Day Eight
It's a GREAT time to figure out I'm bad at grocery shopping, so here we are. It turns out I'm super really very bad at all.
::sigh::
For as long as I can remember, I've been a "small trip" grocery shopper. I buy a few things at Aldi, a few at Target, a few at Wal-Mart, a few at Fresh Thyme, and a few at Shop-n-Save. I cannot be bothered to buy several weeks worth of food at one time because that is wasteful. I am opportunistic and buy things where they are the least expensive, which is why I'm perfectly content making a couple of trips per week and rotating my way around stores.
That's how it works, by the way. Target is for the staples, but Fresh Thyme wins for produce. I might need Aldi for things like granola bars and butter, but Wal-Mart is the best for vegetarian products. Shop-n-Save is stupid expensive on most everything, but the frozen waffles? They win for best priced frozen waffles. And, thus, I rotate. I go to one or two stores per week and shuffle around so that the house is pretty much always stocked.
This habit is further encouraged because of my childrens' activity schedules. I have four days per week where I have about an hour to run errands and such, so I can easily squeeze in a kick jaunt through Aldi, for example. It's a good use of time, even!
All of this means I am genuinely truly bad at buying for more than a few days at a time. Like, I don't know where to begin.
It has been eight days since we've been in full lockdown at our house, but really ten if you count the weekend when I scurried to get the things we'd need for a lockdown. At that point I had already eliminated the unessential stuff and given up on "least expensive." You're going to charge me $4 for that box of cereal I could get for $2.50 elsewhere? Okay. I'll allow it. BUT JUST THIS ONCE. I honestly thought I had done a good job of stocking up that day.
Spoiler: I was wrong. Sooooo wrong.
As I was unpacking the bags of groceries, I noticed the things I was missing. I made a list. A loooong list.
Four or five days later, I went out to fill in the food gaps. I took my list with me and had Alexis check the pantry and fridge to build out her own list.
I STILL DIDN'T RETURN HOME WITH BREAD OR EGGS. How does that even happen? Isn't that 2/3 of the snowstorm preparation triangle? I should at least be able to stock up for a snowstorm, especially when what we really need to do is prepare for a long winter.
(That is currently my favorite work-ism. My company is rocking this whole stupid situation, in part because our facility in China already went through the whole cycle, and in part because we have a "we're preparing for winter, not for a snowstorm" attitude. It makes everything much smoother and easier to expect that life will be this way for a few months. Seriously. And if it's not? That's just a bonus.)
I genuinely couldn't make it far without bread or eggs, but that's too bad because they no longer exist here in the year 2020. They became extinct along with the tortilla shells. I know this because I have tried to buy them. Sort of. Mostly.
Look, I can't deal with the people who don't know how far 6-feet is. I neeeeed them to back up because when they don't, I run back to my car and give up. Go ahead and judge me. I admit I am especially "gimme my space" challenged right now. So I tried to buy milk and eggs a few times, but failed miserably because they were either out of stock or the store was too crowded for my delicate little self to stay there.
ANYWAY.
Noticing how very bad I am at buying enough groceries to last ... Aw, hell. At this point I'd be happy if I could get it right for an entire week ... the whole thing has me thinking about a thing.
My parents survived thanks to food stamps and WIC and they absolutely lived paycheck-to-paycheck. That means they basically had money for groceries once per month and then had to make that food last a full month.
HOW?
I seriously don't know. My privileged ass can't figure it out.
But I do suddenly understand why my mom was a terrible cook. When you're trying to buy things that are cheap and shelf stable for an entire month, it really does limit the possibilities. A lot. There's not much you can do with a can of peas except know that it will be there for you when you need it. So, I'm just going to rewrite the history that is in my head and realize that it wasn't that my mom was a terrible cook; it's that she made do with the tools that were available to her.
Oh, and if you are one of the people who bought cases of canned vegetables at the start of all this, enjoy those crappy mushy peas. Soon it will be the end of the month and those people who can't afford more will be going to the stores and ... finding nothing. Because you bought it all.
Ugh.
(As I write this, Alexis has just informed me that we are out of salsa. You guys, salsa is one of our food groups. UUUUUUUUUUGH!)
Monday, March 23, 2020
Reader Comments (4)
Preparing for winter and not a snowstorm... that's a perfect way of putting it. I wish more people understood that this is what we're in for and it's not just hype.
I understand you. I always keep two week of shelf life on hand. Like you, we lived pay check to pay check as a kid. We are running out of our shelf life stuff but was able to score some zucchini and few other fresh fruits yesterday. I felt like I was productive. Everyone needs to chill out. let the stores replenish
North Fayette Target has temporally switched the truck crew to working overnights . Your best bet is getting there early in the morning to get stuff. This won't help with your people problem though. When I get in at 5:30pm we start stocking whatever the overnight team couldn't get to so there's a chance there too you might get what you need.
I grew up eating canned peas and my favorite thing was adding lemon pepper to them. Alas, I can no longer tolerate peas.