Tips for quick grocery shopping
Grocery shopping is a necessary evil. Does anyone look forward to their weekly visit to the grocery store? If you’re like me, you defer these duties to your spouse. My wife has the grocery shopping down to a science. She tries to get in and out of the store as fast as she can. Don’t we all?
Here are some tips that she has to make your grocery shopping visit easier to deal with:
- Make a meal plan: Decide what you’re going to eat this week and what you’ll need to make that happen. (Erin will write more on this specific topic next week.)
- Make a list from your plan: Not only will this help you remember what you need, it also discourages you from picking up things that you don’t need.
- Separate the items on the list into their own sections (dairy, condiments, cereal, produce, etc.). This will reduce the chances of having to double back for something that you forgot in another section.
- Go shopping at off-peak hours. The less of a crowd the faster the shopping goes. Avoid weekends. (My wife goes before work early in the morning.)
- Sale items above all: Look over your weekly sale items before heading to the store. Saving money on groceries is a good thing.
- Get physical. Don’t be afraid to elbow fellow shoppers to get to the checkout ahead of them.
Ok, so that last one is a joke, but I hope these tips help you use your time more wisely. The less time you spend in the grocery store, the more time you spend doing something you actually enjoy.
Popularity: 45% [?]
More reasons to purge disposable plastic bags and try reusable bags
Whole Foods has announced it will stop using disposable plastic bags by Earth Day. This decision came on the heals of China banning production of these bags in an effort to curb litter for the 2008 Summer Olympics and to (allegedly) benefit the environment. Ikea made a switch away from disposable plastic bags in March of last year, and Costco has never used them.
The city of San Francisco also has banned the use of these bags, and, according to the Los Angeles Times, Bakersfield, Boston, and Phoenix are considering similar bans.
We’ve talked in the past about how plastic bags from grocery stores shouldn’t become clutter in your home in our post Reusable shopping bags. Now seems like an appropriate time to bring up the topic again since more stores and municipalities are requiring patrons to use their own bags.
We recommend bags that fold up into small totes so that you don’t create more clutter for yourself storing the reusable bags. Based on comments to our previous post and our internal research, here is an expanded list of suggestions:
- Baggu Reusable Shopping Tote
- Flip and Tumble Bag
- Environsax Reusable Bag
- Reusable Produce Bags
- Large Zip-Out Shopping Bagg
- Collapsible Micro Fiber Insulated Tote
- Shopper Bag
- Reisenthel Mini Maxi Shopper
- Acme Workhorse Bag
- ChicoBag
Popularity: 38% [?]
Gift card clutter
With the holidays behind us and the popularity of gift cards increasing every year, make sure you don’t let them go unspent. According to the E-Commerce Times, about $8 billion worth of gift cards’ value will go unspent. Here are some tips so you don’t let your gift cards go to waste.
Keep them all together. If you have gift cards all over the place you’ll end up losing track of them. Keep them in one spot and look through them before you head out shopping.
eBay them. If you received a gift card to a retailer that you don’t particularly like, eBay is a good way to get rid of the card. Rather than being stuck with a card that you will never use, get some value out of it. (The value is usually around 80%)
Don’t buy just because you can. If you have a gift card, don’t make that an excuse to purchase something. If you don’t like Pottery Barn, don’t feel compelled to purchase $100 worth of their merchandise. Again, use eBay to get rid of it. Don’t clutter your home with gift-card guilt purchases.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Reusable shopping bags
Reader Danielle sent us a suggestion for collapsible, reusable bags and totes. These bags fold into handy carrying cases when not in use. Their small size makes storing them simple, and the bags keep you from collecting a seemingly endless supply of paper/plastic bags from the grocery store. And, since they’re reusable, they help the environment. There are a number of brands on the market, but these two look pretty snazzy:
- The Baggu Reusable Shopping Tote
- Flip and Tumble’s 24-7 bag
Thanks, Danielle, for the suggestion!
Popularity: 8% [?]
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