No Stupid Questions

I tend to buy groceries at least twice a month, sometimes it is more than that because of impulse. Otherwise, I operate on a 35 ~ 65 budget.

I consider my monster javas, rice, pasta, coffee/creamer, oatmeal, almond milk, water, bagels/waffles with cream cheese and things to mix the pasta and rice with as essentials. They're always staples in all shopping trips.

My shopping lasts no more than 10 ~ 15 minutes, maybe less, because I always know what I'm after. I hate having to hop around stores to find things one other store doesn't have because while I could find cheaper alternatives, I am sometimes met with more pricier options which may force me to go without one of my essentials for a while.

My goal with grocery shopping is to extend rations as much as possible while moderating how much I eat. I do shop for processed foods like frozen and canned stuff, but I find that it actually helps my rations. I don't particularly pick up things like loaves of bread or produce because from my experience in the past, I always feel like I have to eat them sooner or they'll spoil and I don't really like having to feel like I got to wolf down something as soon as I buy it.

Longevity is key to me.

I or another person go once a week. I wish I went every few days, but I love about 20 min away and it's not my favorite place in the world. For some reason I always make a list even though I buy basically the same things. My partner never uses a list when he goes.

Red peppers, tomatillos, fibrous cereal, milk and soy milk, yogurt/cottage cheese, tortilla chips, a bag of grapefruit when in season, wasa crackers, hummus, eggs / bread / tortillas when low, and whatever I'm making for lunch for the week. Sometimes salad stuff.

mostly produce (this is the cheapest food, don’t let anyone fool you), but that usually doesn’t last a week before you cook it. shop is a 2 min walk away, produce markets 3 and 10 mins away, so we go often.

My sibling works at a grocery store, so I'll text them what to bring home. So it's more daily then weekly. Sometimes we go to the Asian Supermarket but that's more monthly.

I tend to spend a weekend cooking and freezing loads, then not really cooking for weeks.

So it's a massive targeted shop every few weeks to do that, then mostly small trips (often on foot/bike) to the local shops to get milk and any odd things I run out of, or if I feel like mixing dinner up with something else.

Weekly for essentials: fresh fruit, fresh veg, any specific food i need for cooking that week or anything that’s run out. Good bread. In summer we have a garden so it’s mostly the fresh stuff we aren’t growing.

Costco monthly for sandwich bread, milk, eggs, any bulk stuff we need.

I get animal protein in bulk from our local farmer about 1x every two years which drops the price. We eat animal protein about 3 times a week, vegetarian rest of the time.

Always with a list, always with a weekly meal plan.

I shop at our local grocery store 2x a month to get essentials as needed. "Essential" to us is anything we utilize the most, which usually boils down to milk, eggs, bread, fresh fruit/veggies. Every 4-6 months or so my spouse and I go to Costco and get items in bulk. Those trips are typically reserved for buying meats that we can freeze long term, along with frozen veggies, and non-perishables.

I always make a shopping list to make a point of not returning any sooner than necessary (but hey, sometimes I forget stuff anyways).

I tend to be the primary cook, but I make a point of making recipes that involve using dry, frozen, or canned ingredients as there isn't a rush to use them since they don't quickly spoil. Any fresh items are used within the 2 week frame between local grocery trips.

Almost once a week from an online supermarket. I typically plan 4 or 5 meals as I shop, with adhoc rice/pasta/noodle dishes, frozen portions and takeaways/meals out that usually lasts for 8 or 9 days.

I mostly cook vegetarian so most of the shop is fresh vegetables. We do eat chicken or fish once a week though. "Essentials" are pea milk, fruit juice, tomatoes, bread, eggs, avocados, oats, fresh/dried/frozen fruits - everything else is meal dependent.

It's much easier planning and buying from home and the selection online is much better than any of the local supermarkets. The only thing I regularly buy offline is coffee from a local roastery. There's some great independent shops in my village, but the green grocer can be a bit hit and miss on quality and it's rare that I can find everything we would like (or need) so I mostly use for the odd thing/special occasions. I will go to the bakery on a weekend in warmer months though.

