Grocery shopping is a necessary chore for any household. Where there are people, people must be fed. Unless you have a thriving garden on your property, you most likely have to make a choice about how you get food in those people’s bellies: from restaurants and the like or from the grocery store.
© Kaspars Grinvalds / Dollar Photo Club
Why You Hate Grocery Shopping & How to Start Liking it More
Unfortunately, grocery shopping gets a really bad rap. I know several people who just downright hate grocery shopping. Most of the time, I don’t really care for it myself. Wanna know if you’re in good company? Here are several reasons you might hate grocery shopping, and why you should change your mind about it.
You Hate Spending Money
Soon after I finished high school, and I started shopping for myself, I realized just how much I didn’t like grocery shopping. It was the bane of my existence. Even though I had very few bills, I felt like buying groceries was sucking money from my bank account. I might be exaggerating, because, well, I didn’t buy a ton of groceries. But you get the point. I didn’t like spending ANY money on groceries.
It took me a while to finally stop complaining about it. Because, you know, food. You gotta eat.
Now that I have been married for over 7 years, I’ve tried several ways to save money on groceries. We don’t coupon, and, yet, we still spend less than $300 each month for 4 people. You can change your eating habits, cooking habits, or even meal planning habits, and save more money than you would believe. Here are several posts that can help you save on groceries:
- 6 Steps to Determine Your Family’s Unique Grocery Budget
- Don’t Stick to Your Shopping List!
- One Easy Way to Stop Wasting Food
- Save Moolah on Groceries with Substitutions
- How I Fill My Freezer without Doing Any Freezer Cooking Days
- How to Start a Pantry Staples List to Save Money
It’s Inconvenient
So you’d rather just get takeout than go grocery shopping? For the convenience factor?
Let’s just say, for kicks and giggles, that you order your food from your phone and have it delivered to your home each evening. Over the course of a month, how much would you have spent on food for two people? For 4 people? For six? At $12 per person, you’re looking at about $720 per month for 2, $1,440 per month for 4, and $2,160 for 6. And that’s just dinner. What about tips, breakfast, lunch, and snacks? What about the costs to your health?
As you can see, buying takeout adds up quickly, especially the more people you have to feed. Fortunately, the world is brimming with grocery stores where you can purchase food for a fraction of the cost you’d have to pay at a restaurant or for takeout. How convenient! 🙂
If it’s truly inconvenient to go grocery shopping because of a work schedule or whatnot, then maybe you should check out the world of online grocery shopping. There are several places you can shop around your schedule. You don’t even have to change out of your pajamas. Or take a shower. Ok, that’s gross.
I had no idea that you can shop at Walmart.com for food. (I still won’t shop there.) I’ve wanted to dabble a bit in shopping through Amazon.com, but I haven’t tried it yet. Other online grocery stores seem either way too expensive or way too limited about where they will ship the food.
Your Family Tags Along
If you can stick to your list much better without your kids or husband, don’t take them! Having a bunch of extra people with you in the store can drag out the time it takes to get through the store, and you’ll probably end up with even more things in your cart than you need.
If you do have to take your kids with you, try to make it fun for them and then you’ll be happier. Let them pick one or two items from produce and then plan some meals around that. They’ll be a lot more likely to eat it if they are involved with the planning and choosing.
It’s Crowded
This is a big reason why I sometimes hate grocery shopping…it’s too crowded. But I know that it’s because I usually go at peak times. Instead, I should be going shopping on weekday mornings (the earlier the better) to have the aisles to myself. If you hate grocery shopping for this reason, too, pick a day and time that is less crowded and stick to it.
If you have to go when it is busy, be sure you have a list and know the layout of the store. Try to maneuver around people quickly, and only stop to get something that is on your list. Then when it is time to check out, find the line with the least amount of people, no matter how many groceries are in the other people’s carts or on the belts.
You’re Always There
Do you stop at the grocery store pretty much every day? I’d hate grocery shopping for this reason as well if I had to go that often.
If you hate meal planning and grocery shopping, that is double the trouble. You must have a meal plan so you are going to the grocery store only once a week. I do a weekly meal plan, but we usually have to get a few things in between shopping trips to hold us over (for things like bananas, milk, and tomatoes). You’ll spend way more money if you are going every day, so definitely get a meal plan going ASAP.
You Forget the List
It’s the worst to do your due diligence with meal planning and then get to the store only to realize that all that planning was left at home on your counter. You don’t have your list. For Pete’s sake!
