Stop these 10 Food Shopping Mistakes NOW! 

Smart Lady your mom, it's amazing how they fool us if we fail to watch out for the $/kg

Calculate it yourself too. The shelf labels often lie

Also check for adulteration in the ingredients. Something that should be simple like 'Seasoned Chicken Breasts' often contains soy protein/TVP in the seasoning here. So the manufacturers have extended the meat with cheaper plant protein but somehow they're allowed to call that a seasoning.

I do that to. And it saves me a lot!

@@KaitouKaiju well, no, they don't actually. At least not where I'm from.

Something I need to learn!

This feels like the time where you make a joke and get no response, but the friend that repeats it gets all the laughs. :P

I think many stores serve cooked food so that you show up hungry, do your shopping, then stop and eat food

@@Wesdotcool the smells!

Don't go grocery shopping with a PMS brain either. When PMS is on the horizon everything looks tasty all of a sudden.

Yeah it's great you can get star anise for nearly a 10th of the price same with clove

Yes! Don't sleep on the little bags of spices in the Mexican foods section or store.

Another tip -ALWAYS KEEP YOUR SPICES IN THE DARK - never in clear jars on shelves subject to daylight., I had a custom built kitchen and have 2 shallow drawers which I can put my spices/herbs in (they're in stainless steel tins with clear lids - similar to those spice box Indian cooks use. Don't buy bulk ground spice in this manner as the shelf life is much less and you will find the spice not as pungent. I always buy my dried oregano in bulk on the stalks in a sealed bag. To use, trim off the top of the bag, upend over your dish/pot and scrunch the outside of the bag until you've 'dispensed' sufficient dried oregano leaves ... NO STALKS usually! Store in a dry, dark pantry.

Glad to see mention of the Asian/Indian markets here. I have a variety of both available to me, and though I have favorites among them, I utilize several of them over the seasons depending on what their particular emphasis is. For example, one of the markets I shop regularly has 3 1/2 whole aisles of noodles of all styles/ingredients from many nationalities -- be still my heart! As with "conventional" Western grocers, it is very helpful to know what a variety of markets have to offer for the best creativity in your cooking and bang for your buck.

Not only for spices. I always get the ingredients for Asian dishes at the Asian market, be it noodles, miso and other seasonings, or even peanut butter. Turkish markets are really common here and they are great for fresh produce like veggies and herbs, but also legumes, bread, and spices.

Yeah now it is really easy to decide on a whim, you can just Google recipe and if you know what you have in a fridge just buy needed ingridient

This warms my heart

@@Wesdotcool Great advice.

Love this comment, I'm feeling inspired 🙏✨

I live about 25 miles from my favorite store, so I, too, have a 1/week rule when it comes to shopping. Going multiple times a week wastes gas and takes a lot of time out of my day. Also, I have a small chest freezer for my frozen fruits and vegetables and my prepped meals for the work week. That alone was more than worth the investment. I highly recommend it if you can afford it and have more than yourself (and your special someone) in your household.

I used to only go once a week but during Covid I go into the nasty habit of going to the store like 3-4 times a week just to have an excuse to get out of the house.

Some run you down with their cart like a car!

Great tips!

If your greens have wilted, put them in a big bowl of cold water for 20-25 minutes or so. They'll perk right back up. I've saved countless heads of lettuce this way that I would've otherwise thrown in the compost. Same goes for carrots, celery, radishes...

This was my problem too I love produce but I wasn’t using it fast enough. I learned to do some fresh and mostly frozen. I noticed far less waste. I also buy less bananas and things that spoil quickly. We eat more salads so that doesn’t go to waste. Which has improved us health wise.

Great tips, but remember that most frozen fruits need to be heated up to kill off bacteria before consumption :)

My only problem with buying the store brand is to save money is that when there is a temporary problem at home like a loss of a job or a sudden major expense is that you can't shop cheaper than you always do because you're already shopping pretty cheap. I still mostly Shop store brands when I can.

@@mikeshore886 So... Shop cheaper, and put your savings in a rainy day fund?

The brand might matter for bread/pizza dough because of differences in gluten content. But agree, they are mostly interchangeable.

@@user-kr2ty9vk5n Yeah and pasta to. Flour is a place where quality matters.

