Anyone else do grocery shopping lists?

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Hand up in the air... I do, I do! :)

My memory was impeccable when I was younger, but now that I'm in my 50's, forget it. I have a hard time remembering from minute-to-minute, never-mind day-by-day.

I usually start compiling my shopping list a few days beforehand, and what a change in shopping. No idle looking at things I don't need... no buying things I don't need... just in and out, and way faster compared to when I hee-and-haw and pause down every isle I go.

So nice to be able to arrive home with all that one needs!
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I always use a list.

I write down things as we run out of them, and I go through the weekly sale ads that come on Wednesday to make my list.

Anyone use curbside pickup service?

We don’t have it here, but my daughter lives in a big city, and she does. She tried it a few times and says it saves money because she doesn’t make impulse purchases.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Apple. No curbside pickup for us, but we do have a shopping service where people call-in to place their order, and all is delivered right to their door. I imagine for the elderly and those who have limited mobility, using such a service would be a blessing.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
For fun, found this in my travels. A grocery list from 1976! Just take a look at the prices!

Supermarket register tapes from 1976

Seven years into retirement, I finally got around to cleaning out a file cabinet in the attic yesterday, and I found an envelope full of register tapes from the supermarket. 1976 must have been the first year they printed an itemized receipt; some of the tapes from early in the year were just a list of unidentified numbers. Looking through them is like going down Memory Lane! We don't eat beef or lamb any more, I changed from Pepsi to root beer, and our baby, who was just starting on solids then, is now 36! But I still use many of the same products, just different brands or different forms of the same thing.

Here are some sample prices (I can't believe so many items were under a dollar):

  • Round roast $2.19
  • Sirloin steak 2.85
  • XL grnd beef 1.43
  • Lamb chops 4.05
  • Chkn breasts 1.85
  • Apple juice .45
  • BB light tuna .50
  • OS crnbry sc .25
  • Spaghetti .40
  • Ragu sauce .69
  • Sugar 5 lb .89
  • Brown sugar .45
  • Townhse crkr .85
  • Maxim coffee 3.39
  • Cheerios .63
  • Wheat brd .34
  • Parsly flk .25
  • Salt .17
  • Pepsi 16 oz 1.49
  • Gerber cereal .41
  • Gerber str carrot .20
  • Gerber str meat .39
  • Rubber pants 1.09
  • 1.26 lb banana .21
  • 12 oranges 1.38
  • Cantaloupe .59
  • 1.13 lb onions .33
  • Pascal celery .49
  • Green pepper .20
  • 1.97 lb peachs .77
  • Skim milk qt .43
  • A large eggs .76
  • Am cheese .83
  • Butter lb 1.31
  • Promise margarine .77
  • Bryr van fdg 1.99
  • Froz peas .67
  • Froz spinach .23
  • Bounty towel .59
  • Scot facials .55
  • Kitty litter 10 lb .79
  • Cascade 1.15
  • Ajax cleansr .39
This was fun, a snapshot of the past.

Sue
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Apple. No curbside pickup for us, but we do have a shopping service where people call-in to place their order, and all is delivered right to their door. I imagine for the elderly and those who have limited mobility, using such a service would be a blessing.

In certain areas of my daughter’s city, they have grocery delivery, but not in her area yet. I’m sure it is coming, though, eventually.

The only thing I have heard about in my area so far is Walmart will do curbside for non-grocery items.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I am mostly vegetarian so I pretty much know what I want and dont need a list. Often I have to get stuff at a whole food store and I tend to get the things I love each week. Hubby likes to shop for himself. He has never been a huge eater and grabs what he wants that day. No lists here. We rarely buy a lot at one time.
 
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Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
In certain areas of my daughter’s city, they have grocery delivery, but not in her area yet. I’m sure it is coming, though, eventually.

