How often do you shop?

We shop for groceries generally once a month. We make a big trip to Wal-Mart that takes WAY too long, but it's tolerable because I don't have to do it that often. We usually make a whole day of it and go out to lunch, walk around a few stores, hit WM, maybe pick up some frozen custard and come home.

Once every 3-4 months we'll go to Sam's where I'll get frozen chicken breasts and a few odds and ends (hot cocoa, frozen fruit, dried spices/seasonings, etc)

How often do you shop for groceries?

We shop about every two weeks. Weare a family of 6. We also go to the Wal-Mart Superstore. WE used to have a Sam's Club membership but never renewed it.

I am not too regular about shopping. If I am diligent then I plan menus for the next week on a Saturday and then buy whatever we need. I usually plan 3 meals a week; that allows for leftovers, eating out, or if we decide we just want a sandwich.

I try not to shop on Sundays, it seems everyone else has the same idea and the store is crazy busy.

I shop every pay day, so that's twice a month. I usually shop for what we need for 15 days. My shopping list always includes milk for my baby, diapers, bar soap for the clothes, bath soap, dishwashing liquid, shampoo and conditioner, canned goods, noodles, meat, water, juice, biscuits, junk foods and other toiletries. I always make it a habit to make a list first before going to the supermarket so that I will not forget anything.

I'm a huge list maker too (for everything, not just groceries). When I run out of something it immediately goes on the list or else I'll forget. By the time it's time to get groceries, I don't have to sit down and wrack my brain trying to remember everything that we need.

We go to the store once a week to guarantee freshness. Lists are a must or we forget things and buy things on impulse

I go about every two weeks. I live in a small town, and our grocery store doesn't have enough stuff and they over charge for what they DO have. I go to the next town over where they have a huge grocery. I can get groceries for my family of 5 for about $100-$150. I pick up a few extra things as I need them at our local store in between.

We go every week only because we get fresh fruits and veggies. Normally we do our big shopping every two weeks and then every week get milk, eggs, bread and fruits and veggies. It seems to work this way. Especially cause there are 6 of us in the family. I usually will just go to Walmart for the groceries. If I am in Sams Club and they have a great deal on something then I will purchase it.

When the weather is beautiful - usually it's the weekly grocery trip with a few additional trips during the week for perishables - after all it's nice to enjoy good weather and go for a ride to a different market, etc. for produce, meats, etc.

When fall hits - it's time to jam all three freezers with meats for the winter. If there is a driving ban on - at least there is food in the house. Stock up on all cleaning and laundry supplies, paper products, canned goods, baking supplies, pasta, etc. so that if you have to walk to a supermarket (which is not close to home for sure!!) you only have to carry perishables. (Tha is IF you can get out here).

But this year - we had a "surprise" storm in October that knocked out all power for 5 to 10 days. So 3 days after I stuffed all freezers with $600 in meat - I lost it all. So now - the 500 lb. chest freezer is disconnected and cleaned out completely - not to be used again until I get a gas powered power generator so that this never happens again.

The canned goods and pasta and baking items - ok - but all that meat - what a waste!

Now I just buy enough meat for a week and stick to using just the two freezers in the refrigerators.

I NEVER want to go through that again!

Oh - insurance??? Not with a $1000 deductible! FEMA came - they don't give you anything for that. They said to call the Red Cross for a hot meal - like I am going to have the Red Cross cater my breakfast, lunch and dinner daily throughout the winter months. And spend over an hour one way to get there to pick up the meals - and do that 3 times a day.........................sure..........................

But this year - we had a "surprise" storm in October that knocked out all power for 5 to 10 days. So 3 days after I stuffed all freezers with $600 in meat - I lost it all.

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how awful! I'd be sick for months knowing all of that went to waste. Thankfully we never lose power for that long at a time. We rarely go more than a few hours - thank goodness!

Mama Mangia said:

When the weather is beautiful - usually it's the weekly grocery trip with a few additional trips during the week for perishables - after all it's nice to enjoy good weather and go for a ride to a different market, etc. for produce, meats, etc.

When fall hits - it's time to jam all three freezers with meats for the winter. If there is a driving ban on - at least there is food in the house. Stock up on all cleaning and laundry supplies, paper products, canned goods, baking supplies, pasta, etc. so that if you have to walk to a supermarket (which is not close to home for sure!!) you only have to carry perishables. (Tha is IF you can get out here).

