debianuser

I was Krogering the other day and came up with a great idea and I thought I'd share.

What if someone were to build a grocery store where you buy only what you need. Being a single guy in college (a skinny guy at that), I eat very little compared to the portions they sell at the grocery. I thought of this as I reached for a 6-pack of eggs to make some bananna bread and realised the other 4 non-used eggs would probably go bad. The same goes with milk. I buy a half a gallon and it goes bad ALL THE TIME. If I buy an item like lunch meat, lettuce, spaghetti sauce, It seems as though that's all I eat until it is gone because I dont want it to go bad.

If I buy only what I need, it will be cheaper for me and the grocery store will have more to sell to another customer to make money.

I think I'm just going to resort to eating frozen foods.

Does anyone else feel the same way??

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ice ice baby

Shirtninja

I am that way with milk. I hate the taste of it, but use it in a lot of the things I cook. I normally waste at least half the jug every time.

Suave

Some advice to avoid perishables going bad: use the fridge and freezer a lot. Freeze butter, milk, cream, eggs, meat if you're not going to use them often. Refridgerate things like bread that you might normally leave out but don't eat fast enough. Drink fruit/vegetable juices instead of buying the actual produce if you want something cheaper, and longer-lasting.

Also pop hard liquor in the fridge or freezer if you want it to hold its flavour.

sandinista

Problem is that with micromanagement and the current world economy it's cheaper to buy huge amounts of something and let it go to waste than selling small amounts of something. Take, for example the 99 cent, 200 pickle jar you can currently buy at wal-mart. No one can possibly eat that many pickles in any given time, but they still sell it for 99 cents - cheaper than anywhere else. Why spend more money on less?

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"Nature herself makes the wise man rich."
-Cicero

la petite moi

At the supermarket I went to in France, they had a lot of individual products- you chose how many eggs you wanted, and put them into a carton. You could get individual yoghurts, and their milk doesn't have to be refrigerated before being opened (and is good like that for six months). Once opened, the milk lasts the same as our milk, but even then, the containers are smaller.

maleficent

Parmalat, a milk sold in most grocery stores (and Netgrocer) is like that. you can get it in single containers that I think are 8 ounces or in quart containers. Only gets fridgerated after it's opened and will keep in the cupboard as long as you need. I don't drink milk, but for coffee and for cooking, there is no difference at all.

I'm sure there are places that sell groceries in single serve containers, but the convenience woul d be expensive...

Spices would be especially nice if sold in smaller containers... (spices loose thier spiciness and should be replaced at l east yearly - when I'm doing holiday baking - it gets expensive throwing out the unused cinammon and nutmeg and other stuff, and buying new - I'd rather get smaller containers and know that I'm going to use it all up (and pay less for it too)

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Rodney

Buy dairy in smaller containers; it's more expensive by the ounce than a half-gallon, but not if you're going to throw out or waste most of that larger carton.

Find a good natural food store and buy spices from the bulk bins, and never buy more than you need (at 1/10 the price, too). Buy fresh spice bottles from a kitchen store, wash and reuse as necessary.

-- Edit -- also, natural food stores often carry staples like pasta, beans, cereal, and more in bulk. You can buy as little as you need.

Buy all meat, including lunch meat, from a full-service butcher. You can buy in precise and small quantities. Again, prices may be higher than the average supermarket, but are more than compensated for by lack of wastage.

Buy produce from stores who do _not_ prepackage it. Find stores that sell loose "salad mix" that you can ladle into a plastic bag." You take only what you want. This stuff sells for $4 a pound, but a one-pound bag of that stuff is about the size of a horse's head, and with no leathery leaves or core that nobody wants to eat. Or, buy varieties of lettuce that come in smaller heads.

The funny thing is, high-end, more expensive food stores are more likely to sell food in these ways. But since you really only have to buy what you want, they can actually be _less expensive_ than stores who sell at lower prices but only in bigger bulk -- if you don't really need all that food.

irseg

My biggest problem in this respect is pasta sauce. The jars are all sized to accomodate a small army, and they are like mold magnets if they sit in the fridge for any length of time.

I'd be happy to pay 2/3rds less for a jar that's 1/4th the size, because I wouldn't be throwing it out all the time.

Captain Nemo

irseg, make your own pasta sauce. It is remarkably easy once you get the hang of it

bernadette

freeze the extra pasta sauce.

i have meatballs in red sauce in the freezer right now.
cuz i'm not good at making small quantities of some things...

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shesus

I like the idea of buying just what you need. However, I agree with Sanidsta, it is cheaper to buy the bigger sizes. I used to buy the family size meat and open it as soon as I got home and wrap it in single serving packages to freeze. I still do that with kielbasa when I buy it to make red beans and rice. But what bugs me the most is how they package things different sizes. For example, hotdogs and hotdog buns are packaged different sizes. So you either have to buy extra hotdogs or let some buns go to waste. I think it is a conspiracy the food industry has going on.

ICER

I have had that same idea for years, ever since my German language teacher went to Germany on a trip. And told use about how thrifty the German people were. You could buy one egg, or a dozen. A glass of milk or a gallon. I think it a great idea.

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What's the difference between congress and a penitentiary?
One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers and threats to society.
The other is for housing prisoners.
~~David Letterman

uncle_el

whole foods grocery stores, local farmer's markets, going to the deli counter (for the right amount of sandwich meat and cheese) are some options as well.

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An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of inprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

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vanblah

Check around for food co-ops in your area (http://www.foodcoop.com/). A lot of times they will have smaller quantities of things.