Day 8 of Turning Your Kitchen Upside Down: Grocery Shopping Part 1

A key factor in eating and living healthier is what you buy at the grocery store.  When my little sister came to visit a couple of years ago I'll never forget watching her go through my cabinets and complain, "why don't you have any junk food?"  To which I responded, "because if I bought it, we'd eat it."

It really is that simple when it comes to your home.  If you shouldn't eat it, don't buy it. 

Successful shopping starts before you ever leave your house.  Here's two things that I do that have helped me shop...

1. I make a list
But before I can make my grocery list, I have to do my meal plan.  And in order to put a meal plan together (usually two weeks at a time) I collaborate the following: my favorite cookbooks (as well as online recipes), coupons, Publix seasonal produce emails, sales papers online and our upcoming schedule.  For instance, Monday nights I am at church by 6 so I usually crock pot it on Mondays.  Thursdays my husband is at hockey and eats with a friend beforehand so I will make something really low key.

Since my husband gets paid every two weeks, I shop big one week and leave enough money for "fresh stuff" we use up weekly for the next.

2. I comb back through the "finished" list and ask 3 questions:
Can I make this instead?
Google is an amazing thing.  Just the other day I was going to make enchiladas but I needed white sauce so I put it on the list and thought…I can figure out how to make that sauce…so I did a quick search and found an easy recipe. This also happened when I paid over $5.00 for mayo and thought...there's got to be a more affordable way.  In fact with a simple search you can learn how to make almost all of your staples and most cases it ends up being healthier and cheaper.  Gotta love  for storing all these recipes.  That's where mine are if you want to check out my "Food Stuffs" board.   

Can I eventually grow that?
I know this one won’t help you today, but it will help to plan ahead.  I dream of the day I will never buy lettuce again.  But if you’ve read my page The Restless Gardner, you know the depths of that statement!

Do I really need this?
Am I really going to make that recipe?  Is this a staple for my family?  Should we be eating this or can I substitute something better?  (forever, all natural fruit snacks were on the list but have now been scratched because of this question and are now a rare treat instead of a typical snack).  My attitude about food now is definitely quality over quantity.  I'd rather sacrifice the fluff and make sure our meals are as good as they can be at this time.

This post is part of a series.  To catch up, read:
Day 7 of Turning Your Kitchen Upside Down: Water, Please!