But this year - we had a "surprise" storm in October that knocked out all power for 5 to 10 days. So 3 days after I stuffed all freezers with $600 in meat - I lost it all. So now - the 500 lb. chest freezer is disconnected and cleaned out completely - not to be used again until I get a gas powered power generator so that this never happens again.

The canned goods and pasta and baking items - ok - but all that meat - what a waste!

Now I just buy enough meat for a week and stick to using just the two freezers in the refrigerators.

I NEVER want to go through that again!

Oh - insurance??? Not with a $1000 deductible! FEMA came - they don't give you anything for that. They said to call the Red Cross for a hot meal - like I am going to have the Red Cross cater my breakfast, lunch and dinner daily throughout the winter months. And spend over an hour one way to get there to pick up the meals - and do that 3 times a day.........................sure..........................

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Wow. I will have to think twice now about stoking my freezer. it is very rare that the power goes out here but you never know. We get earthquakes here so it is best to be careful.

I just can't believe that there was no were closer for you to go if you choice to go for a hot meal.

lcsamano said:

Wow. I will have to think twice now about stoking my freezer. it is very rare that the power goes out here but you never know. We get earthquakes here so it is best to be careful.

I just can't believe that there was no were closer for you to go if you choice to go for a hot meal.

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Believe me - I am not one to go to the Red Cross for a meal - my home was intact - sure we had a lot of property damage from the storm and we lost a lot of items when the power was out due to the sump pump not working (which was also something not covered by insurance or FEMA! - insurance companies have a way of twisitng the fine print in their favor and they get away with it!), all of our trees were damaged - some so severely they had to come down (another thing the insurance company or FEMA does not cover! - NEVER NEVER NEVER give to some of these places when they ask for donations!) The Red Cross did finally step up and give meals to some of the elderly - if the elderly could get to them - but one thing is for sure - when I saw how slow they were to help others and just how long they helped and what they did - I will NEVER give another penny to the Red Cross or any disaster relief organization. I will give to the Southern Baptist Coalition - for they were the volunteers that came up here to help and they did not charge for the trees/hangers being trimmed and they lugged them all to the curb - very neatly and very fast. Although I am a Catholic - we did hold a prayer circle afterwards in my yard - they were angels sent to help!

What upset me was the length of time it took to bring back the power, the lack of care by insurance companies and FEMA and the attitude they all had. We were victims - they did not care. And I was upset over the amount of money I spent to fill freezers only to lose it. Now I only fill the 2 fridge freezers.

All the high taxes we pay here - and the government would not help with anything. All they did was clear the streets and that took them forever. They were mostly interested in clearing parking lots around the hockey stadium so that the hockey games could go on! Too bad if the streets weren't cleared! It made no sense at all!

We had lost our Thanksgiving turkey, our Christmas roast beef, our New Years Turkey along with much more. I replaced them - but it was the principal of the whole thing. When the insurance company is not going to help because of the deductible (and I had all my receipts from 3 days before the storm hit!) and FEMA will not step in - it's just not right. I did not want to hear that I could get a hot meal at the Red Cross. The whole thing was a botched up mess - I have no faith in our government agencies! They could have given out food stamps or something (only food stamp recipients got an extra allotment) to the rest of us that lost so much. dont' get me wrong - I didn't expect the $600 I spent in meat - but they could have made some sort of effort. Bad enough we had no electric, heat, phones, and we had a water shortage during that time.

During that time we had peanut butter, crackers, the bread from the freezer that thawed, nuts, dry cereal, dried fruit and canned goods. With no water and nothing to drink - you really don't feel much like eating. And we were so frozen it wasn't funny. We couldn't get out if we wanted. All the trees were down, wires were down, the roads and sidewalks were ice covered, tree covered and power lines covered. And the tree branches were still falling for several days. So you just stay in and wait - that is all you can do.

It was the Southern Baptist Coalition volunteers and the Baptist Church volunteers from Wisconsin that took care of us. We are surrounded by Catholic Churches - they never organized anyone to do anything - they just cried poverty because they could not make money. And these parishes are rich! So now I have changed my mind about where I give my money from here on in!

And when we finally could get out about 5 days later - many roads were still impassable - and we had to drive out of state to get dairy/meat/.produce because there was none to be found from one county to the other because of the storm! Thirty miles from home it was nice driving - but that 30=mile radius around us was bad!

