This Wednesday: A tip for buying groceries while on vacation.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: A tip for buying groceries while on vacation.

Fortunately for me, the Big Man loves to go to the grocery store, wherever he is. Here on vacation, where the grocery store is the only store in town and just a two-minute bike trip, he once made five separate shopping trips in a single day.

I, however, am not a fan of grocery shopping. I decided to come up with a short list of the foods that we HAD to keep in the house. I realized that we could live for a week (well, I could live for a week, others might start to complain pretty quick) with just eight items.

1. broccoli
2. apples
3. whole wheat pita bread
4. non-fat plain yoghurt
5. crunchy peanut butter
6. raspberry jam
7. skim milk
8. Cheerios or Total cereal

Plus coffee and Diet Coke.

Am I advocating this list for others – or even my own family? Nope. I'm ADMITTING to it. I recognize the limits of the nutrition here. Obviously, we eat lots of other things. But these are the bedrock foods.

I’m not sure whether this is a “tip” or just an interesting exercise, though somehow it has seemed useful to identify our idiosyncratic food foundation. And here on vacation, it has made it easier to know what food supplies to watch carefully. Running out of grapes – not a big deal. Running out of apples – we must take immediate action.

(Yes, I realize that today is Thursday, but I couldn't get online yesterday...and refuse to allow technical difficulties to spoil my holiday mood.)

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Comments

[Inihtar]

That's a pretty healthy list (no frozen pizza for instance!!) Does the list stay pretty much the same or does it go through changes? (I find that my foods-I-can't-live-without list changes pretty frequently depending on how much of them I eat when they're on thie list).

[Inihtar]

That's a pretty healthy list (no frozen pizza for instance!!) Does the list stay pretty much the same or does it go through changes? (I find that my foods-I-can't-live-without list changes pretty frequently depending on how much of them I eat when they're on thie list).

[Maxine]

Oh, a kind of perpetual pantry in other words!

http://www.savingdinner.com/archives/articles/feeding_your_family_with_a_perpetual_pantry.html

I love the perpetual pantry idea. I just make a list once and then top up missing items on every grocery trip. No thinking involved which makes me happy...

[Marc]

It's useful to have this kind of bedrock list. That way, whoever goes to the store knows to get these things, and then anything else needed. In my house it's soy milk, orange juice, cat food, and bubbly water...

[Nick]

You're breaking your 9th commandment - "Lighten Up". It's vacation. Let yourself go. You can afford to NOT have a list on vacation. Let the rules break. See what happens when you let go of having so much control over the most mundane aspects of your life. The kids will not grow up to be communists, you will not need to buy size 16 clothes and the world will continue to spin.

Let go. Release. Relax.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Good advice to LIGHTEN UP! Ironically, as part of my vacation spirit, I haven't been reviewing my 12 Commandments as often as usual -- and it shows!
Very true that the bedrock foods change over time. For years, oatmeal would have been #1, 2,3 on the list, but I've moved on at last.

[Kelsey]

This post inspired me to make up a "bedrock grocery list" with all the items we typically buy. I've included extra space for adding other items too. This is going to save me lots of time making my weekly grocery list! Thanks for the spark!

[Debbie]

Nick, I think having this tiny list makes it easy to lighten up about everything else. This tiny list shows all the things she will feel unhappy not having. Once she has these, it's easy to deal with whatever else is or is not available.

I have a similar list but I think of it as a list of things that, if I am out it means it's time to go to the store and that is hard to keep for very long without it spoiling.

I think there's only actually one thing on my rock bottom list: milk. Weird.