What are the places where you go completely off the plan when shopping? Even if you have a list, where do you leave with like 29 other things and then get home and go “%$#&!!!! I forgot ____!”
Signed,
after a horrible work day I went to Aldi for avocados, bread, and kettle chips….but I came home with 2 bags of (not kettle) chips, a box of clearance chocolate candy, and the hard seltzer advent calendar
And yes there was a whole section of avocados for 49 cents each and I just forgot to get them.
OMG YOU FORGOT THE AVOCADOS????????
I have 3 in the fridge, I just wanted to get more because they need a few days to ripen!!!
The avocados, and the pineapples need ripening time, too! (But I WILL wait a few days, for ANY pineapple that costs less than $2.00 (iirc, these were $1.69!😳🤯😃)
It’s ok, Myo–Aldi Avocados were still purchased tonight!!!
There are two sitting on my counter right now, that I juuuuust took out of the bag, if you need some.
😉😆🤣💖
#TEAMWORK
My OCD (I have never been diagnosed) tells me that I have to have FULL canisters of EVERY bean at all times…even the ones I don’t eat like lupini beans* of which I have had a full canister since 2010 and I don’t even care if they are still good or not because I will never eat them, but at least I have them…so I generally try to avoid the aisle with the dry beans because I’ll end up spending an exorbitant amount of money on beans I already have just in case I don’t already have them, or more specifically, the canister might not be full.
I’m the same with rice and spices which, luckily for me, are usually in the same aisle as the dry beans. So when the Zombie-apocalypse happens, I’ll have enough to feed all of DS for about 70 years.
*Lupini beans do not belong in a civilised society and anyone who, in any way, supports the lupini bean industry deserves a permanent feeling of shame as justice for the rest of us.
I’ve never even seen lupini beans in a store. Since there’s no chance I’ll buy them, what makes them so bad?
I might or might not have 3 kinds of lentils and several other dried legumes in the pantry.
They taste like someone or something else regurgitated fava beans into the canister.
Screw that, I’ll stick to the tasty legume options.
Except soybeans. Satan’s legume can fuck right off.
Are you a serial killer? I only know one other person that knows what fava beans taste like!
Fava beans are delicious when made right!
If you ever have the chance to order ful mudammas do it!!!!!
Fava beans are amazing and one store nearby even carries them fresh in pods once a year. Dude. They are so good.
Apparently they are SUPER bitter (they need a 5-10 day soaking process!😳🤯🥴), annnnd may be toxic, if not prepared correctly🙃
(I went down a rabbit-hole, after reading Myo’s comment, because I couldn’t remember *which* type of giganto-normous dried beans it was, that I picked up the last time I was at Bill’s….
Turns out mine are dried Fava Beans–luckily!😉)
5 to 10 DAYS???
whhyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would that be something people intentionally develop that legume variety?????
I haven’t seen Lupini beans since I was a kid. There were always jars of them at family gatherings. My uncles would eat them with their beer.
Nowhere. I am brutally efficient, as well as being a Cheap Bastard. I get what I plan to get and then I get the hell out.
I’m super organized about shopping everywhere but the grocery store. I am forbidden to go to the grocery store. Keitel takes the list,gets only what is on it, and has a system for efficient checkout and the orderly arrangement of the groceries. The last time I went, the bill was almost doubled from his estimated cost, and I went waaaaay off list. I love finding obscure spices and oils and brands…or at least I used to… back when I was allowed to go to the grocery store.
Sounds to me like you deserve a grocery store shopping spree at some point!
Only if you are paying for it.
This is me.
This sounds familiar.
Um. Literally everywhere? 🛍🛒 😬
I’m going to pretend we’re having this conversation pre-covid and I would still just go to stores for funsies.
Aldi, definitely. They have that aisle of home & seasonal stuff that changes from week to week and I’ve gotten all kinds of wacky – but good! – stuff there.
Ulta. I’m not even a big makeup wearer, been wearing the same brand of eyeliner for 20 years. But if I go in there for acetone and conditioner, I come out with sheet masks, a face wash, a pack of lip balm, and shower gel that smells like birthday cake.
My local thrift store. I go in there SPECIFICALLY for mindless shopping. Proceeds go to a domestic violence shelter and hotline so i don’t worry about buying stuff I don’t need. Plus, I kinda live in a hoity toity suburb so it is not uncommon to find furs, designer bags, Le Creuset (new), and gorgeous antiques.
