Making a Change . . . The Grocery Store

I have said many times before on this blog that I am trying to make a change in the way my family eats. My goals seem pretty simple. While I am for organic food, I don’t feel pressured to have to buy everything organic. I do usually buy organic produce, but since this is kind of harvesting season, I am buying from the farmer’s market almost every week (and sometimes twice a week). Really, I think all that I am doing is what people used to do. I am trying to buy staples such as flour, sugar, oils, dairy products. Then I am making things from scratch. I analyze my kitchen items to see what things we use and how I could make them from scratch.

Anyway, I have a weird, intense desire to do this. I cannot explain it. So I wanted to put my grocery list down here for you. It included:

Potatoes
Lard or shortening
Milk
Aluminum foil
Lunch meat
Bread
Olive oil
Canned salmon (We are going to try to venture out into eating more fish)
Salt
Yogurt (I need a starter yogurt to make my own with)
Heavy Cream (for the cheeses and I may make some more butter)

I didn’t look for sales. I didn’t pour over the sale flyers from the grocery store. I didn’t look up every sale online or clip a lot of coupons. I simply made my list and I went to get it. Do you know where I went?

Aldi – I don’t mind getting my staples at Aldi. There are several things I like about this store. The cashiers are quick. You must put a quarter in the slot to get your cart. There are no sales or coupons. It is not a mega store where you have to walk to one side of the store to get your pharmacy items and then walk back to the grocery side of the store past the toy aisle with two screaming, hungry children.

I am hoping to soon join a buying club to get my staples. I have not done this before so I will see how it goes.

So, this is a process. After Aldi, I did go to Walgreens. I did have a $5 off of $20 coupon and my husband insists that my cloth diaper training pants that we use on my son at night, aren’t working. I had to get pull ups. And then when I got there, they had price slashed a package of Huggies diapers (it was the mega pack). And then they had also marked the huge box of wipes down 50% so I felt compelled to get those – you see my problem! Also, they had one of those things where you can grab a coupon right there for the Huggies diapers so I did that too.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with sales and coupons. It is excellent for a lot of people. I would never say that people who coupon or watch sales are unhealthy especially since I still do it myself. I just like being able to whip something up when I run out rather then have to go to the grocery to get it. It is a personal preference.

On a completely different note, I am now nervous because my Aunt Jody told me she reads my blog every night. I feel like I really need to watch what I say. Aunt Jody – don’t think I am crazy.