Adventures in Grocery Shopping

For food for the first few days of this journey, I made do with a few quick trips to the grocery store and scouring the internet for nutritional info for some of my local eateries because I knew I would be doing my BIG shop sometime over the weekend. 

A trip to the grocery store has never taken so much time.  It started with research.  All last week I was searching for products and recipes and ideas for changing my diet.  I ended up on the Hungry Girl website.  Can I say AWESOME?!?!  In addition to recipes, and dining out guides, there is a 3 page printer friendly checklist style Supermarket List.  It’s broken down into food categories and gives recommendations for all types of low fat, low cal products.     

Then came the coupons.  I know that a lot of the healthier options out there can be a bit pricey so I spent a bit of time on coupon websites printing coupons for any product that I thought MIGHT end up in my grocery cart. 

Next, the purge.  I didn’t want to hurt myself lugging ridiculously heavy bags out of the house later on so I dragged my big trash can into the kitchen and cleaned out my fridge.  Nothing was safe.  Anything that didn’t fit into my new eating habits was gone.  I even got rid of most of the condiments on the fridge door.  My fridge was so empty, it echoed. 

I decide that my first big shop would be at Publix.  I love the prices at Walmart and Winn Dixie but when it comes to selection, especially when it comes to healthier products, Publix was the place to go.  So armed with my Hungry Girl Supermarket List, my stack-o-coupons, and this week’s store ad, I started to build “THE LIST”.  I knew I would be making a pot of spaghetti sauce to portion out and freeze, so I started there.  After that, it was whatever I knew I absolutely had to have and/or what was on sale.  My list ended up being two columns long and filling a whole page.

TWO HOURS LATER.  That right, I spent two whole hours going aisle by aisle, reading and comparing labels.  I didn’t get a few things on my list but I got all the major items taken care of.  This was truly a marathon shopping trip for me.  I don’t even remember the last time I bought so much fresh produce (both of the veggies drawers in my fridge were full). I spent $123 but with all the awesome sales and coupons, I saved almost $42.  I’m hoping that I won’t have to go back for a few weeks because this trip was thoroughly exhausting.  At least I’ll be eating really good.  J

Now on to the next adventure.