Ohh the Ulta allure.
I specifically got Ipsy because subscribing to something monthly was less money that what I impulse-bought at Ulta.
As I was reading this the first store that came to mind was Aldi, so I had a nice laugh when I saw that it was yours too. I have never left an Aldi with only what was on my list. I always end up with so much more and I always forget something.
I’m bad about it at Trader Joe’s too, but with the customer volume TJ’s has outdoor lines to get inside. Aldi isn’t that busy the time of day I went and I didn’t want to wait outside.
Oh, yea. Trader Joe’s would usually be on my list but unfortunately I haven’t been near one since the pandemic started. I feel guilty driving to the closest one when there are perfectly good grocery stores much closer to me.
Secret confession time
When it’s not dark or raining, I love going to Trader Joe’s with the covid restrictions.
Yes, I have to wait outside 15-25 minutes typically, but oh my god it’s so nice inside with the volume limits. People aren’t surrounding you and there’s never a bad wait at the lines because we’re all waiting outside instead of backing up the checkers.
Any grocery store. I always forget something important from my list. Probably because I’m busy buying things that aren’t on the list.
Exactly…
I JUST did this at Aldi tonight!😉😆😂🤣
Went there for some zucchini & riced cauliflower… came out with a case of Water for my mom, a pineapple, two avocados, a bag of guava, some everything bagel-flats (HALF the carbs of regular bagels, so PERFECT for breakfasts!😉), “baby” carrots, a bag of “baby” peppers, TWO bags of rice i didn’t NEED, but which were 1. Cheap, and 2. Types i *didn’t* currently have on-hand–Basmati & Jasmine (why YES, @Myopicprophet, I CAN relate to your OCD-ish ways, and should the apocalypse happen, we will be THOROUGHLY stocked!**👋👋👋😆😂🤣🤣🤣), annnnd three boxes of granola bars…
The other stores it’s too easy to do this at are:
Trader Joe’s
Dollar Tree
And of course, Big Red (Target)
Ngl, I do this occasionally at MY grocery store, too–when there’s something on the clearance shelf I KNOW I’ll use, or when I’ve got time to cook the next day, and it’s meat that’s got to sell by that next day (it gets a “Manager’s Sale” coupon for $1.00-3.00 off, so it can get REALLY inexpensive, if you can time it right!😉)
The dollar store & TJ’s are probably my worst ones… Dollar Tree, because it’s a great place to buy cheap school stuff i can use with my kiddos–AND if you don’t get it *that day* (with certain things!), it’s likely you won’t ever see them come back through.
And with TJ’S, it’s that whole bit where you go information just a few things, and walk out with “Eighty-seven dollars’ worth of snacks later!”🙃
**and labeled, too, because I also remembered to pick up a white paint-marker, to write on the tops of my *newer* bottles of spices😉
*in for* not information!😖
Ooh did you get that brown basmati rice from Aldi? I bought 2 bags a few weeks ago but haven’t made them yet.
I have 2 other varieties of brown rice. Just a basic Riceland bag and then also I got a 2 lb bag of Cahokia rice because it’s higher protein and OMG how cool is it to live in the midwest and buy rice grown within 150 miles of me!!!
https://www.cahokiarice.com/collections/rice
Not this time, I was put of the regular ‘ol white Bas, so that’s what I grabbed first–then I saw that they also had 5# bags of Thai Jasmine rice for $2.39 on clearance/markdown, so that was the OTHER one I grabbed😉
Thanks for sharing the link to your local stuff–that looks COOL, and i bookmarked it, because between girl-roommie and I both having ‘beetus-y issues, and that “naturally higher protein” thing, that may be a GREAT rice for us to order, too😉💖
Do you guys have much wild rice for sale where you are, and do you ever buy/use/eat it?
That’s *my* other favorite type… soooo tasty, and I love the texture/chewiness that it has, when it’s cooked just right😉😁🤗
There’s a few different links on Chef Sherman’s Sioux Chef site, but the one I REALLY want to get, when I eventually run out of my current stash of wild rice, is the 5# bag from up on White Earth😍
$79-ish dollars may SOUND like a lot, for a bag of rice, but when you know that it was hand-harvested, and parched by actual people, and then danced & winnowed the way it’s been done for hundreds of years… well, 79-ish bucks seems like a pretty damn GREAT price, for something that’s had THAT level of hand-done work & craftsmanship put into it💖
I’ve never seen wild rice in the store that wasn’t like Texmati or Riceland, etc. But I will keep a lookout for more options!
