Is your (old) buying, spending habit an Obstacle?

endlessfall16

One of the things that proves to be more difficult to control, change than I expected is my food, grocery buying habit. So, I eat a lot less now but I just can't curb the old habit. Basically I still shop at the same pace and sometimes even more because I need more quality foods (a new thing!).

I guess this wouldn't be a problem if I could learn to let go. Just eat enough and move on. But there's the mindset and the action that if I buy it I need to finish it. This is just me but add in the wife's habit you can imagine it's doubly worse.

JeromeBarry1

Examples?

endlessfall16

We still buy 1 gallon of milk, that 2 pack honey bunches of oat. After I read here about how calorie dense milk is, I started watching the ounces I pour. It will take forever to finish a whole gallon. Well, just until it's expired. I still shop at Costco for bulky food stuff. I don't know why we didn't get two serving packages from regular stores.

Food4less has the sale that you save from buying 10 items. The spaghetti sauce and pasta only have so much shelf life. The pantry is "drained" slower now but the timing to refill is kinda the same.

Lydilod

I make a menu for the week, check my cupboards and only buy what I need for the meals we eat each week. I've saved money, as there is less waste.
I do shop at Costco but usually only non food items and meat, I weight out each portion of meat and freeze it individually.
Milk isn't a problem as I'm in the UK and our largest bottle are 6 pint and my two teenagers can get through that in a few days, I prefer Almond milk.

kommodevaran

I struggle a bit with this, but I'm slowly learning. I plan my meals, and for perishables I aim to buy just what I am going to use until the next shopping trip. But it's difficult. The amounts look so small! It gives me anxiety of running out. But that's because I can't help comparing with my "old" food and my "old" habits
because I didn't portion it out properly when cooking (and some was overeaten, and some got thrown away),
because it was a lot more easily digestible and tasted "too good" so I overate,
because the same volume of my old food had less nutrition,
because I used to feel anxious of running out, and now it looks like I have even less food than before,
because I now have a greater variety of items,
and I eat fewer calories overall,
all this contributes to that every item lasts longer.

EddieP50

If I buy milk I usually get Fat Free Skim Milk (80 calories per 8 oz glass). I do like Lydilod does. I go to the grocery store once a week (Krogers) and I buy what I need for the week. I recommend not buying in bulk for perishable items. My store has the buy 10 deals sometimes also. However, I never buy ten. I might get 1 or 2 items for the deal and after I check my receipt I see that I still got the discounted price. Buying canned goods in bulk would be OK. I checked the USDA website and they state that canned goods are safe to eat for up to 5 years after the "Best Used By Date" on the can. With the exception of tomatoes based canned goods which they list at 18 months after the "Best Used By Date". It did state that the taste and texture may change the older a can gets.

TangledThread

It was weird at first, and I still slip, but getting this under control has saved me so much money. I no longer worry about sales. I buy the milk in the cute quart jug. I have fun in the store picking out new brands or organic that I never thought I could afford.

How I did it. Once a week I make a meal plan. I pick out a new recipe for the week that I want to try. I look at that recipe and notice the waste in it. An example- it uses parsley and ricotta cheese, two things I rarely use. I then go to my tried-and-true recipes and choose one with parsley and another with ricotta cheese. I also note the rest of the things I wanted to eat for the week, roughly noting serving sizes. Make a list then go into the kitchen an cross out everything I already own.

What is left is my shopping list and I only buy what is on my list + one impulse purchase for fun. Usually fruit that came into season that I wasn't expecting.

I still buy meat and shredded cheese in the huge packages on sale and dived up and freeze.

The mental part was realizing that more food is always out there and it's ok to let it stay in the store. That part was hard but my regret of throwing away spoiled food was worse so I knew I had to address it.

zyxst

I buy in bulk. Foods I eat last a lot longer now. I get fresh fruit about once a week. Other than having to buy fresh fruit/veg every few days and buying more products from the "hippie" food aisle, my buying habits haven't changed much.

