These are abnormal times because we are all cooking (and baking) more at home while we patiently wait-out the world-wide pandemic. I typically do all the grocery shopping in our house because my hubby finds it just too stressful. However I got sick. No, not sick of being at home, but sick with a cold of some sorts. So he had to pick up the slack and do the grocery shop. It’s very unusual, but nothing is normal these days!

To minimize human contact we shop only once per week, which means a large grocery list. This only confounded his stress. I knew things were off when I got a phone call the moment he entered the store telling me they didn’t have organic chicken. It’s not that he couldn’t buy organic chicken that concerned me, but that his first stop in the store was the meat department. For food safety reasons, this should have been his last stop. Being a newbie at grocery shopping, he didn’t know this. He could have used these shopping tips.

Grocery Shopping Tips For Newbies

1. Always shop with a grocery shopping list. 

2. To avoid wandering up and down grocery aisles multiple times, write the list based by food categories such as: dairy, produce, baking, meat, veggies, pasta, frozen foods, etc.

3. List the categories on your shopping list by the store’s layout (if you know it).

4. Take a picture of the shopping list before you go to the grocery store. I often forget my shopping list on the kitchen counter or in the car.

5. Keep cloth shopping bags in the car to take into the grocery store when you shop.

6. For food safety reasons try to shop in the following order: fruit and veggies and/or dry goods, dairy, frozen foods and/or meat.

7. Keep meat away from the fruit and veggies in the grocery cart and on the check-out till. Ideally, meat products should be in a separate bag. I like to take the plastic bags from the produce department to put my meat in.

8. Load groceries onto the till in food categories based on weight: cans, fruits and veggies, cold stuff, and so on. This will help the cashier pack the groceries efficiently. I like to put the meat last on the till to avoid cross-contamination.