Compulsive Food Shopping

Not everyone is rushing out to stockpile rice and other food items in the face of shortages and expected higher prices.

A journalist for the Virginian Pilot blogged about the experience of digging her way through all of the chicken breasts, turkey bacon, and corn on the cob in her freezer as well as all the non-perishable items in her pantry.

Basically, she needed to find a way to trim her budget. When she discovered she was spending an average of $110 per week on groceries for one person, she decided to see how long she could go without buying anything other than milk, bread, eggs, and fresh fruit and vegetables. The experiment began on January 1st, 2008.

As she blogged about it, others joined in.

All of the participants realized they had certain weaknesses when it came to food shopping. For example, one reader had a weakness for sales on chicken.

The participants reported preparing some interesting recipes and menus along the way – some good – some not so much.

The blogger just finished the experiment culminating with an article in the newspaper.

For those who don’t have several months’ worth of food on hand, it’s not a bad idea to try skipping a week or two. We do that occasionally to force ourselves to eat the things that have gone untouched. It also helps us make better decisions when we do go shopping.

Not all of the neglected purchases are a result of skillful marketing. Some are a result of buying things we should eat instead of what we will eat.

One area of purchases I’ve been thinking about lately is condiments. When I was growing up, we had ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard (the yellow, redneck kind), pickle relish, jelly or preserves, syrup, and honey. I think that was about it. My mom made salad dressing by combining mayo, ketchup, and relish.

These days, we often have more than one kind of mustard, several types of prepared salad dressings, etc.

Another downfall of mine is specialty tea bags. I don’t even use them very often. Now that warmer weather has arrived, I’m determined to use up what I have – even if I have to make it into iced tea. It actually sounds interesting.

Other types of items also need to be cleaned out – like cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, and cleaning products. We are still working our way through all the cleaning products we inherited from Jungle’s mom. We are switching to greener alternatives, but we really should use up what we have on hand.

In order to use up some of the cleaners, it has become obvious they will have to be used for unintended purposes. Otherwise, I would have to wash my windows on a daily basis for the next year to use up all the window cleaners. I’ve learned that just about anything will clean the toilets – even the 10 year old hotel shampoo samples! That patio furniture cleaner should work nicely on the car’s hubcaps.