Grocery Shopping?​

Do you plan your meals before grocery shopping?​

What does meal planning mean to you?

Do you use a list to remind you what to buy?

Hi Anne
One would think that with the grocery store, being a one-way 65-mile trip, we would be very prepared...
But I would say that most of the time, we do not plan meals before shopping.
Dinner planning generally takes place each day between 8 am and noon, just enough time to thaw something.
We do make a shopping list; sometimes it is made just before leaving the house.
Other times, we have a running list on the refrigerator.
Sometimes we forget to bring the list with us... when that happens, it is usually sitting in plain sight on the counter...
When we arrive at the grocery store, there is a 50/50 chance we will remember to bring the list inside, it fits in the car console so well...
Once we make it inside, with the list, we must remember to look at it...

So, planning? lists?  
We just must remember to create one, manage to bring it to town, carry it into the store, and remember to look at it...
Really, how it goes, we just stroll through the store, loading up what we think we want.
If we eat first before shopping, we save money, but spend the next few weeks lamenting not having any snacks...
If we are hungry, we spend extra dollars loading up the cart...

Sure would be nice to have a butler and a chef at our house, then that planning, shopping, and cooking would be their problem, and not ours... so much easier!
Oh yeah, they could do the dishes as well!  Yeah, I like that idea.
Now, if only my unknown great aunt would just leave us a castle and staff, oh, and barrels of money...

I hate grocery shopping - it involves being out in public with the risk of having to interact with people. So my other half does it.

I keep a supply of rice, lentils and dry beans in stock at all times. Himself has a mental list which generally involves oats, milk, bread, flour, cheese, whatever pasta is on special offer, cocoa (I consider this to be an essential of life), coffee (His essential in life), onions, whatever the best value meat is that he can find, free meat scraps for me to render down and use as best I can, and random treats according to what is being cleared out of whatever shop he finds himself in.

I grow whatever I can in the garden, I keep a supply of spices, then I make up a batch of rice pudding or yogurt to have with fruit for breakfast, and a big pan of rice and lentils cooked in bone broth, then we just wing it and put together whatever seems appropriate with what's available.

Sometimes our goat-keeping friend shows up on the doorstep with a litre or two of fresh goat milk because he's run out of beer money and I gladly accept it. He spends the proceeds in the café on his way home. Sometimes he gives us a fresh cheese in return for a lift to town when the boys go grocery shopping. Sometimes we scrump fruit off the neighbours or from abandoned fruit trees that we walk past - there's an awesome fig tree growing wild next to the old village water tank, I have a freezer full of fruit, ready cooked meat scraps, bits of chicken, a few pork tongues, a supply of chicken liver to make paté, and cooked beans to throw into a quick meal. Very little is planned in advance. In the winter I make soup in the slow cooker so it's ready for lunchtime. During the summer it's more likely to be thrown together last minute.

Meal planning for us is longer term - a good garden, a well stocked freezer and food cupboard, some items prepped in advance, and a willingness to experiment and make use of whatever happens to show up.

Like Thomas, we keep a shopping list. Like Thomas, sometimes it makes to the store with us.   Shopping has shifted its meaning. Our primary shopping trips are maybe 4 times a year to the Big City that is 80 miles away. Those times of the year the garden is not functioning, we probably shop about every 2 weeks spending maybe $25.00….on the 30 mile trip for milk and produce.

With the distances and gas prices I am looking more at online shopping.  That 30 mile trip mentioned above costs $25.00 for fresh produce…an extra $15.00 for gas …and another $20+ for a meal.  Within the last 30 days we made the huge mistake of sitting down in a Dennys and ordering breakfast without looking at the menu.  The tab came to just under $50.00.   It was our first trip in a couple of years to a sit down restaurant …and probably our last.

yes, sometimes. for example I just just promised some friends one of my world famous giant baked lasagnas, I know I will need a fresh tub of RBST free ricotta cheese and provolone and  and depending what the ground beef and sausage looks like and is priced at I might get some of those. And if I can find fresh eggplant for a good price I might make an eggplant Parmesan casserole to go along with it. and if the local food outlet has something extra ordinary like they occasionally do, for example ive seen in the past boxes of fresh blueberries for $1 each while the big name stores have blueberries that who knows what has been added or done to for $5 a box. seems here in Tennessee we get organic leftovers from California that are still perfectly good at our outlet stores for greatly discounted prices. that's what some lady who was in the food distribution business told me.
so yes and no, list yes, good idea and if see something yummy at very nice price, no list necessary.
oh, how I could go on a big rant about what most of the shelves in our nations grocery stores contain. but you all know that story.

I don't meal plan before shopping, but I use a list for staple items that are low in the pantry.

I start with the produce section.  See what's on sale and looks tasty.  Then meat section for the same.  That's 90% of the shopping done as we keep a diverse pantry and can adjust to what's in season.  Although we may need some extra perishables if the recipe wants cheese or something like that.

If I try to meal plan, it's almost guaranteed to be the most expencive price for those items and something will come up to make it so we cannot make or eat the dish.  Much easier for our lifestyle to buy ingredients as they are on sale as these are usually the best quality and most local.