I go almost every day. It's a good reason to get out and go for a walk.

What I buy mostly depends on prices/discounts. And only what I can carry in my backpack. Potatoes when affordable, otherwise rice; frozen veggies, ham/cheese, bubbly water, beer.

When I notice my fridge fails to either 1) hold enough prepped stuff to microwave an entree, or 2) provide snacks or something-pie -- it's grocery shopping time. I mostly keep to the membership stores, so just one/two visits a month, maybe. I only buy as much as I can carry in one trip from car to fridge.

Until yogurt drinks are in season again. Then it's worth getting delivered by the pallet.

A mix of pre-planned list if we ran out of something or we want to cook something specific and in-shop decisions seeing what's on promotion that week or what's close to the expiration date and discounted a bit more.

We try to have like 3 servings of meat per week, and a constant stock of tomatoes, onions, garlic and lettuce and two other veggies (depending on what's cheap that week: pepper, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes).

For dinner we usually try to stock: Bread, 3 types of sliced cheese (a cheap "mix", a cheddar and something fancy like a Camembert or Gorgonzola), and 3 types of cold cuts (prosciutto, krustenbraten, salami, chorizo, Mett, etc).

We keep a big stock of UHT Milk, pasta and rice, and restock when there's a promo or we run below 2 weeks of supply. Some lazy food like frozen Pizzas or ramen always needs to be available.

We buy eggs every two weeks from a local farmer.

Usually one big trip a week with short visits on a need-to basis if run out of something mid week.

Shopping is a mix of buying stuff that is pre-planned, and impulse purchases. That depends on a number of factors. If I went to the supermarket to buy e.g. peppers, but the ones they have don't look good, I can spontaneously change the meal and buy something else for which I can buy good products. Same at the meat frontier, I can easily switch plans if shopping reality dictates differently.

2 cups of rice, 1 cup of pintos, 4 flour tortillas, a nebulous amount of grits, 6 english muffins, 6 eggs, a few bananas and plain oat cereal, two bags worth of frozen veggies (cauli, broc, carrots, bell peppers, onions), a single chicken breast, a small roll of ground beef, a small roll of pork sausage, a half gallon of OJ, coffee, tea, oatmilk, and a hand-waved amount of spices, salsa, seasonings, choese, vinegar, and/or sweeteners.

huh, i eat more than i thought. I shop about twice a month, and usually buy the dry and freezable stuff in bulk so I don't notice as much how much I'm taking in on the regular.

The butcher delivers meat once a week on a schedule

About every other week go to the local wet market for variety

Anything else is ordered about once week from the local western style market (free delivery)

Usually a head of lettuce, a couple bell peppers, an onion, a lb of ground beef, any other meat that is on sale, a gallon of milk, bread, maybe some frozen or canned items, a bag of chips or some other snack, any staple items I might be out of, and a fifth of WT 101 if it's on sale.

I usually pick up enough stuff to last me a week or even two; mostly frozen pizzas, ingredients for curry, sweets, snacks, pantry staples like pasta sauce and pasta. Caffeinated beverages like soda or energy drinks are typically on my list too. I also get toiletries, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper every few weeks.

Two trips each week. One to the local farmers shop, for whatever is available there (mostly vegetables, eggs and bread, but sometimes fish, meat, ice cream, etc), and another to a supermarket for the common things (pasta for my gf and couscous for me, rice, flour, some dairy (fresh cream or cheese), sandwich bread and chocolate spread, sometimes stuff that needs to be refilled like oil, soap, toilet paper, etc and usually an extra meal : either rice and fish for sushi-like thingy, chickpea for nugetts-ich fried stuff, or a can of smthg like chili con carne).

We try to do lists for the supermarket, otherwise we always forget something. For the local shop, what's available varies greatly so there's no sense making a list.

