Confessions Of An Impulse (Grocery) Shopper
Folks, I am an impulse shopper. I know, you’ve all seen my fashion posts, but oddly enough, I’m not talking about clothes. Clothing I usually stalk and meditate on for at least a few weeks and sometimes a few months before buying. If I buy something on the spur of the moment, usually either it’s something pretty basic, or I have Lily or AJ along egging me on. (Those two are pure evil, let me tell you.) No, what I’m talking about is groceries.
Living as I do in New York, I order the vast majority of my groceries from FreshDirect, which lets me shop online and have the groceries delivered. You might think under those circumstances it would be impossible to make impulse purchases, being as the groceries are not delivered until at least the next day. You would be wrong. Yes, you can change your order before it’s delivered if you do it with enough lead time before 11 pm, but that would require you to go back and actually look at the order and remove things rather than hopping on to add new and more entertaining groceries that you have just thought of to the order. That would ruin the sport.
Yes, I’ve heard that the smart way to grocery shop is to make up a menu for the week, and then make a list and stick to it at the grocery store. Good for your diet, good for your wallet, saves you from inappropriate temptation, and so on. Whatev. Lists are for the weak. I do not shop for a list unless I’m having a party and I actually have to. This is how I ended up with two pounds of rhubarb and the breasts of two entire turkeys this week. (Did you know that if you order two turkey breasts you end up with the entire breast portion of two individual turkeys? I didn’t.) What was I planning to do with the rhubarb? Uh, something. You know, something springy and desserty. Involving rhubarb.
My unfortunate shopping habits certainly keep me from getting bored eating the same thing over and over again, but at the same time, they frequently put me in a difficult position. What exactly can one make for dinner with a pound of Italian sausage meat, chipotles in adobo, and a quart of buttermilk? I like to pretend that this is a healthy challenge to my creativity. Hey, the meal may turn out weird, but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right?
Maybe someday I will resign myself to listmaking, or actually manage to think twice before tossing something like truffle butter or a nice big jicama into my online shopping cart. I suspect it will take marriage or motherhood to force that change through the sheer shame of having to feed someone else the bizarre meals I make for myself, and the frequency with which I forget to buy any protein. In the mean time, consider me the Iron Chef of weird ingredients. And if anyone has any favorite rhubarb recipes, I’m all ears.
Yeah, I have the exact same problem. Which basically means I WAY overspend on food and up until recently, as I’m trying to mend my ways, throw lots of food away (mostly leftovers and produce). And I HATE throwing away food–the waste of money, resources, everything. Ugh. So yeah, I hear you on the trying to make lists thing. I’ve been going that way, albeit slowly, kicking and screaming the entire way.
But ah, rhubarb. I have yet to buy some this year…I need to get on that, since the growing season is almost done. Here’s a yum (but alas, not diet-friendly) recipe:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/02/big-crumb-coffee-cake/
Worth the calories, for sure…
Oh, that looks GOOOOD. I might have to try that. Diets be damned!
Oh gawd, I’m awful when it comes to impulse shopping at grocery stores. It drives Levi crazy. CRAZY. I run around and throw everything into the cart that I can get my little hands on.
What can I say? I like teh food. I’m always shocked when I send Levi off to the grocery store by himself with a list and he buys exactly what’s on it. ‘Cuz…who does that?!
Dear lord. I just made that cake and WOW. Thanks so much for posting it! I had to make The Man With The Hidden Talents take about 2/3 of it away to save myself, but it is completely delicious. Definitely going into the cookbook.
Of course, I still have 1 1/4 lbs of rhubarb in the fridge…
[...] require some thought and planning is my grocery bills. As I mentioned recently, I am a total grocery impulse shopper. This makes my cooking life pretty entertaining and frequently an adventure, but it also has the [...]