The only thing I have heard about in my area so far is Walmart will do curbside for non-grocery items.
I really like the curbside idea. I think all major department stores should offer such.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I am mostly vegetarian so I pretty much know what I want and dont need a list. Often I have to get stuff at a whole food store and I tend to gwt the things I love each week. Hubby likes to ship for himself. He has never been a huge eater and grabs what he wants that day. No lists here. We rarely buy a lot at one time.
More and more now, I find myself shopping two, sometimes even three days a week, depending on what we need, what we run out of, and how important something is that I have on my list. Big, big change from when my kids were little. I used aim to shop once a week, because I was too busy with babies in the house.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
More and more now, I find myself shopping two, sometimes even three days a week, depending on what we need, what we run out of, and how important something is that I have on my list. Big, big change from when my kids were little. I used aim to shop once a week, because I was too busy with babies in the house.

Shopping several times per week is not a bad idea, especially when there is only two people in the house. That would cut down on over-buying, since you would only get a minimum of items on each trip. Less waste, possibly, of fresh items.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
That's how we see it, too, Apple. Everything is fresh, and as we each change our taste for something new, that's all made possible by having only a one to two day supply of groceries on-hand at any given time. Makes for more interesting meals and eating.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Apple and SOT, what about you related to the frequency of shopping trips you made when you had babies in the house? Did you shop once a week like I did? Or did you shop more frequently?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I dont remember, Pink. I could always shop when the kids were home with hubs. I didnt bring them with often. I think I bought more food then though and shopped less.

I never had a lot of babies at one time. Bart was alone for six years. Goneboy came next and he was already six. Princess arrived when the boys were seven. Then I had no babies until I divorced ex and married my love. We adopted Sonic and Jumper a year apart but Sonic was two when he came. He didnt like crowds with his autism so it was easier to leave him with husband and Jumper was a quiet, mellow baby but why drag her with if she had a super dad? It was easier to shop alone. I never was the lady dragging kids around.

Also we lived near many stores and still do. If we want to get something, we can do it. Getting everything or not having it was not a part of our life...stores galore. Grocery stores are very close by if we decide to grab something we have a taste for
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
When at all possible I avoided dragging my kids along with me, but unfortunately leaving the kids at home with dear husband was never an option, unless it was a quick out and back in sort of trip, which shopping never was. About the only time I remember darting out of the house for something was when I'd run to the store for cigarettes or milk or something along those lines.
 

Tired out

Well-Known Member
We have on-line ordering and then you go to drive through at store to pick it up. I don't use that.
I do go through the sale ad on-line and add stuff to my cart I also add the things I need. When I get to the store I just open the store app and there is my list. As items are needed in-between I say "Alexa-add butter to shopping list. and I also tell Alexa to add stuff hubby writes on the list on the fridge. I can open the list on my phone when I am shopping and it is all there. I got tired of forgetting to take the list off of the fridge :(. I don't forget my phone.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
When my older kids were at home, I always went to the grocery once per week.

I usually go once per week now for my main trip, but since I drive right by the grocery store when taking daughter to dance several times per week, it’s pretty easy to stop by and grab a few items if I need to.

Hubby and daughter like to go to the grocery, so we all three usually go together. I usually shop on saturday, but it could be on thursday or Friday if there is a sale on that day that I want to go to.

Hubby is really good about getting sale items and plans his grilling around the sales. He often plans our weekend meals.

Interesting list from 1976, Pink. Some items have gone up a lot, and other, not much at all!
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Apple. We're central to everything where we are, so shopping is for the most part, painless, aside from having to deal with traffic, etc.

When I was growing up mom and dad always went shopping on Friday night. That was their grocery and coffee night, and I stayed at home to babysit.

The items I noticed that were cheap, cheap, cheap on the list, was the fruit, the brown sugar, the spaghetti and Ragu Sauce, the green peppers, and the eggs.

Jeepers, nowadays you can spend a hundred dollars and you're lucky to leave with 3 bags.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
And, while we're on the topic of groceries, shopping, and prices, I remember when one of our supermarkets introduced a bulk section where customers did the bottle and container filling, then pushed a button for the product they selected, and out would come a sticky tag. You'd apply the sticky tag to the outside of the bottle or container, and away you'd go.

Anyhow, pure vanilla extract, as everyone knows is expensive, so shoppers took to filling bottles with pure vanilla extract, then running a soya sauce sticky tag. The savings were short-lived, but what a buy while it lasted! :biggrin:
 
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