Two-Store Grocery Shopping

Photo credit: https://www.newsweek.com/thanksgiving-grocery-store-hours-albertsons-kroger-whole-foods-winndixie-open-1224960

The picture above is a shot of a grocery store’s produce section in 2018. Sadly, that is not what many grocery stores look like now, thanks to pandemic supply shortages. Fortunately, I have three places within a couple miles of home to buy food for the family.

This morning I headed out to get a week’s worth of food at our main grocery-store. Of the items on my list, these items were either too expensive to buy or they were totally out:
– Apples. There were a few sad-looking bags, ranging in price from $4 – $7 a bag.
Just last year I used to buy apples for $2 in the fall when there were tons of them in season.
– Ground beef. Prices ranged from $5 – $8 a pound, as compared to $1.99 a pound just last year. Their frozen beef patties were also too expensive.
– Frozen beef chimichangas. They are probably the cheapest way to get a little beef, as they run about $1 for each chimichanga. The store was totally out.
– Gorton’s frozen breaded fish fillets. For the second week in a row, the store had not a single bag of them, only the less desirable greasy ones, which I passed on.
– Egg noodles. There was not a single bag of them! My husband suggested that since they are dried, perhaps hoarders are snatching them up for their one-year supplies of food.
On the plus side, our main grocery-store was selling chicken thighs for $1.29 a pound, so I grabbed two family packages. They also had Cracklin’ Oat Bran in stock in the breakfast aisle, which is hard to find.

After paying for my partial shopping trip, I drove down the street to my second store. There I found:
– Apples for $4 a bag. They didn’t have a lot, but they looked decent, so I grabbed two bags.
– 5 beef chimichangas. I bought them all.
– A box of frozen ground beef patties that averaged $2.49 a pound.
– Gorton’s fish fillets, although they didn’t have much.
– Egg noodles in medium or wide width.

Shortages will probably be with us for awhile, and we may have to just live with not having some items, or doing two-store grocery-shopping.

About That Grocery-Shopping…

Over the past few years, I’ve contemplated household finances and our budget quite a bit. As we’ve tracked our spending, one truth comes up over and over: our grocery-store visits are one of our biggest expenses.

Even with a very simple life-style, and staying out of most stores, it’s too easy to put extra items that look good into my shopping cart. Then the bill at the cash register comes out higher than expected, but I figure, hey it’s food – we’ll use it up and spend less next week. But a couple days later, I notice a few items that just didn’t make it onto my simple grocery list, and I end up running to the store again. Not good!

Last year I came up with what I thought was a pretty good basic shopping list. But it was not complete enough, so I was still missing things and making extra trips to the store. Today I sat down and made a much more thorough list that was still able to fit on one sheet of paper. Hopefully this will help me nail down everything I need for the week, so I get everything in one shot and nothing I don’t need!