Years ago when I bought the groceries during my stay at home/work at home interval I used to take the children with me after school. They were great helpers and I was especially conscious of teaching my youngest to read the labels although my older daughter also did so. They were quick and could find items faster than I could because my vision was definitely limited back in those days plus I proofreading/copyediting eight to ten hours per day so eyes were tired very often.
I enter the store and take my Moi card over and collect the special items of the day. I could do that earlier but they make it easy to just do it there. Then I start into the vegetables and fruits where I collect as much as 1/3 of what I am going to buy. Then over to the cheese and humus (one of each) and then off to the bread (one or two) and then pick up a bag of mixed nuts (once a month as I eat them every morning) on the way to the cereal aisle which I skip if I already have enough (I eat three different kinds of cereal - three kinds of granola, loose oats in a bag you cook, Shredded wheat (small biscuits) so I do not always have to buy that and then I just skip through the next aisle as I do not buy sweetened fruits or cookies or even crackers and then I pass by the alcohol as I do not buy that and soft drink as I seldom buy that either. The next aisle has nuts (unsalted in bags) and cranberry juice (my one exception to a high sugar drink). I do shop that aisle every week. That brings me around to the baking aisle and also canned fish and some canned/bottled vegetable. Usually I do not need anything but this past week I got a can of salmon. That brings me to the frozen aisle where I have plenty in the freezer because I do not eat a lot of it so maybe buy one bag every couple weeks of something that has gone low. That is it for the rows as I seldom buy cans of anything and seldom eat pasta so I am headed to the milk where I buy 0% because I come from a high-cholesterol family. Then yoghurt, eggs, butter/margarine (avocado) (if needed) and cottage cheese (1%). Now back to the meat counter where I buy chicken (8 thighs every other week) and salmon. That is it and I am done and this week coming I shall go through the self checkout. The only time I really need help is if I have forgotten how to charge up something in the vegetable/fruit area which is by weight. So no prepared foods, no cold cuts (I only like jellied tongue particularly and noticed the last time I had it; I wasn't really interested), no manufactured food. I prefer the raw product.
I still remember the disappointment when I bought my favourite cookies (used to be made in Canada and now made in the United States) and I could not eat them after two years they were too sweet. No thank you. The only cake/cookie type item I have is my home-made banana bread with margarine (avocado) or butter once a day and it has probably 2 tsp of brown sugar in every slice (I do slice it thin so it lasts a week). Very tasty.
I realized yesterday that my grocery buying had become very much like a military drill. When my daughters were with me and/or my husband it was a much longer process because of the reading probably and my husband definitely had a sweet tooth. I used to bake a lot but decided that it was healthier for him that I did not do so much baking. Then he would debate what to buy at the store and would put it back if I didn't agree to at least eat one of the items in the box. So depending on what his weight was like I either agreed to eat a piece or said I didn't want that this week! The girls were picky, they didn't eat a lot of processed foods either so that was handy. But whether you buy basic ingredients or manufactured food they are both expensive these days.
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