Lounmoun

I had a habit of cooking more than we need that was an issue sometimes. Part of it is growing up with a larger family with bigger appetites who also always made too much food and wasted a lot. Meals weren't really planned. Grocery shopping was what was on sale or looked good without regard to what or how much we already had so there was food that never was used. It was kind of like food hoarding. To me that is a crazy way to live now.
I've learned to plan meals and shop carefully to save money and it is helpful for weight management too. I cook smaller amounts even if it means doing the math to reduce a recipe to just 2 or 3 portions. When I make larger recipes I plan to use my leftovers- for lunches or they go in the freezer right away and get used in another meal.
I do not stock up on foods to excess of what we could realistically use. (1/2 gallon of milk is plenty for my family) We shop once a week with a list and don't go to the store otherwise.

endlessfall16

kommodevaran wrote: »

I struggle a bit with this, but I'm slowly learning. I plan my meals, and for perishables I aim to buy just what I am going to use until the next shopping trip. But it's difficult. The amounts look so small! It gives me anxiety of running out.

Exactly! It does feel like a form of anxiety. If we don't go to the supermarkets for an X number of days, we'll feel ..something missing. I don't think we have recognized the conditioned timing that we need to visit the stores.

TangledThread wrote:

It was weird at first, and I still slip, but getting this under control has saved me so much money. I no longer worry about sales. I buy the milk in the cute quart jug. I have fun in the store picking out new brands or organic that I never thought I could afford.

Right on. There's certainly the feeling that we have saved some money and could afford more from eating less though in reality it's only true if we drop the old buying habit. I suppose I have to get with the program that "sales" just aren't compatible with portion control eating!


From reading everyone's responses, the theme I get is plan and more plan! That's something I have to learn now. I'm not good at planning little stuff.

I'm just so amazed that 1400 Calorie/day diet (mine) takes so little foods comparing to the amount of shopping we do.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

TangledThread

endlessfall16 wrote: »

Exactly! It does feel like a form of anxiety. If we don't go to the supermarkets for an X number of days, we'll feel ..something missing. I don't think we have recognized the conditioned timing that we need to visit the stores.

What if you keep going as often as you do but you carry a basket instead of push the cart? I find in a cart the food looks tiny but the same amount of food in a basket is heavy and triggers the thought that I'm buying lots of food.

Francl27

Haha yeah. My 'snack' cupboard is full because I keep buying things that look tasty but I just can't fit more than a couple in my calories... then it sits forever because I want to try something else. Sigh.

ronjsteele1

We used emergency preparedness to deal with the anxiety of "running out of food" or "I got a great sale on it." We have 4 months of non-perishable foods stored in containers and put in cool storage. Should we lose power (which we have) or some other disaster hits, we have enough to get by for a bit. We rotate things out as needed (noodles, canned chicken breast, etc). This is not 100% the healthiest stuff in the world (and I'm a purist), but it removes the "buying to stock up" factor completely. I make a two week menu and only buy what I don't already have on hand to meet the menu. Once in awhile I will have to make a run at the one week mark for fresh stuff, but usually we can get through the two weeks.

geneticsteacher

We buy fresh fruit, veg, and dairy weekly. Everything else is bought on sale and stored in the pantry (canned veg, beans, canned fruit, chicken, tuna, pasta, rice, condiments) or freezer (fruit, veg, meat, seafood, bread, cheese). I plan meals around what we have on hand and seldom shop for special ingredients.

lorrpb

Buy a quart or half gallon of milk instead. Freeze extra pasta sauce. It's not hard.

kshama2001

endlessfall16 wrote: »

We still buy 1 gallon of milk, that 2 pack honey bunches of oat. After I read here about how calorie dense milk is, I started watching the ounces I pour. It will take forever to finish a whole gallon. Well, just until it's expired. I still shop at Costco for bulky food stuff. I don't know why we didn't get two serving packages from regular stores.

Food4less has the sale that you save from buying 10 items. The spaghetti sauce and pasta only have so much shelf life. The pantry is "drained" slower now but the timing to refill is kinda the same.

Is Food4less selling you food that has been sitting around a while? The spaghetti sauce I bought last week has an expiration date 19 months away and the pasta I bought some time ago is good until 2018. My OH and I could easily use 10 of each before these expiration dates. I wouldn't want to store them though, but if you have the space for it, great.

For foods like ice cream, I have trained my brain to think less about dollars per ounce and more in calories per serving. Since my brain thinks both a 16 ounce and 4 ounce container are a serving, I buy the four ounce mini cups now, and save on calories per serving.

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2014/03/18/15-items-always-worth-buying-in-bulk

Buying items in bulk can be a great way to save money. If you’re able to reduce the cost per unit of a purchase, then you’re opening the door to reducing your household expenses over the long haul.

However, sometimes bulk buys don’t quite work out. You end up buying something in bulk, only to discover that it didn’t really save you money after all.

