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Tag Archive for grocery shopping

Grocery List Curiosity

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Renee Spindle

I had a curious thought this morning while putting together my list for my Sam’s Club shopping. How do you write out your grocery list these days? Personally I do not go to the store without a list. I would forget too many things. I try to keep my store visits to a weekly minimum, and don’t really like to spend any great amount of time browsing the food aisles. You can read about my love (or not) of grocery shopping from my Sam’s Club Shopping story.

We keep a running list of groceries we need on the fridge. I have these write-on small white board labels that stick to the fridge, and use a dry erase marker. They have been very handy. No papers flying all over the front of the fridge. When I’m ready to do my shopping I transfer that list to my phone. If you live in my house, when we are out of something please write it on the fridge list, so it’s not forgotten.

My go-to app for my grocery list is Evernote. Once I have transferred my list into Evernote I can easily share it with my favorite Travel Man if he happens to be home. When he’s home Travel Man does like to go shopping with me, especially if the list is rather long. He’s the complete opposite of myself. He likes to browse the aisles, and read the labels, and look for new products. I like to stick to the list, and get in and out of the store.

It’s been a long, long time since I went to do my grocery shopping with a paper list. I would rather use my phone, and not have to fiddle with an extra piece of paper. I used to have a really elaborate list for my Sam’s Club shopping. It was an excel spreadsheet with all of the groceries categorized and took up almost an entire sheet of paper. If I try to use that paper now the grocery shopping task seems completely overwhelming. Thank goodness for my smart phone and Evernote.

So here’s my curiosity – How do you grocery shop these days? Do you take a list or just run out to the store with no list at all? Do you write your list on paper or is there no paper involved? Are you a daily, weekly, or monthly shopper?

I’d love to hear about your shopping habits.

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10 comments Posted in Around the House

Sam’s Club Shopping Joy

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Renee Spindle

This past week I tried an experiment. I had been wanting to try using Sam’s Club’s online ordering system which they now call Easy Reorder, for a while. (It used to be called Click ‘n Pull) My grocery shopping efforts, somewhat like my menu efforts, lately have been a little wacky to say the least. So I decided it was high time I shake things up and try something new. I have done a lot of ordering on Amazon.com so I’m well aware of the beauty of just having things arrive at my door.

This is how I went about my experiment. I set a dollar amount that I wanted to spend for my first online experience. Oh and by the way this order was to be picked up in the store, and not shipped to my house. I put together a list of my “pantry essentials” that needed replenishing, and then went online to put my order together. Now what happens the first time you click on the “order” button is you have access to your past purchases in the store which creates a “grocery list” for you. This is how I approached my online shopping for this session. I could delete or add any other items I wanted for this order, and remember I’m working to stay within my dollar amount ($200). Once I completed my order I was then able to schedule a pickup time that was convenient for me at my favorite Sam’s Club.

Once my completed order was submitted I received an email with a confirmation of the items in my order. After this I was able to just go on about my day and wait for the email or text message confirming my order was ready to be picked up. Once I arrived at Sam’s Club to pick up the order, I went to the customer service desk to let them know I was there to pay for the order and pick it up. After the order was paid for, I waited for just a minute or two and then out came the carts with a cheerful employee with all of my groceries. Boom! Now off to the car to load up and head for home.

I set my stopwatch when I walked in the store to pick up my order, and start to finish it took me 20 minutes to get in and out of the store. I was totally impressed with the time factor here. Normally with the size shopping I was doing I would normally be in the store for over an hour. Only because I am walking the aisles, browsing, and maybe stopping for some lunch. After my online experience I am presently in shopping land heaven. I like the price breaks we get at the big box store, but lately I have dreaded doing this task by myself.

I am pleased to report that this experiment was a complete and huge success for me. I will do the online shopping again with no hesitation. My order was complete, correct, and the gentleman who brought my carts out , there were two, helped me take them to the car and loaded the groceries for me.

Boom! I’m loving this service and it saved me so much time that I can spend doing other things I love to do. Writing crazy stories, swimming, and hosting a camp grandma or two.

Have any of you ever tried this service? Let me know is you liked it or not. I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start.

This post has been shared at the #MidLifeLuv linky party.

8 comments Posted in Around the House

The Grocery Paradigm Shift

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Renee Spindle

For many, many years our grocery budget always seemed so out of control. Managing meals and buying groceries for a houseful was always a daunting but necessary task. Trying to keep the grocery budget under control and being able to provide good meals for everyone was part of my weekly life mission for such a long time.

Now, we fast forward to only one of our twenty-something’s left in the house with us. Being minus a few bodies to feed is beginning to open up a whole, new grocery shopping world. This is a big deal for us because we had been so used to feeding an army for so, so long. Particularly when the boys got to their teen years- Yikes!!

Pre-empty nesting, lots and lots of ground beef or ground turkey was purchased. Lately we have been eating a lot more steak, of the New York strip variety!! Travel Man gets home from a trip and he likes to grill. So of course we run over to the store for a couple of steaks.

Also, our hot dog menu has changed. Pre-empty nesting, I would only buy whatever hot dogs were on sale. ( I’m on a budget here people). Now, since there are a few less bodies to feed I only buy Hebrew hot dogs. These hot dogs used to be a “special ” treat for us because they are a little more expensive when you are feeding an army and trying to keep on a budget. Do you realize how many hot dogs a family of seven can eat in one sitting? The other reason we only buy Hebrews now is that it is the only hot dog Travel Man will eat. He has been working in the hot dog manufacturing plants. Only all beef hot dogs in our house.

We have also discovered that everything, and I do mean everything is better with butter. For such a long time we bought the ginormous tubs of margarine at SAMs Club. Nowadays we are buying the little tubs of butter, and I am cooking with butter all of the time. Yum, yum so much more flavor in the food when you cook with butter.

At the rate we are going with buying ourselves the goodies we like, the budget for groceries may not be dwindling anytime soon!! Travel Man actually brought this to my attention in the past few days.

The one thing we are looking forward to is switching over to organic milk. This is a silly little thing, and we would probably be ok taking that plunge now. But we do not want to go whole hog in our first month of The Great Grocery Shift. We do need to leave a few food treats until the next month or so. We should have some delayed gratification right?

These are just some simple, little changes with the groceries. However, they are noticeable and distinct changes. I suppose for me because it is signaling a change in the times in our home. A change of routine for sure, and a definitive change of lifestyle. Kind of like a rite of passage. We have made it through the child-rearing years, and are coming full circle into a time all our own.