It Starts with a List

I spend a lot of time making list. There is something very satisfying about it. Making the list, looking at all the great stuff I get to buy and then the big day when I get to go to the grocery store and burn through that list. Getting all of the things I need for the week so I don't have to go back again is very fun and rewarding for me.

There are a lot of good reasons for making list. First I make a list or "menu" of what we will be eating for lunch and dinner each week. I check recipes for ingredients and portions, scan my cupboards for what I already have and check the calender to see if the meals I want to make will work with that weeks schedule. For an average week I plan for 4-5 days worth of meals. Usually though I have little bit of extras from the other meals that I will use to whip something up at random over the weekend. Or I plan for us to eat out because it is fun to eat out as much as it is too cook at home!

By making a menu for the week really helps me decide what it is I need to get at the store. By checking my cupboards I already know what I have and what I am low on so I can add it to my grocery list. Then I organize the grocery list according to the different departments of the grocery store according to the path I take each time I visit. This really saves on time getting through the store and helps me make sure I got all the stuff I needed. I tend to always shop at the same store instead of looking at the newspapers and going from store to store. The grocery store I go to isn't the best but it's alright. They offer a discount card which is useful for the sale items and in general they offer a decent variety of fresh produce, meat etc. Again not the best but for daily needs it works just fine. I also include special sections in my list for other stores were I buy special items such as Uwajimaya where I often buy all of my Japanese ingredients.

I don't let my list dictate me though. In fact I always low-ball my list to allow myself wiggle room for buying too-good-to-pass-up deals or impulse buys. No my list and menus are just general guidelines that I follow so that I don't overspend while still getting all the things I need for the week.

Planning ahead like this really helps in other areas as well. By making menus, lists and planning my route in the store it saves in a lot of ways. It really helps to save money and not over spend but get the highest quality ingredients to make the most healthy and tastiest meals I can. It also prevents over buying and ultimately food going bad long before we are able to eat it.

I started doing this because my Mom always over shops and hoards food like crazy. Her freezer is so full of freezer burnt meat that instead of tossing it and cutting back on what she buys, she bought another freezer instead! It is the same when she buys such wonderful cheeses and wines but they turn to mold and vinegar because she is too afraid to eat them. She rather take one bite and then "save" the rest for a special occasion. Yes wine if properly stored can be saved and even improved over years. But she neither buys high enough quality wines nor opens and then stores them properly to ever get that far. As for cheese well that can only go so far. I learned for her poor example that if I am going to spend the money to buy food then I am going to eat it.

For that reason I also don't fall into the trap of super market deals very often. Just because something is on sale doesn't mean it should be bought. Or bought in the quantities that the store wants it to be bought in. I only buy what I use most often. Pretty much that means staples. For example like frozen chicken breast. My fiance loves chicken and we go through a big bag of it every two weeks. So if I see that chicken is half price even though I have a full bag at home I will buy it because I know that within a month both will be gone. But if it something like 10 cans of green beans for a dollar, then I think twice. I don't like canned green beans, I usually buy fresh, so I move on. Consider the quantities in another way though. Sometimes it is possible to still get the discount even if you aren't buying the full number of items .

Because of my mom I have also learned to ask for smaller portions. Most often it is just my fiance and myself eating so we really don't need a lot of food. Keeping that in mind if I am going to buy an ingredient that I know we will have leftovers of I try to thinks of other meals or ways I can incorporate the remaining portion into another meal. This can be fun because if it is something I never cooked with before such as rice noodles then I can find new recipes or ways of using the item. Or if the ingredient is expensive or something I know I would only use once before going bad such as meat I always make sure I get to the store when the butcher is there and ask them to cut a smaller portion. This saves money and prevents waste. There is no need to let food go back just because it was cheap or too much for what was needed.

This isn't a flawless way of doing things. Unless you come visit our house on Sunday our cupboards and frig look nearly empty. This isn't good for impromptu guest or earthquake pron Seattle. Frankly I am not really sure what we would do if Seattle had a major disaster. Perhaps I should think about that...