I hate spending more time than I need to grocery shopping because I hate all other shoppers! I make my list by exactly what order I buy things in the store I have mapped in my head over 15 years at same store. Only place I spend extra time is marked down wine, meat & bakery. My wife hates to shop w/ me because I’m in & out in 10mins while she would spend an hour or more. I may hold a worlds record for Costco speed too while my wife could spend an entire day there. Needless to say, we fo NOT shop together often.
Do not fo! Where’s my edit button Myo? I know I know…
I have a local hardware store where I can bring in 50 year old faucet handle and they will tell me three possible ways it is leaking, sell me all of the possible parts I need, and the bill comes out to something like $11.56.
I’ll only end up using maybe three of them, but now I have a bag of random other bits in case they fail.
Local hardware stores are the best!
*go in with any random screw or bolt that needs replacing*
“oh sure, we’ve got that, walk with me to aisle 3 bay 4 row 11 spot 19 and there it is!”
Awhile back, my boys managed to break off a leg on an old armchair. Don’t ask, I’m still not sure how! Practicing their lion-taming or something, I have no doubt. Anyway. It was a screw-on “foot”, and they snapped the little metal plate that it screwed into. I took the broken piece to my local hardware store that’s been in town longer than I’ve been alive, and hey! Presto! Exactly the piece I needed in about 2 minutes flat!
I avoid the Menards and Home Depot type stores unless I have absolutely no choice.
Yep, that’s a good hardware store. That’s the only place I still browse/linger. And that’s really not been the case during the pandemic.
Grocery stores and secondhand stores are my kryptonite. Any other place, I go in, find what I need, and leave.
I can easily take an hour or more grocery shopping (partly because I have to read labels on everything to avoid the family’s various allergens) and come out with $50 more in random foodstuffs than I actually needed. The last time I visited my friend, we stopped at her local grocery for 3 things. I came out with $178 worth of interesting stuff (in my defense, that store has a huge section of imported goods that are never going to be found in my town. The ramen section at Walmart is about as exotic as it gets around here!) It’s a good thing my family is pretty easy going about food… they’ll eat pretty much anything I make. This past year, I’ve made Indian food, Chinese, Thai, Greek, German, and plenty of experimental one pot meal type dinners, and I’ve heard maybe 2 complaints.
But I digress. Sorry. I tend to wander off!
Thrift stores are my favourite place to just go poke around in. Especially for books and kitchen stuff! I buy basically everything for the house, as well as almost all clothes and shoes, secondhand. It’s both cheaper and more eco-conscious, since I have a big family. But Lord help you if it’s a secondhand book store*… I will be in there for as long as I can stand up!
*also libraries
And since thrift stores often are supporting charities, it’s nice to help that way, too!
Wow, I can’t be the only person who only goes off script at the liquor store? I go with a list but then I see something that I saw in a recipe that time and it all goes to hell. Maybe I should stop reading cocktail books to relax…
I haven’t actually been inside a liquor store in over a decade. What are the package laws like where you live? Are you limited in what you can buy at the grocery store, etc?
Like the only reason I don’t go to liquor stores is I can buy hard liquor at grocery stores, Walmart, Target, and gas stations. Hell, when I was a kid, Walgreens sold hard liquor, too!
I live in Massachusetts, we have blue laws, but I live close to the border of NH where they do sell beer and wine in the grocery and have state liquor stores. Or the packy as we like to say.
Asian groceries, every time.
I have in my pantry and fridge about 75% of things needed to make what I want to eat, all the time. Each time I come back I end up with like 5 out of 6 things to make a completely different dish and they ran out of what I wanted originally.
I’m that way when I stop at the big international grocery store. Sure, I totally needed several kinds of dried peppers, and a bunch of dried fruits, and some rando teas, and definitely some legumes – oh those are lentils I don’t have already, and what kind of cabbage is that? etc etc etc.
I’m that way when I stop at the big international grocery store. Sure, I totally needed several kinds of dried peppers, and a bunch of dried fruits, and some rando teas, and definitely some legumes – oh those are lentils I don’t have already, and what kind of cabbage is that? etc etc etc.