you eat the stuff later – but I can usually take care of that.