A Healthy Blueprint

The holiday season is upon us and I’ve seen the grocery stores and local shops packed with people buying goods for their loved ones and for gatherings. It’s easy to get carried away with the sales prominently displayed in every aisle, and I wanted to share some tips for reducing waste and being mindful the next time you pop into a store.

Try to stick to your shopping list

Did you know that your local supermarket and grocery store is meticulously set up to tempt you to impulse buy? Not only is the layout organized specifically to encourage you to spend more money, but it also encourages you to purchase the items that aren’t always the healthiest for your diet.

I have fallen into this trap over the years and sometimes still feel lured in, but having a grocery list I create in advance definitely helps!

Buy just enough ingredients to supplement your meal plan

If you find yourself having way too many ingredients to use up, despite having your meals set for the week, you may be buying too much for yourself and your household members. It can be economical to buy “family packs” of certain items, especially when it comes to purchasing proteins, but if you end up not storing them properly or using them up by their best if used by date*, you could end up wasting money in the end if they go bad!

It always pains me when I purchase what I think to be enough groceries for the week or two weeks, but end up finding something spoiling before I get to use it. I always take wasted food as a learning opportunity because I don’t want food waste to end up in landfills (not all composting processing operations will accept rotting or spoiled food scraps) and I don’t want to waste my money on unused food!

*Please note that there is NO universally accepted description for date labels in the United States. These dates are used as a guide for customers, but you should always use your best judgment and senses by looking at, smelling, or tasting your food to determine if the food is still in good quality or safe to consume.

Bring your own bags

Ever since embarking on the low impact living journey, my family and I have been trying to be diligent with BYOB – bringing our own bags, whenever we go shopping. New York is one of the latest states to enforce a single-use plastic bag ban to help tackle plastic pollution, so getting into the habit of bringing reusable bags was helpful for us.

Vendors are not required to provide alternatives to plastic bags, and those who do (such as those who offer reusable bags or paper bags) charge a fee per bag. It is a negligible fee, but one that you can avoid if you can bring some bags from home on your next grocery run!

Store your groceries properly

Have you ever purchased groceries and put all of the items away without really giving some thought to it, only to find out later that some of the produce either ripen too quickly and spoil, or that others mysteriously go bad?

I’ve been there, and continue to learn new produce storage hacks, such as the fact that potatoes and onions should NOT be stored together (gas from the onions encourage potatoes to sprout!), and that the produce drawers have specific humidity levels for your fruit and vegetables? Or the fact that if you buy a family pack of animal meat that once you open it you will need to keep it as airtight as possible or you risk the food safety and quality?

Happy shopping!