Is your fridge basically empty at the end of the shopping week?

[Halcyon]

Just thinking aloud. Our shop day is Saturday and our fridge is looking kinda...empty. We do have meals planned through Friday, and then I think I will do a homemade pizza. Other than planned meals, our fridge is pretty empty already. Our pantry is okay: brown rice, quinoa, pasta, beans.

 

Does your fridge look pretty empty come the end of the week?

[Jpoy85]

yep, ours looks empty.

 

Well not anymore, but it did the other day.

[In the Rain]

Yes, and I like it that way. It makes it easy to clean the shelves. :D It makes dh panic a bit though. He likes lots of "options" for snacks. I think he seriously feels worried when the fridge gets empty, so I try not to do that too often.

[fairfarmhand]

yes. and since we cut our grocery budget by like 100 a month 2 months ago, even the pantry is bare. I am not sure what we will do when I clean out all the "oddball" stuff that lurks in the back of the shelves.

 

Last month, our church had a cook out with like 50-75 left over hamburger buns. The guy who brought them told us to take them home for the chickens. I fed them to the kids. We ate all of them. We had toast, Sloppy Joes, hamburgers grilled cheese, peanut butter all on those HB buns.

[heliconian]

Our fridge is rarely empty, because that makes me feel panicky. So I don't do one big shopping. I hit one local store on Tuesdays, because they have double specials (the week ending and the week beginning) on that day. Hit another on Fridays, because that is the best time for me when they have their 48 hour specials. This would be necessary no matter what, since my sons are really big milk drinkers and I can't fit a weeks worth of milk into the fridge at a time.

[Pawz4me]

There is no "end of the shopping week" for me. I shop on average three times a week. I don't like an empty fridge (or pantry) and I don't like buying huge amounts of groceries at one time. There are four grocery stores within three miles of our house, so it's no big deal to go often.

[cjzimmer1]

No but I don't have a regular shopping day either. Right now I buy very little fresh produce from the grocery store. I grow some stuff but most of it comes from the Amish. I go once every 1-3 weeks (depends on my schedule and what I'm looking for. But I buy in bulk so stuff last a while. My last trip was a week ago and I bought 4 cantelope, 1 watermelon, a peck of cucumbers, a bunch of Kale, a bushel of red potatoes, and a bushel of pears. I'm going back Monday because that when my family is going (because we have to buy large quantities we buy together). We won't have even touched the pears by then but they are fine sitting in the fridge drawer so no hurry to use them up. And the potatoes will still be hanging around too.

 

We buy all of our meats directly from the farmer and most of my kids drink specialty milks (lactose free, almond, coconut), which all come in a box and last much longer than regular milk does. I also buy most of my pantry supplies in bulk from Sam's, the Amish or a food co-op.

 

So my trips to the grocery store tend to be when we run out of eggs (which only happens once a month or so because we don't eat many eggs), or I'm looking for a specific ingredient for something I'm craving or we get low on one of the milks (no matter how hard I try I can never coordinate that everyone runs out at the same time).

 

Anyways my shopping tends to be pretty haphazard. I might hit 2-3 stores in a week if there are really good sales on something (dairy product, citrus fruit, frozen veggies) but then I might go 2-3 weeks and not go to the store at all.

[Parrothead]

If it wasn't for my friend giving me a bag of fresh picked green beans the only thing in the fridge would be beer and wine coolers along with the condiments.

 

For some reason dh and I buy beer and wine coolers then let them sit in the fridge for months. :glare: I suppose we think it makes us look like grown ups. :D

[fairfarmhand]

I forgot to mention that I am not counting the freezer that is packed with meat or the eggs and milk from the farm. Everything else will be gone, but be can eat bugers with eggs and milk to drink.

[Sara in AZ]

I do grocery shopping on Saturday, and I know exactly what you mean!

[Crimson Wife]

We went to visit my folks recently and my 6 y.o. commented on how full their fridge was. The problem is that they have so much stuff crammed into it that they lose track of what's in there and things spoil. :glare:

 

I don't think my mom ever really adjusted her shopping & cooking habits when they became empty-nesters. They are in a financial position where they don't have to pinch pennies in their grocery budget and my mom buys & cooks way more food than the two of them can eat before it goes bad.

[Joker]

Our local store is just 1.5 miles away, so we walk there almost every day to get what's needed. The fridge here is never really empty. I usually do one trip with the car to get things that aren't easy to carry home (gallon of milk, bottled water, etc.).

[Mommyof4ks]

I usually have nothing left, because if it is not used before going to the store, then it will likely get thrown away.

[regentrude]

I shop several times per week. We eat a lot of fresh produce, it would not be feasible otherwise.

[Mommyfaithe]

At the end of the week, you can hear an echo. :D

[Kathryn]

We do a big trip on the weekend, but DH goes 2-3 times during the week after we go to bed. Our fridge is rarely empty.

[justLisa]

Not empty. My produce bin is usually low, but the fridge itself is full of random bits of leftovers that I don't know what to do with.