My groceries aren't interesting, but I had a friend who only ate what went into a mug.

He carried around a ceramic mug, either collecting free stuff or telling people about his mug to see if they'd put food in it. Free samples, a few grapes, and occasional hand outs all went into the mug. I filled it with soup when he came by.

We manage our "food inventory" with Grocy which calls itself "the ERP beyond your fridge". It basically tracks every single purchase and consumption of food and also each items best before date. It needs a bit initial setup and you need to remind yourself to checkout stuff you consume but then it's just great. Not a single item spoiled because it got pushed too far back on the shelf. And since Grocy knows how much of what item we want in stock, it automatically writes our shopping lists with stuff which is about to run out.

So the shopping is basically day to day as we return from work and pass the store just ticking things off the list. And we made a rule for ourselves to only buy the stuff on the list, nothing extra to avoid impulse purchases.

I go grocery shopping once a week, and I'm buying just for two adults. Most things I get at Aldi, and some things at Giant if I don't like the Aldi version, or Aldi doesn't sell it. I do make a list ahead of time, but I buy mostly the same things every week.

A typical aldi trip includes bananas, berries (rasp or blue usually), avocados, some kind of fresh green veg for dinner (typically spinach, asparagus, or green beans), bread, jaffa cakes, coffee, low-fat cheese, laundry detergent & fabric softener, windex, dishwasher pods, toilet paper, canned fire-roasted tomatoes (soooo many easy recipes with these!), sparkling water, eggs, egg whites, almond milk, yogurt, and pierogies. Then I typically get my meat at Giant (most of Aldi's meat is pretty gnarly), plus things like toothpaste, evaporated milk, sugar packets, paper towels, canned lentils (my Aldi doesn't carry these???), and a little bouquet of flowers. And then some random things I buy on Amazon, like my tea (yorkshire gold), farro, protein powder, low-fodmap ingredients, etc.

I spend about $150 a week unless I'm out of something expensive like paper towels.

A shopping list on Google Keep has been a game changer. We have a shared list with my wife. Whenever we run out of something essential or need something, we add it to the list. Whenever one of us is in a grocery store, it's easy just to go through the list.

I pretty much eat depression meals, with occasional cooking. Trying to be better, but I still eat a lot of food that isn't the greatest for you, like frozen meals, that kind of thing. I really should be better, and I don't know if I should be sad or motivated seeing everyone else's food in this thread.

We spend around $200/week for 3 people and cook every meal. Comes to about $3/meal/person. Pretty much just some meat, beans, pasta, veggies, fruit and my kid's snacks.

A bag of frozen chips/fries, potato chips/crisps, 2 boxes of 12 eggs, some cereal, chocolate, maybe a crate of pop (Dr Pepper is my fave) and milk.

I walk each day to the local markets and grab whatever I feel like that day That's a good walk and is usually my cardio for the day.

Right now, it's usually a couple chorizos, and then I use the leftover oil to fry potatoes, seasoning the potatoes and then use the leftover oil/spice from the fried potatoes to fry a bunch of diced tomatoes so I have a thick fried salsa.

bag of tomatoes is five quetzales, same for a bag of onions or potatoes.

I grabbed a tamale and some carnitas yesterday for 4 bucks.

I like walking around and seeing what's open and available each day.

I'll usually have 2 or 3 meals in mind that'll carry me for the week. I'll make something that will have leftovers (stews, stir fries, etc), and other things that can be easily repeated (fried eggs, bagels, sandwiches, produce for salads, etc).

Once I get to the store things can change a bit according to what's available or what looks good.

My wife comes up with a menu for the week and buys everything needed to make it.

Once a month, we go to Sam's club and buy bulk meat which gets portioned and frozen, and other bulk non perishables like coffee, rice, pasta etc.

The weekly trips are about $200-$300 and the monthly trip is about the same.

We have five kids between us.