@@mikeshore886 this is why you have an emergency reserve fund...

Agreed! I found two ma and pop stores I loved. Small and stuffed full of goodies. Their meats were much cheaper than bigger chains and they had actual butchers and unusual cuts and variety of cuts.

Great one

It helps that most stores don't require masks anymore. I HATED shopping when wearing a mask.

@@doradennis2409 diddums

I tend to go shopping an hour before the store nearest me closes. It's quiet, I don't have to stress about people behind me waiting in line as I hand over coupons, and the overall vibe is just a lot more calm. I don't have access to the deli counter because it's closed by then, but I end up doing a lot less impulse spending that way.

I was shocked by the sugar content of the joghurts shown. Yeah, joghurt contains a lot of lactose. But not that much. Dairy is so sweet already due to the natural lactose, you really don't want to add sugar to that.

I always make my grocery list in order and save cold and frozen for last...i live 25 min from the nearest grocery store

Yeah, those were two things I wondered about while watching: the way he was putting more objects on top of grapes (!!), and also going for the meat and dairy before the shelf-stable goods. I mean yeah, it makes the trip *conceptually* easier (since protein is, indeed, a big chunk of the budget), but it leaves the refrigerated goods in your cart for longer.

Love this tip! I've struggled to maintain a consistent list since no family is relying on me to organise it, but this is my ideal system hahah

My husband is 11 or something. (68) and will NOT text me, tell me or write anything down.

@@lorrie2878 Then, cook only what YOU like, and know what you need to buy, and if he complains, say: add your ideas to the list, and I will try to buy the ingredients for it. Or if he likes, say, Honest ice tea lemonade, and you stop buying it, tell him, well, you need to put it on the list! Ps I'm 66. 😊

@@Debra_Hasatheory exactly.

my partner and I use an app called listonic, which works similarly. i recommend it all the time bc i love it so much, it's synced to both our phones & you can have multiple lists; we have one for fresh produce and any other weekly items, and one of pantry items that always stays the same so that we can track how much we have of bulk stuff & keep an eye out for sales if we're running low

that challenge to me is the ultimate test of a home cook and completely revolutionized the way I cook for my family! thanks for chiming in.

I've started to just take a couple of photos of the fridge, freezer, pantry and spices before I head to the store, I can't quite see everything for a complete inventory but it stops me from buying a 3rd cumin when I can reference the spice photo.

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legit, that was the first thing I thought (besides don't shop at Amazon unless necessary)

i buy the big containers at cosco, you only need to add a couple in your basket each time you go there and you'll end up with a large collection that will last a long time and save you money compared to the whimpy little supermarket ones.

It helps to look at "exotic" stores as well. I live in the Netherlands, but I always buy fresh herbs at a local Moroccan grocer, because he has the best stuff at almost half the price.

WinCo bulk section. Good to refill generic items like onion,garlic, baking powders.

Sprouts does here in Arizona.

may I ask what do you mean by that? You didn't had meal structure at home?

@@foo8lover just inconsistent, the odd family dinner but it was 90% fend for yourself from a young age.

They should teach this stuff in high school.

@@hollydueck3209 Seeing as you basically have to parent yourself, maybe check out some cooking books made for kids? Who cares if they are childish, they are great for learning basic skills!

I agree with you. It has to be taught.

I wouldn't say Aldi is environmentally conscious at all. they use sooooo much plastic - every fruit or vegetable is either packed or sealed with plastic. even units. cheap but so bad at packaging.

You're right, I wouldn't say that being able to recycle 75% of the packaging I get from there is the best. But I do appreciate the fact that it's more effort than any other grocery stores in my area and a bonus double bag in plastic like everywhere else where I live. I would say it's the best option available for my situation. If you're interested, you should check out Aldi's information on their self-proclaimed business plan to be zero waste by 2025. It might be all talk, but I guess we'll find out.

They are super far from environmentally conscious the UK crunched the numbers and found that you have to reuse a bag about 170 times before it becomes more environmentally friendly on an emissions level than plastic bags, whereas paper bags you only have to reuse 4 times and they have the benefit of being completely biodegradable unlike most reusable bags. If Aldi really cared about the environment they would cough up the extra 4 cents and give you a punch card where you get another paper bag after your 4th punch and it's torn or something along those lines. Plus they wrap damn near all their produce in tons of plastic, I have mesh bags for my produce it's completely unnecessary. Edit: It's also probably worth looking into recycling plastic, long story short almost none of it gets recycled it gets shipped to China and a good chunk of the time they just toss it in the ocean.