[nukeswife]

I just don't shop like that. So ours is never really empty. The kids activities usually take right past the market a few times a week as well as having 5 markets all within 5 miles (and that doesn't include walmart or target) makes it easy to go more than once a week.

[Jenny in Florida]

I find I end up spending more if I shop frequently. So, I've been doing the once a week thing for a couple of years.

 

I've experimented with every two weeks, but I can't get that to work for us.

 

I voted "kind of," because there are some things I usually have sitting in the fridge for a few weeks at a time. For example, the soy milk my daughter prefers comes in boxes and doesn't spoil for a long time. I buy a bunch when it goes on sale and stash it in the fridge until she drinks it all.

 

My son likes the soy milk from the refrigerated section at the grocery store, but I buy doubles of those when they are on sale, too.

 

And I almost always have at least some carrots and tomatoes in the veggie bin, and often bell peppers, too. The carrots sit for a bit before we get through them.

 

I bake most of our bread and keep it in plastic bags in the fridge. So, there are usually a couple of loaves of something on the shelf.

 

There is definitely an obvious empty feeling the day before I shop, though.

[happypamama]

I bought the biggest fridge we could afford. And after grocery shopping, it's jam-packed. We live a minimum of 10 miles from a store, so we shop once a week, with DH picking up the occasional item or two on other days. And then after a week, it's fairly close to empty. There are condiments and usually small amounts of things left, but in general, it's pretty empty -- cheese, milk, eggs, produce are generally gone.

 

(Now, my freezer, otoh, is a different story. My fridge-freezer and my chest freezer are both full. I stock up on meat when I can, and I stocked up on frozen veggies a few weeks ago in a BIG way.

[SorrelZG]

I guess because stuff runs out at different rates, it rarely every gets bare. Sometimes I try to put off grocery shopping longer than usual and get creative with what I have but don't use as often. In those cases it gets bare but then I just saved us from a regular weekly grocery trip.

[Kelly1730]

We went to visit my folks recently and my 6 y.o. commented on how full their fridge was. The problem is that they have so much stuff crammed into it that they lose track of what's in there and things spoil. :glare:

 

I don't think my mom ever really adjusted her shopping & cooking habits when they became empty-nesters. They are in a financial position where they don't have to pinch pennies in their grocery budget and my mom buys & cooks way more food than the two of them can eat before it goes bad.

 

 

This is my mother. The fridge is so full, she shops every week and never takes inventory to see what she actually has, just keeps buying new stuff. Oy! Ours is looking a little bare, but I have meals planned through Friday and will go shopping on Saturday:)

[Vanna]

I'm pretty good about taking inventory and using up what we have. There are times my fridge looks so empty I think to myself that we'd be good candidates for an EBT card. :o However, there's always a plethora of condiments in there that would easily disqualify us (three different kinds of mustard, six salad dressings... you get the picture). :lol:

[HappyCrazyMama]

Feast or famine here.:D

[missmoe]

Mine is rarely bare. I don't get most of my food from the grocery store, so I have food coming into my fridge throughout the week/month. On Tuesdays I get a produce box. I pick stuff from my garden every day. I receive milk on Mondays and Thursdays. I order from my co op once a month--so I order yogurt once a month. I usually pick up meat on the weekend. So I have things coming in throughout the week.

[Baseball mom]

Mine is rarely bare but since I sale shop it may have a wide variety or odd items in there ;)

[Farrar]

We live down the street from the grocery and do small trips a good bit. And I do a rotating set of grocery trips based on other errands making it convenient - sometimes going to Costco or Trader Joe's depending on where else we need to be. As a result, we don't really have a grocery schedule and the fridge is only occasionally really empty.

 

I've been trying to be better about buying things and letting them go bad. As a result, it does happen that there's only a minimal amount of produce and meat in there along with longer lasting items like juice, cheese, eggs, etc. And it's never packed full in the first place unless it's Thanksgiving week or something.

[GoVanGogh]

I grocery shop every Tuesday afternoon; breakfast and lunch on Tuesdays are pretty lean.

We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, so I never buy more than we can eat in a week. Beyond that, our fridge tends to be empty. Plus, I like to clean out the fridge before I grocery shop. If it is empty (or nearly empty) it is easier to wipe down the shelves and look for expired condiments or yogurt cartons shoved to the back.

[Audrey]

I am afraid of having no food in the fridge and cupboards. I am also afraid of running out of toilet paper. I am afraid of a lot of stupid things like that.

[Laura Corin]

The fridge gets pretty bare. There's usually some stuff in the freezer: we tend to eat fresh veg for the first half of the week and frozen for the second.

 

Laura

[Laura Corin]

I am afraid of having no food in the fridge and cupboards. I am also afraid of running out of toilet paper. I am afraid of a lot of stupid things like that.

 

I agree with you on toilet paper. Every week I top up the loos so that each has four spare rolls. What do I really expect us to do with them over the course of one week? I think it comes from having to take tissues with me wherever I went in China because loos didn't provide paper.

 

Laura

[Rosie_0801]

Other. Haven't got a fridge.