The day after we got dairy/meat/produce - we lost all power again for about 6 hours. It got better after that.

I've gotten over it - but I will always remember what happened after that storm. If anyone lives in an area with bad weather - get a gas powered power generator that will hook up to a natural gas line (the regular generators would not work because we could not get gas from the gas pumps) and you don't have to worry about being gassed to death either! Dont depend on anyone to help you - make a plan - make sure each member of your family knows exactly what to do. Keep canned goods and hand held can openers around! cold peas or corn ain't that bad! Have plenty of batteries and a radio with a weather band. And plenty of batteries for flashlights - several of them. First signs of a storm - boil and bottle water! One company up here decided to give out dry ice - a week after the storm hit - sure didn't help most of us - just those that went without power for weeks! Canned tuna and jars of dried beef are good to have. Dried fruits, crackers - just for those bad months at least. Keep bottled water handy - you can mix that with a powdered drink as well. But the big thing is - make a plan to survive.

The second night we had no power the lights went on for about 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the night. I jumped out of bed and did 3 loads of laundry! Then the power was out again. Didn't have any power for another 3 days.

It was fun................

unreal.....guess you never really realize the work (or lack thereof) of some of these agencies until you need them.

we're looking at a severe ice storm for the weekend and they're already predicting power outages due to ice on the lines. I'm not thrilled, but I'm making sure we have a few staples on hand that won't need power to prepare. I can go hungry, but I'll kill an animal with my bear hands if it means my baby gets to eat. (don't worry, we have plenty for him to eat - - no raw coyote or bobcat for the lil tyke, this time )

dry ice will help to keep refrigerated items cold - check with a dry ice supplier on that - I now it helped some of the people up here - I don't know if you need to refrigerate anything for the little one - and I am like you - I will starve to let a little one eat

medako said:

how awful! I'd be sick for months knowing all of that went to waste. Thankfully we never lose power for that long at a time. We rarely go more than a few hours - thank goodness!

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I have a friend that had a huge 28 cubic foot freeze packed with food that they had bought on sale and then Hurricane Isabel came through and knocked the power out for two weeks. They lost everything in the freezer, which leads me to wonder if it's worth having a freezer if you're then accepting a risk of losing everything in it. I know these events are rare, but even a rare event that costs you $500.00 in lost food is expensive. It takes a lot of scrimping and saving to resave that $500.00. It might be best to not have a freezer at all, and just pay regular price.

that's true old bay - but sometimes you're just stuck between a rock and a hard place! you try to stock because grocery stores are so far away - let's face it - the mom and pop stores are all gone and the so -called convenient stores are for gas, coffee, cigs and newspapers - it's hard in the bad weather - we get a lot of travel bans - and when its really bad - we can't even get deliveries to begin with!

if I would have had a gas powered power generator I would not have had a problem - but in hurricane areas I am not sure if they can rely on natural gas generators or not - a regular generator would not have done any good - we had no way of getting gasoline to make it run

you try to help yourself and you just can't get ahead at times!

this last one was the worst one of them all - the amount of devastation made it impossible for crews to get all the service back on and we didn't have anything at all - phone, electric, heat, water - it was a rare one and one I never want to go through again

Wow...that would be terrible...My mom always tell me I should buy a whole cow to freeze but I never have...maybe when I tell her this story she will agree with me now.

I go shopping about 2 times a month....major shopping...but since we live 2 blocks from the store it seems I am always sending the kids up for something.

I'd go crazy without my big chest freezer. It just makes sense for us to have a larger freezer on hand. We also butcher (well, my parents do and they use some of the space in our large freezer, along with 2 of their own).

When we live about 40 miles from the nearest decent grocery store and shop once a month, the extra space of a stand-alone freezer is much needed. There's no way I could store everything in the fridge/freezer.


Thankfully the worst of our ice storm has passed now and we're left with just a whole lot of cold. The cold front got here before the rain (which is VERY good), so the power lines aren't covered in too much ice and it's not looking like we'll lose power - thank goodness! Areas just SE of here are a whole other story. At least 40K people without power and it might take a week to get it back on! no good.

I go shopping at least once a week..The only time I really make gourmet dinners is when I have visitors...

We shop for groceries twice a month, once a week for wet market items such as meat, pork, vegetables and other spices.Of course, a list helps a lot so i make sure that I have one before rushing to the store.