Aldi and Lidl are just so ass lately. It used to be a decent alternative to Tescos and Sainsburys but with worse quality and cheaper prices. Now the quality is still ass especially with the fruit and vegetables but the prices have been raised to sainsburys tesco level

678😊

I do that too! In France, our charcuterie section has a tray of cutoff ends, the 'talons', for a discounted price, and I'll often find some prizes there to season a salad or pasta dish. The meat department's 30% same day discount adds up, too, and yes, they can all be frozen very nicely. Cheers, my frugal friend.

I didn't like frozen meat until I got a vacuum sealer. Now it doesn't bother me to freeze meat.

@@poppavein1 Been doing that for years, and agreed - buy when you find a bargain and vacuum seal it, then freeze it. Also works for some vegetables, but I usually parboil them and then have to use the "wet" setting on the sealer prior to freezing them.

@@Shanockdotcom Kroger, and it is in North Texas, and I went shopping today, and it is back north of $3 today. My wife and I look out for bargains when we can, and this was a "limit two" deal. Wish I had gone back in and picked up another two.

My daughter taught me about the Greek yogurt! It is all I ever use anymore, works on everything!

LOL!

Honestly can't tell if sarcastic.

@@DavidWMiller Nope, I'm not like that. I'm serious.

@@Victorian9322 Its not really something you are taught to be fair

@@Harry-bg8ew it should be

Except, please don't bruise the fruit by pressing your thumb into it as shown. Holding it in your palm with gentle (much gentler than shown in the video) will tell you if it's ready.

every couple of months only? I do it every week at least.

@@ElaBlu3 things in my freezer and pantry, and condiments in my fridge don't spoil quickly so I don't need to evaluate them weekly. Perishable foods in my fridge definitely get used up asap

Same here , keep food waste small i rarely have to throw spoild food away. Also improvise every Day what make from what i have. I learned this creative cooking from my mother. So wont need to go shopping and i stay on my small buget every month. people surprised what can make from a few carrot , a zucchini , a potato , a egg and some flour .... Korean styled pancakes

@Spacedinos This is great advise! lots of melons work this way as well

Thanks! That's a great idea I'd never thought of!

The only thing wrong with that is your dairy, deli & frozen will be out of the refrigerators longer than necessary. If you can do the perimeter of the store last your cold things will stay cold until home.

i often freeze ground meat for later, in sizes zip packs for bolonga sose. I buy also big Chicken Tighs packs on sale , i debone them and freeze them up for later when i need chicken meat. Take some work and practice in debone them but worth it use the bones for stock. The stock is also frezzed

I built a Notion database that has the price for every single item available, from most of the shops near me. So when it auto generates a shopping list for me using my meal planner and inventory databases, I also know which stores to get which items from according to taste preference and price. It took a while to build but works so seamlessly it saves time

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That's a trap in stores like Lidl. Everything is cheap and then you see the fun seasonal things and you end up impulse buying over your budget anyway.

Yes and they give great information. Example, my mom used to always talk it up with the butcher. He would call or if he saw her in the store come and tell her what was on sale but this was a small store too.

If you know you eat slow, why not make a smaller amount of food. I cook about 2-3 times a week so when I cook, I make enough for 4-6 meals (2-3 lunches + 2-3 dinners). So when I shop, I need to plan for at least 2 different meals.

@@ElaBlu3 each recipe yields a different amount of leftovers when it comes to portions

use a scale and measure up what you eat . then cook based on that

Prefer to cook the food that need to be freshest first, move thing that wont need a timely preparation with longer shelflife in the fridge or outside. Man Veggies stay good without a Fridge, like onions, zucchinis, pumpkins some salads. etc.

I started shopping like this too. It makes more sense and more similar to how other parts of the world do it.

I just started doing this. I am 64. !!!!

I'm sorry. I don’t understand the piece of advice 😅. Can sb help me? Thanks in advance!