 

We don't have meat or milk and rarely have cheese. There are eggs around the yard in various places because my aunt is a chook lady like other people are cat ladies, but neither of us eat eggs often. We could if there wasn't anything else around, I suppose.

 

There are veggies in the garden and my aunt's left over canned things that I'm slowly learning to identify (the mushrooms turned out to be eggplant,) from last season. Condiments reside in the pantry but don't stay there long enough to spoil because we'll eat them two days in a row to finish them.

 

Uh, what else did I used to keep in the fridge?

 

So yes, I suppose the house is empty of fridge dwelling items by the end of the week because I only buy enough to last that long. I have no fear of starving because I have 20kg of chickpeas in a bin in the kitchen, more brassicas than a person can eat and there are all those eggs if I can find them. If my kids starve it'll be their own fault for choosing a diet that doesn't include brassicas. :tongue_smilie:

 

Rosie

[2_girls_mommy]

So I don't do one big shopping. I hit one local store on Tuesdays, because they have double specials (the week ending and the week beginning) on that day. Hit another on Fridays, because that is the best time for me when they have their 48 hour specials. This would be necessary no matter what, since my sons are really big milk drinkers and I can't fit a weeks worth of milk into the fridge at a time.

 

I am similar. I don't do big shopping trips anymore. I have found I save $ if I shop more often, in smaller amounts, at different stores, utilizing sales.

 

So I have one store that has the best produce and staples prices. Dh passes it on his way to work. So once a week or every two weeks he stope there for me and gets me the produce and milk and eggs and that sort of thing.

 

I have another store that doubles coupons and has really good sales that I pass every day. So I keep track of their sales and match coupons for a lot of things there. I usually stop twice a week there on my way home for a few things. I have learned to stock up on the sales. If the chicken breasts or shredded cheese or cereal or whatever are on sale, I fill the freezer with a few weeks worth.

 

And I have a drugstore that I go to after church on Sunday that has a good reward type program. They often have milk cheaper than anywhere else, so I pick it up and whatever else I need then.

 

So in between all of my different trips we are rarely empty. I used to get down to empty when I only shopped one main store though. But I like my new system better. We save more money, have more, and have a wider variety at all times. It was a complete makeover from my old shop once a week routine.

[Jen in PA]

Mine rarely looks too empty. I basically shop weekly, but once a month is a bigger trip for stocking up, so that tends to lead to things that keep for a while. We always tend to have some larger Costco items that keep things looking full. If it started to look too bare I would probably panic and start cooking things from the freezer to have some meals on hand.

[kewb]

Other. Sometimes it is down to condiments. Sometimes it is 75% bare. When things are financially good I keep it well stocked. I hate the feeling of having no food.

[SquirrellyMama]

Our fridge does get bare because we go shopping once a week. I would like to get some extras during the week but my dh doesn't want me going to the next town to get groceries more than once a week. He's tired of the $5 and $10 charges and gas expense.

 

So, we have the "college guy" fridge by the end of the week. There are usually ketchup, eggs and vodka in the fridge : )

 

Kelly

[bbkaren]

We're paranoid, neurotic preppers.

 

I can't think of the last time our fridge had more than a milk-jug's worth of open space. Our problem is quite the opposite - we're constantly shuffling the fridge around to make room, when we do go shopping.

 

(We've also got two deep-freezers in the basement that're always full. This allows us to buy a lot whenever we see a great sale, and saves us a lot of money in the long run).

 

I can't even entertain the thought of the fridge being empty without going into a panic attack lol.

[IsabelC]

I can't even entertain the thought of the fridge being empty without going into a panic attack lol.

That made me giggle a bit, because when we visit our relatives whose fridge always seems full to bursting, I feel panicky about that - I worry about what might be growing new life forms in the back because they've forgotten about it. I find it strangely satisfying to empty the beast out and give it a good clean before we shop.

[angela in ohio]

Our pantry and freezer are always pretty full, but the fridge is 75% empty once or twice a week. We keep mostly produce and yogurt in there, and prepared foods for the next few days. Twice a week, I buy produce and then we prep all of our meals for the next few days, which fills it up, but then it is pretty depleted at the end of those few days.

[Wabi Sabi]

Our fridge is never empty. Even when we need to go shopping it's still full of condiments (more than will ever fit in the door!), cheese that we buy in bulk, jugs of maple syrup, a large tub of grass-fed lard that I rarely use but can't bring myself to throw out even though I don't know if it's still good, butter, little containers of things like olives and leftover canned chipotles, 12 jars of homemade pickles, etc. Also, we feed our dog a raw diet so his meat is usually taking up a good chunk of shelf space.

 

Actually, we need a second refrigerator, LOL! We have an enormous upright freezer in the basement, but a second refrigerator would probably be just as handy.

[amy g.]

I have to buy groceries every other day. Dh often goes on the days I don't.

 

Most of what we eat is fresh produce. I hate to buy too much and have it go bad.

 

Last night, I bought broccoli, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew, grapefruit and a pineapple.

 

We will have enough for today, but I'll need to buy more the next day.

[kalanamak]

I voted other: I try to make it bare.