Here are three big sources of bulk-buying failure:

1. Perishable items. If an item can grow stale or rot within a relatively short period of time, you shouldn’t buy it in bulk without a plan for accommodating those problems. You can get away with buying food in bulk if you freeze it, for example, but you still need to use it in time to avoid freezer burn.

2. Unnecessary items. If having more of an item causes you to use that item more than before, then that item is a bad bulk purchase. Cookies are a great example of this. If I have dozens of cookies in the cupboard, I’m more likely to eat a cookie that I don’t really need...

3. Items you don’t have room to store. My family stores our bulk buys in the garage where we have plenty of space. Some families don’t have that option. If you live in a small apartment, some bulk buys don’t make sense.

With those bad bulk buys in mind, here are 15 items that stand out as good bulk purchases:

endlessfall16

ksha and all,

Thanks for the tips. They are very details and quite inspirational. I'll start TODAY to be aware of our buying behaviors. I believe in taking actions and not just keeping everything "in mind". I will write notes on the fridge and the pantry door to remind us. Can't wait to see if our monthly bill will go down. I feel pretty excited at the idea of buying less and using the money for something else.

macgurlnet

When I moved out on my own, I still shopped for myself like I did when I lived at home - buying lots of stuff and plenty to feed 4 adults.

Within about 2 years, I'd gotten better, and moving into my own house, rather than renting a small apartment with minimal kitchen space has helped too.

I started batch cooking last summer. I focus on keeping my pantry and freezer well-stocked with a good variety of stuff. I always double-check what I have before I go shopping so I only buy what I need/what I'm running low on. I plan out what I'll be cooking (if anything) so I can pick up additional ingredients.

I also make sure I only buy stuff that's on sale and/or that I have a coupon for. However, if chocolate is on sale (like tomorrow with the easter candy) and I still have a decent variety, I won't buy it. Same goes for just about everything.

If I'm running low on something, I make note of it on my grocery list so I can buy it next time it's on sale. If I absolutely need more right away, I'll go buy it.

To help curb my spending, I opened a new checking account that I would transfer $200 into at the beginning of the month - that $200 was supposed to cover both groceries and eating out for a month. Doing that for 6 months also helped me reign things in a bit.

You've gotten lots of good ideas here!

~Lyssa

laurenpjokl

I find we spend a bit more money in the supermarket now because we eat takeaway less often. Also I save a small fortune not buying lunch on campus. And we used to run to the corner shop every other night and spend more money on junk food. I now try to make sure I always have healthier snacks available in the house. More spending at the supermarket, but saving money overall.

Unfortunately this means we run out of food faster! We're limited in how much we can shop because we don't have a car, and so we have to be able to carry everything.

endlessfall16

macgurlnet wrote: »

To help curb my spending, I opened a new checking account that I would transfer $200 into at the beginning of the month - that $200 was supposed to cover both groceries and eating out for a month. Doing that for 6 months also helped me reign things in a bit.

You've gotten lots of good ideas here!

~Lyssa

Wow that's a lot of good ideas there, particularly the groceries account. I don't mean to blame my wife by saying this but she'll protest if there's a fixed budget for food. Our lives are stressful as they are.

But interesting.

macgurlnet

endlessfall16 wrote: »

macgurlnet wrote: »

To help curb my spending, I opened a new checking account that I would transfer $200 into at the beginning of the month - that $200 was supposed to cover both groceries and eating out for a month. Doing that for 6 months also helped me reign things in a bit.

You've gotten lots of good ideas here!

~Lyssa

Wow that's a lot of good ideas there, particularly the groceries account. I don't mean to blame my wife by saying this but she'll protest if there's a fixed budget for food. Our lives are stressful as they are.

But interesting.

I would honestly start with asking "do we need to buy X" and similar things. Maybe take note of what's being thrown out and when so you can get a better idea of what you're buying too much of. If you consistently notice that you're getting rid of half a gallon of milk, start buying just the half gallon. Sure, the half gallon jug might be more expensive per ounce, but is it more cost-effective to pay the extra 50 cents (or whatever it is) for the larger container when you aren't going to use it?

I take note of new things I want to try and wait until the similar stuff that I have is gone before buying it. With it just being me doing the eating, that can be a while, but most of those new things will be around for a while. I only buy right away if it's a limited edition thing - and then I'll buy it at the end of the season, etc.

~Lyssa