@@k.a.l.2130 example: on something like a peach or other fruit with a stem, when you're checking its ripeness based on how soft/firm it is, press closest to the stem (where it grew from- like where it was attached to the tree/plant before it was picked). pressing on the side might bruise it which isn't a huge deal if you're going to eat it same day but like they said, maybe you want to keep it looking pretty, and near the stem is more out of the way.

I find that some just never ripen/ they are like they got freeze damaged

i do the same, and try to find the most evenly colored ones possible to be sure they'll also ripen evenly. Another tip: don't buy the round ones if there are equally nice ones that are pear-shaped; they will usually have a smaller pit, so less waste.

This makes so much sense. I realized that the produce section is near the entrance door because they know produce spoils and you will buy more of it. Less waste for the store. I noticed at checkout I have too much produce almost every fruit and every veggie. In reality I only needed enough to last a week. Which means more waste.

Also check how much of the produce is actually usable. I eat the whole broccoli, but if you don't like the stem, get one with a lot of florets.

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Cabbage the queen of the latter part of the month when all seems to have run out. Nothing better than finding cabbage tucked in a drawer when you can't go to the grocery store or at the end of the month and have no money left and all else fresh has been used. I have also gotten into the habit of buying eggroll wrappers which I use for so many things like wontons, dumplings, egg rolls, noodles and ravioli etc. Today is such a day for me. I had a very good eggroll and fresh coleslaw with my favorite cabbage the purple one. I love mine extra garlicy when cooked, and for eggrolls will add a bag of frozen oriental veggies and voila!!!!

I find that when i peel the cabbage and use it by the leaves rather than cut it, it can last for months. #shopsmartcookclever

@@auntiejennysays Great tip - thanks!

@@suzanneribas3746 Yes, I always forget about the eggroll wrappers - thank you for the reminder. :)

Bingo. If the list of ingredients is a huge paragraph, no need to even read it. Just put it back on the shelf. There is nothing good in there.

I would definitely look into (indoor) gardening. Even a simple hydroponics system can add massive variety to your diet.

@@thaliacrafts407 I do have a garden (and you’re right, it helps a lot!) It’s just difficult to plan any sort of shopping when you don’t know whether the store will have an onion or not this week. Ya know?

@@casskarl wow, i can’t imagine. must take a lot of improv and/or backup plans 😭

@@net.garden a huge number of folks in the rural US have this problem regardless of income. Things just aren’t reliably available for us. 🤷‍♀️

May I suggest that this is where cooking techniques come to the fore. By that I mean, looking at a grocery item, be it veg, meat, fish, or what have you, and thinking about the different ways to cook said item. Having herbs, spices, and condiments, can help with this a lot. And even mixing up cuisines on a single plate at least makes for interesting foods. I live in the country, and, at times, large quantities of one veg will find their way onto my sink. Sigh. At the moment it is silverbeet. So, silverbeet in many things it is at the moment. Finely sliced into a ramen style soup, sautéed into a rice or pasta dish. Subbed in for spinach. It has taken me decades I will admit. But for every grocery item, there will be more than one way to use it, add flavour, and either combine, or serve as a side dish. Best of luck in your food desert. Oh, and meat, whatever that looks like, can be almost a ‘condiment’ to a plate, rather than always being the star.

See, I understand your point, it can be a barrier to have to get the phone and unlock it, but on the other side, I always have my phone with me when I'm out and specifically when I come home from work and so I can stop for my grocery shopping without having to go home first. If I go home, I'm going to have a hard time going back out and I will eat pasta 😅 What I do is I mealplan with my notepad and cookbooks on one side and my phone on the other, and I make the grocery list once a week with exactly what I will need. It makes me a "closed minded shopper", as he said, but I live alone and everything goes bad so quickly, I can't just buy stuff on a whim or it will be wasted

I still use a paper list it's been great and easy I update it as I run out of things

@@alyssia7239 good point! I work from home, so most of the time I'm able to take the list with me when I go shopping. And same, I also live alone and it's a constant struggle trying to use things before they go bad. Frozen vegetables and frozen, uncooked fish/chicken have become my friends 😅

I would agree. For me I started a new habit of simply asking Alexa to add something to the shopping list when I found I needed something. No need to have a phone nearby, nor take time to write it down. This list then travels with me and I use at the store. This has helped me, but once you find the process that works then you are set.

