wholesale

Coming from living with my folks, my idea of grocery shopping was always in wholesale. Get the biggest bag of cereal, a crate of milk, and anything else that came bundled for a World War II bunker. It made sense. Minimize the trips to the grocery, save on gas, time, parking fees...etc.

When I moved out, I learned that 'wholesale' isn't the best way to go. You can if you wanted to... bomb shelter quantity rations do prepare you for nuclear fallout.

But living alone, in an urban apartment, let's you budget space more than anything else. I can't buy a whole crate of juice if I wanted to simply because I don't have the storage space for it! This has forced a change in eating habits as well. Buying food has to be in smaller portions to avoid spoiling... and to avoid me getting sick of eating something!

As tempted as I am to buy a large jar of jam, I know that I won't be able to finish it before it expires, or before I grow sick of eating the same jam over and over and over and over every morning.

Now, I walk to the nearby grocery and buy a couple of tomatoes, maybe half a dozen eggs, half a kilo of rice (this is my whole month supply of rice actually), and juice. I go more frequently, and walking to the grocery has also become part of my workout routine. It's a little over a mile away so it's a light workout when I buy food. This also helps me vary the food that I eat on a weekly basis. And keeps more of my stock fresh. I've come to realize that by doing groceries more frequently, and in smaller portions, I minimize spoilage. I had to throw out a few things the first few weeks I started living on my own, and I didn't want to do that again.

For those living alone, or couples w/ no kids (and no maids), do you buy in bulk and store it? Or do you buy in smaller portions, more frequently? Do you go grocery shopping once a week? Or once a month?