We’ve lived in our new home for two months now and I still don’t have my grocery shopping system down. At our old house I would meal plan on Thursday nights, shop early Friday mornings at Whole Foods, swing by Costco roughly every other week, keep the cost totals right where I wanted them, and be set for each week ahead. Our new home is different for several reasons.
First, proximity to stores. I wasn’t exactly close to Whole Foods before, but it was an easy and fairly quick highway drive. Not so much here. Our old Costco was 15 minutes away and busy, but very manageable to swing by when needed. Greenville’s Costco is a total… gosh, I want to say shitshow. But to keep it classy, I’ll just say zoo. It’s a zoo. And while I will keep my membership, I reallllly don’t want to go but once a month when I absolutely must.
We aren’t too far from The Swamp Rabbit Grocery, which is the cutest grocery and market that supplies quality organic and local goods. I want to do most of my shopping there because one of my goals for our move is to support more local vendors and farmers markets, but it’s not the kind of place you fill up a giant Costco-sized cart to stock up; it’s more the kind of place you swing through a couple times a week and get what you need, which could work, but it’s just a different kind of rhythm than I’m used to.
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To try to find the items I use most often, I signed back up for Thrive Market. I used Thrive Market years ago, so I’m familiar with the set up, but it had been a while. I was hoping if I could buy some harder to find staples through them, then I could fill in the gaps with my closer grocery stores that don’t necessarily have the items I’ve grown to love. I found a decent number of my favorites on Thrive, a few new things to try, and delivery was quick. I was bummed to find two of my jars busted open in transit, but I emailed them and they responded immediately and sent me replacements right away, which arrived intact.
I find the prices to be fair, roughly what I’d pay at Whole Foods, though their deal section has some winners. They do have a good variety though and it saves me time from hopping in and out of stores to try and find a certain product. Saving that time adds real value. I plan to stick with them for a few months and see if it feels worth it to keep longer term.
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I’m still ordering the large majority of my meat through the mail. I alternate between Butcher Box and Wild Pastures. I find Butcher Box’s site easier to navigate and they have more offerings, but I tend to like the quality of Wild Pasture a bit more and they have less packaging issues (like busted plastic).
I’d really like to buy another half cow and am looking locally for a good option for that. The Swamp Rabbit Grocery has a great selection of local meats, and I plan to purchase from them, too, but for now, bulk ordering meat through the mail works best for my meal planning and budgeting.
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Without having a system nailed down, I feel like I’m spending more than usual and am off my meal planning game. Since those are core attributes of who I am, I’m all kinds of thrown off at the moment.
Further more, we are just starting to see what our new schedule will look like with activities and commitments as we get into the spring semester. Arguably this impacts meal planning more than actual grocery shopping I suppose, but it’s a factor because I haven’t gotten down in my head that X-day is a slow cooker meal day and X-day I’ll have more time to cook. Spoiler alert: I’m starting to think almost all weekdays are going to be slow cooker or soup’s-in-the-crockpot-eat-when-you-can kind of days because our evenings are starting to fill up. Perhaps we overcorrected and made a big swing from no activities to too many, but only time will tell!
In conclusion- I don’t have an answer yet, but I’m narrowing down. I’m going to try once a month Costco hauls, regularly peruse Thrive Market’s deal section to keep the pantry stocked, mail order meat until I find a half cow, look forward to farmers market season, and start setting up and planning my garden (keeping my first year expectations in check on this one…).
Thanks for coming to my personal contemplation about groceries; this might have been really dull to wade through, but I’d love to get back to sharing meal plans and recipes, but I feel like I’m still not fully back in my groove. It’s coming soon though, and until then, check out my entire section dedicated to meal plans or the entire section I had dedicated to dinner ideas.
Do you have a good system for groceries and meal planning? A favorite store or mail order option?
