One trick I found useful to avoid stores is to ride your bike. It's super annoying to lock your bike up, untie the kid, and deal with the helmets plus, without the stroller, corralling the kid in a store takes up way too much physical agility and negotiation power. Bike window shopping is the way to go!
Another realization I've had that really puts a stick in my simplicity wheel, is that I grocery shop too often. It seems I go to the store 4-5 times a week. This is partly due because I can't seem to find one store which carries both wonderful produce and decently priced staples without breaking the bank. The sensible part of me wants to responsibly plan menus for the week and make a detailed list of what we need, but the other part of me wants to eat pasta all week if it means I can veg on the couch for an hour before I have to head to bed. The problem with this is that I have very random stuff in my fridge and I'm just not a good enough cook to make something delicious with a can of black olives, oranges, bread, tomato paste, and kale. So back to the store I go. Gotta figure out a way off this grocery hamster wheel.
When I still lived at home, my mom would shop only on Saturday mornings. If we were pigs and ate all the cheese in one day, then too bad, no more cheese until the next Saturday. Often Friday would roll around, the fridge was practically empty and my mom would make something super yummy with with a can of black olives, oranges, bread, tomato paste, and kale...
I wonder where I got this idea that the fridge has to be well stocked at all times. It's okay to run out of bread or cheese for a day or two, isn't it? Once my mom told me that she always keep a big basket of toilet paper rolls in the bathroom because when she was little, and having too many siblings to count, they often ran out, and now she just can't relax unless there's a full basket in plain view. Maybe that's the same thing with me and the fridge?
Anyways, I will figure something out. Stay tuned.
HI Solare:
ReplyDeleteI totally feel your pain. Agree, biking=less stuff a) because what you can carry is limited b) the pain in butt aspect of stopping, locking, etc. (which does not mean popping and locking isn't always a welcome dance spontaneity alternative). But it's the crap stores that kill me. If I want to buy everything I like, I need to go to about 6 stores - one has the good enviro toilet paper, another has good produce, another has the cereal I like, another has the best dairy, on and on. If you can find a strip of a few blocks that has all the stores that is great. It seems in general Canadian cities are just not built that way.
Hi insidevoice,
DeleteI'm reluctantly starting to think that the only way around having to shop in many places is to give up my preferences. Years ago, on a road trip to Baha, California I stopped in a corner store just outside of an airstrip in the middle of the desert. We had been camping without cheese for days and desperately craving it, but all they had were dusty boxes of pasta, canned ravioli, gum and Bimbo bread. We were so disappointed, how dare we expect to find cheese in the middle of a Mexican desert? The next day, as we camped by the ocean, a guy from San Diego caught a huge fish, threw it on bbq and shared it with us. It was so delicious we forgot all about our cheese sadness. So I guess my point is that I'm too used to eating what I want, when I want it, and just the way I want it darn it! Maybe if the local store only has decent lettuce, then salad it is! I'm sure you've heard someone in your family talk about how exciting it was to get an orange for Christmas. That wasn't so long ago. We're spoiled. Let's blame it on the Food Network.;) Anyways, it's all talk for now....