If this is you (and this has been me more times than I can count), then be sure to have a list on paper and a list on your phone or tablet. Take both with you to the store, but if you ever accidentally leave one or the other at home, you’ll have the other list in a different form.
Organize your list by how your store is laid out and you may be able to remember everything you need just by visualizing it. If you try to do this each time you go shopping, then you won’t have to worry if you accidentally leave your list at home.
You Hate the Store Near Your House
Are you shopping somewhere that you just cannot stand? Change things up! Go to a store a little farther away once a month. It might even be fun to go to the Farmer’s Market occasionally.
If these are not options for you, send your husband to the store on occasion. I would not do this myself, just because my husband tends to buy without looking at the price of things, but it may give you some relief when he goes if you hate the store that much.
You Wish You Had More to Spend
Imagine you had an infinite amount of money. Would you still hate grocery shopping? Ok, even if you did, you could pay someone to do all the shopping for you. But, really, if you could spend as much as you needed on groceries, you might not hate shopping so much anymore. I would love to enter the grocery store and put anything into my cart that I love. Raspberries? Check. Dark chocolate? Check. Keebler cookies? Check.
I think having a limited grocery budget actually proves to keep you in line. You probably buy healthier foods for your family than if you had plenty of money to spend. At least that’s how it is for me. So be grateful for your $400 grocery budget. It helps you think more creatively and avoid shopping for convenience foods.
Grocery shopping does not have to give you anxiety each time you go. Instead, learn how to save money on your food, shop online if that’s what works for you, leave your family at home, go when everyone else is working or sleeping, make a weekly meal plan, memorize your list, send someone else, and be grateful for your budget. Try one or all these things, and grocery shopping may just become one of your favorite activities of all time. 😉
What do you hate about grocery shopping?
- 5 Healthy, Easy, and Fun Halloween Recipes Kids Love - 10.30.24
- 40+ Autumn Comfort Food Meal Ideas for September - 09.02.24
- 40+ Back-to-School Meal Ideas for August - 08.05.24
I don’t mind grocery shopping but if I had to pick the worst thing about it, for sure it’s spending money 🙁 Of course though I know this is a given, so I instead try to save money instead and get a kick when I can get it under our budget!
It does feel good when you can save money on groceries. I always get the worst feeling when the total comes up and it’s over what I figured it would be. Maybe I should start calculating as I go so there are no surprises!!
We shop online for a few of the reasons that you mentioned (saving money, not having to haul all of the kids to the store, and eliminating impulse purchases). Plus, my hubby swings by a local store one night a week after work or in between playing taxi and snags everything else we need. Makes it so much easier!
Are groceries more expensive up there in Alaska? I don’t know if we could save too much money buying things online, but I’ll have to try it and see.
They are much more expensive. That’s why it’s so great that Amazon’s prices are the same across the board in the U.S. We get a great deal up here. I don’t think you’ll find as many great deals as we do, but there are certainly some gems to be found. I just noticed your dia de los muertos post in the sidebar. That’s wild!
A schedule for shopping, a thorough list based upon menus and organized by category, and making things homemade instead of box/can prepared foods were all very big deals to keep our family of 8 well-fed with minimum expense. Also we had many meatless meals; that saves a lot of money!
Because each family member was responsible for planning a dinner menu and help prepare it, they ate it well and willingly cleaned up.
We bought chicken in volume, seasoned it and cooked it, cooled it, shredded it, and divided it then froze it. It made it fast to prepare a dinner of say, chicken and dumplings.
Now I am trying to learn how to make meals for just two people.
Those are all great ideas to lower your grocery budget, Dianne! Isn’t it funny how life goes? One minute your a busy little bee, and the next you are twiddling your thumbs. Thanks for stopping by and sharing. 🙂
None of these. I hate it because there are way too many choices for everything. 20 different butters, 15 brands of meat, a produce section the size of a drugstore, it’s enormous. It’s overwhelming.
Additionally, There’s never enough parking spots for the amount of people in the store. The whole experience beginning to end – researching meals that use the same ingredients and figuring out a schedule, making that list, remembering your list and your canvas bags, driving to the store – you haven’t even gotten to the store and you’re a minimum of one hour invested. Then you get to the store and you’re looking at a minimum one hour to navigate it, check out, and get the things in your car. Then driving home, putting it all away, and doing your meal prep for the week. It takes all of a Sunday. An enormous Time sink.