As long as you really stick to it LOL

Prices are never going down…

@@cerberez1 yes they will. This has happened before.

Sliced ham 15.00 a pound no pig tastes that good

I see this is a Halls, TN # and may be linked to overseas German speaking website. This is likely a scam

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Pro tip. (This might go against your sponsor but...) Community Gardens are so awesome.

Impulse buying is a dangerous pitfall. For all you fellow ADHDers out there, make sure your meds are working before you go! Don't do the thing where they aren't at full power yet and you end up wandering around like you're trapped in that infinite IKEA SCP.

@@thaliacrafts407 I've got pretty bad ADHD but I've just trained myself to treat not buying something as a reward, so I didn't buy something that costs $5 that's like finding $5 on the ground.

In which store do you find a bulk counter? Genuinely asking because I'm curious if there is any near me.

@@kaemincha The local IGA store in my town has one.

@@kaemincha I live in the Netherlands and there's a local Moroccan grocer that sells herbs and spices way cheaper than the bigger Dutch chains. I don't know where you live, but try looking outside your own community. You might be pleasantly surprised!

I LOVE the bulk section of my store. Unfortunately this was an Amazon commercial and they don't have a bulk sections in their stores.

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At my Whole Foods, the Instacart shoppers regularly destroy a fair amount of produce by squeezing EVERY fruit or veg on their order that says "ripe" such as avocado or stone fruits. As a result, you can select pieces that look ideally ripe but are ALWAYS brown and bruised throughout the inside and therefore are often unusable. I have learned to buy green avocados without damage and with the top stem intact. Leave on the kitchen counter for a few days and they are perfect. If they have become ripe but I wont use them that day, I immediately stick them in the fridge, which greatly slows down the ripening process. They will still ripen more but usually stay nicely green and unbruised inside, even if they get a bit softer than I would like. Yes I know I am picky, but as a senior on a fairly tight budget, I want quality produce when I buy it. Also, since I don't have a car any more, I don''t want to spend money for rideshare trips more than every 10-14 days or so. There's another market I can take a bus to if I have forgotten or run out of certain things, but I try not to forget or run short, so yes I use a computer list of the things I buy, which I can just update every time before I shop, checking what i already have vs what I need for the recipes I am using. I have to watch the $ these days and these things--and all the learning from YT folks like Mike and also viewers--help so much.

I have the same thing. My daughter and I have a shared online list that is in the order of where things are in the store. So I can go right to the isle get it and skip the others so I don't get side tracked and end up buying things we don't really need.

@@shannonhight4339 yesss! That’s a huge one, buying only what you plan/ budget for yet still being able to be at store and get something extra of you’re feeling sporadic

My husband likes to do the same thing, but as I am the main cook and prefer to cook based on my mood, it doesn’t always go to plan! Take today, I have to cook sausages (as they are due to go out of date), but I haven’t decided whether to use them in a lentil dish, a pasta dish or a old U.K. favourite; toad in the hole (or oven cooked sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter)…

awesome. This are some core memories for your kiddo

He didn't mean best looking aesthetically. He meant good quality. He encouraged using less appealing product if it'll last more meals especially in the meat section

He says that yet hes not looking for prettiest stuff he tests it for squeeze and ripeness fruit/veggie wise =))

Please, Please, Please don't press the avocado with your thumb to see if it is ripe!! You leave a bruise that will ruin it as it ripens, and that will now end up in the garbage for the next shopper. You can tell how ripe it is by holding in your palm and gently sense its firmness.

@@susansmith7415 I think you're entirely unaware of how much food is wasted xD dont sweat it Susan , and if the other shopper doesnt know how to pick their food its kinda their own fault.

Plus whole spices have a much longer shelf life. You can easily keep whole spices for over a year and they still taste great when freshly ground. He did a video about the benefits of whole spices about 2 years ago.

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Exactly! Prices are high so I want the best bang for my buck. My local store always has a discounted section with slightly damaged produce which I regularly buy from, but if you are charging the same price for everything, you better believe I'm going to be picky.

Yes! I bought sugar-free yogurt one time not realizing that that did not mean sweetener-free. Bleh.

Also avoid dextrose