Going grocery shopping by yourself for the first time is pretty exciting. You finally have the freedom to eat and buy only the foods that you actually like. But sometimes you get to self-checkout and ring up all your items, and it’s not so fun anymore. You realize your favorite granola is $6 a bag, or for some reason, you picked up 4 bags of chips even though you’re one person, or you picked up some crazy expensive health food that you don’t even know you can stomach. Money isn’t the only thing that can ruin a grocery shopping trip, though. Sometimes you go to the grocery store, get everything you think you need, and then you get home to cook and realize all the food you bought doesn’t make any coherent meal. Sometimes you’re at Ralph’s at 10 pm knowing you have to finish an assignment due at midnight, but also knowing your barren fridge will not bode well for you tomorrow. As someone who has had all these problems at the grocery store, I have developed strategies to maximize every grocery haul.
Every time I go grocery shopping I make 2 types of lists. First, I make a list of all the meals I want to make for dinner. I find that dinners are what eat up the majority of the ingredients I buy, so planning what I want to eat helps me use my groceries more efficiently. Second, I make a list of the groceries I need. I go grocery shopping weekly, but every 2 weeks are my big grocery trips where I restock pretty much everything. Items that seem to always make it on my list are eggs, bread, almond milk, bananas, and chicken. Those are my most basic essentials, and any other groceries I buy are based on what I feel like eating at that time.
Meal prepping and planning out your meal preps will make a huge difference in maximizing your groceries. I think meal prepping makes grocery shopping easier because groceries often come in quantities that are meant for families. If you are just shopping for yourself, buying a pack of chicken with enough for 4 people means it will last you for 4 days or 4 meal preps. Some of my favorite and easiest things to meal prep are turkey meatballs, pesto chicken pasta, chicken fajitas, and quinoa chicken salad.
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While on the topic of groceries being family style, you have to know how much you can actually consume without wasting. While having variety in your fridge and pantry is great, too much variety means groceries are going to go bad, and it’s a total waste of money for you. For me, my biggest thing is buying fresh produce. I love having a lot of fresh ingredients in my fridge, but I also spent my first quarter figuring out how much I can buy without wasting. I found that buying 2-3 different types of fruits and 2-3 types of vegetables are the sweet spot when trying to use everything that you buy. If you really love bagels, bread, and English muffins, maybe alternate weekly between the three instead of buying all of them at once, which will almost guarantee that one or two will go bad.
Finally, as silly as it sounds, planning when you are going to the grocery store is extremely important. It sucks when you wait until your kitchen is virtually empty to go to the grocery store, and that day always seems to end up being on your heaviest day. Every quarter after finalizing my class and work schedule, I like to designate my lightest day of the week as my grocery shopping day. I know that I need about 15 minutes to drive there and back, and 30 minutes to do my actual shopping, but pick a day with a large enough gap in your schedule where you can take the time you need to shop without stress.
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Grocery shopping is a very adult task, and that can be a little scary and intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. There is something very rewarding about buying food and cooking it for yourself; it should always be a positive experience. Making lists, planning meals, shopping responsibly, and planning your trips will remove all the stress from your grocery shopping experience.