Holiday Prep Tip: Shopping Early Saves Physical Effort & Money

 

One of the most difficult things for me about preparing Thanksgiving (and Christmas!) dinner is the extra huge list of grocery shopping I must accomplish. There are so many unusual ingredients (like fresh cranberries, for instance) that I must have on hand to do my traditional dishes.


The extra bags of groceries make for lots of extra work, from bringing them into the house to putting all the items away. Also, it is typically double the cost of my usual grocery trips!
I normally just sigh and deal with it. But having just had knee surgery two weeks ago and being on a walker, I have to think hard about how I will accomplish the holiday grocery shopping this year.
The idea occurred to me to write out the list of all the special items required and then split it into three sections – perishables like heavy cream and fresh veggies, indefinite storage boxed dry goods, and canned products.
What I will do then is to plan on three weekly trips to the store. On the first trip I will purchase all the indefinite storage dry goods, plus 1/3 of the canned products. On the second trip I will purchase the fresh veggies and any items that can be frozen (again, like fresh cranberries), plus another 1/3 of the canned products. On the third and final trip, I will purchase all the remaining fresh veggies and other perishables, the final 1/3 of the canned goods, and anything I had previously forgotten to put on my list!
Before the first trip I will scrounge through all my usual coupon websites and the Sunday newspaper coupon booklets and sort those in groups according to the grocery trip they belong with.
Hopefully with this plan I will save myself a lot of time, stress and fatigue – not to mention a little bit of cash!
Written by: Sheila Talley © 2008, butyoudontlooksick.com

  • This is a great article. You have a good plan for handling that massive load, especially splitting the canned goods into three trips rather than one.
    For years I had trouble getting groceries because I had transportation problems. It was hard getting a ride and I couldn’t use the bus. So when I got to go at all, I did one overwhelming trip for a month or two or three all at once.
    Then knocked myself out for weeks and was glad to have enough food to last and be able to put off doing it again. But if I had a car it would have been a lot easier to use your strategy.
    I probably still would have stockpiled months worth of food but been able to do it gradually, one canned goods and nonperishables sale at a time. Today, Kitten still does that — and does it the way you’re describing, a little extra on every trip.

  • Sheila,
    Great ideas to make things easier for yourself. May I also suggest looking into whether you have a local delivery service such as Peapod, or if your local supermarket delivers themselves? I do this regularly, and with the non-perishables and can goods you could do it ahead of time and not have to carry anything!
    Thanks for a great post!
    Maureen

  • Carol

    I don’t have a car so I have to schlep to town on a bus if I want to go shopping. The cost of a taxi is obscene.
    I use a small shopping trolley to wheel my things home. A friend goes shopping with her car Saturday mornings so once a month I go with her to get the cat litter and big bulky things.
    One though I have learned is, if I see something that appeals to me I buy it then and there because I swear by the next time I go to buy it, it’s gone.
    You never know what things will be in demand and be gone before Thanksgiving and Xmas. One year the stores ran out of diet Coke so I slow start buying one extra bottle a week.