I’ve gotten a few questions on my new grocery shopping plan. I shop more frequently, but buying less, limiting myself to 25 items or less. You can read the story about the downsizing and new shopping plan that was published in early February 2011. Take a look.
Here’s the before and after photos of my pantry. The after was taken a couple of weeks ago and even has less in there today. I don’t have photos of the refrigerator or freezer, but they are sparse as well. Here’s some of the results or the new way of shopping.
Money savings.
I started shopping at Aldi versus Kroger, Tom Thumb, WalMart or Target. That, coupled with the 25 items or less, has produced the following monetary results. These amount reflect groceries, the occasional toiletry items and some wine.
February 2011: $268.95
March 2011 (so far, 1 week left): $149.89
I started this in mid January, so I didn’t look at that month. Here’s what I spent the 2 months prior.
November 2010: $447.87
December 2010: $404.52
The funny thing is, we’ve been eating out less, I pack the kids lunch about 75% of the time and I pack my lunch most of the time. At this rate, just with groceries, I’ll save about $2,100 a year. Sweet.
The process.
The process of grocery shopping is easier. It takes less time to buy 25 items, my kids don’t gripe about having to go to the grocery store and putting away the groceries is not a horrible task. I don’t have to create space and shuffle things around to fit all the new food items into the 3 temperature controlled puzzle spaces.
Also, cooking is much less painful with this plan. I’m not in gridlock, wondering which of the 327 items I should combine into a meal. I can find things easily. If I see an ingredient I want to use in a recipe, I use it then or buy the additional ingredients next time I shop.
Waste.
There’s much less waste in our kitchen. Vegetables don’t get hidden in the back of the fridge, leftovers aren’t forgotten because you can’t see them behind the pickles and there’s not so much perishable food that it can’t be eaten in time.
This is a new mindset for us, however the transition part was easy. I guess my kids are used to stuff like this. They had a friend over that freaked out because we didn’t have a lot of food and she thought she was going to starve. My house is not on an island and she was only going to be here for a few hours. The psychology of food is a funny thing. On Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, food is a basic necessity, a physiological need that must be met before we can think of other needs. The times in my life when I’ve struggled with my weight were times when I was not doing well financially. Okay, so there was a little depression eating in there as well, but I struggled the most when I thought I couldn’t afford food. I’m a size 4 or 6 now, a long time ago I was a size 16.
It took a full day to ‘clean out’ the kitchen and to create this plan, but the rewards in money, time and happiness are well worth it.