How often do you shop for food?

alexander

alexander

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Me and my partner are very busy most weekdays and don't have much time to food shop. I do most of the cooking and pick things up on my way back from work. We often end up with a random collection of odds and sods left over to use up by the time the weekend comes round. I keep thinking I should plan menus and do one shop a week to save money and waste.

What do other people here do?
 
We do 1 shop every weekend for the week, I pick up bread and any fresh bits and bobs during the week if needed.
 
This all depends on the tourism season and long weekend holidays, which are times I travel ( I am a tour operator / guide ) and am not home ..

I do all my fresh fruit and vegetables at the main La Mercat de La Boqueria Central Market of Barcelona in Las Ramblas in the Bari Goti Neighborhood.
I also buy my fish / shellfish or chicken and beef at same .. My father fishes as well, so when he heads up on his boat with my sons, & husband and father in law, they always bring me the fresh catches ..

I purchase my beans as well as the Boqueria.

Supermarkets: All paper goods, laundry detergent etcetra. varies, perhaps 1 time a month at El Corte Inglés Hyper Market ..
Rices and Fresh & Dry Italian Pasta: I purchase these at the El Corte Ingles or Makro, a wholesaler which our family is a member of as we are all in the hospitality industry in varying professional positions ..

Bread at a friend´s bakery & pastry arts academy and wines via the wineries direct and cheeses at Boqueria or at the local tiny bio organic farms direct ..

When I am home, I go to the Market every 2 or 3 days depending on our timetables.

Good question and have a lovely evening.
 
I get an organic veg box (or meat, meat & veg, or salad box) plus milk, and eggs delivered weekly, and butter once a fortnight, and muesli once every three weeks. I occasionally top the order up with other stuff. I get staples, tinned food, pet food and other non-food items from the supermarket on average once every 3 weeks, or when I'm running out of tea, coffee, chocolate or cat food :laugh:
 
I shop about once a month.

However, my wife shops 3 or 4 times a week plus 2 visits to the market each week.
 
When we go shopping, we prepare a list. If my wife goes alone, she buys what is on the list (unless it's unavailable). 9 out of 10 times she doesn't buy anything that isn't on the list (unless she sees something and rings me first). If I go shopping I get what's on the list plus a load of other stuff that I didn't even know we wanted/needed.
 
In my opinion, it's most efficient to buy some items in bulk, pay attention to unit prices for items and buy groceries about once per week while making sure to get enough milk, bread, meat and produce to last a week.
 
toddhicks209 said:
In my opinion, it's most efficient to buy some items in bulk, pay attention to unit prices for items and buy groceries about once per week while making sure to get enough milk, bread, meat and produce to last a week.
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Unfortunately here, bulk buying rarely attracts discounts. Most village Thais didn't have electric 25 years ago and obviously no fridges so buying food every day was the norm and still appears to be the norm. I gave my wife's mother our surplus small fridge and she keeps a bottle of water in it. I'm not even sure that she turns it on!

I suppose we are lucky in having 5 supermarkets within 1 kilometre of our house and a twice weekly open market only 500 metres away.

[Actually there are only 4 actual supermarkets. The other is a bulk frozen food mart which I do not use.]

[Edit: add map].

supermarket map.jpg
 
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Pretty much every day. I try to buy as much as possible from small independent grocers, butchers and fishmongers, avoiding where possible anything that has been processed in a factory. The downside is that most things don't keep for more than a couple of days, so planning more than a day ahead is not really feasible. And I like food shopping
 
I'm very disorganised! I am also not good a meal planning, so just like Alexander I tend to call into a supermarket on the way home and pick up "stuff". I normally cook a roast dinner on Sunday, which means its always leftover on a Monday. I do like a mooch around a supermarket though. I'm not very loyal so will pop into whatever one takes my fancy at the time.
 
epicuric said:
Pretty much every day. I try to buy as much as possible from small independent grocers, butchers and fishmongers, avoiding where possible anything that has been processed in a factory. The downside is that most things don't keep for more than a couple of days, so planning more than a day ahead is not really feasible. And I like food shopping
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Very much the same here, with the possible exception of liking food shopping (or indeed any form of shopping). The only time we ever buy anything in bulk involves alcohol. Make of that what you will.
 
Duck59 said:
Very much the same here, with the possible exception of liking food shopping (or indeed any form of shopping). The only time we ever buy anything in bulk involves alcohol. Make of that what you will.
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Our government has announced an increase in alcohol tax recently (although the amount has not been published - they probably don't know yet). The increase in tax will be applied tomorrow (16th) so I prudently ordered an extra 10 cases of beer to be delivered yesterday. You know it makes sense.
 
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