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Thursday, I went to my HEB to get fruit, salad makings, Feta, tortillas, & cat food. I walked in with two shopping bags...................
...................but "unfortunately", the high quality croutons were on sale and I rather filled my cart. With my bags limits exceeded, there was nothing to stop me from getting 10 cans of sardines and 5 cans of tomatoes (also used in salads) and a jar of peanut butter. I also picked up a jar of olives and another of capers, but those would have fit in the bag before the crouton revolution.
So as it was, had to add two more shopping bags to my purchase, $6 more, because I refuse to do plastic. SIGH, should have just taken more bags into the store but they are scattered all about.
So what does this have to do with economics? That, in part, how I shop is dictated by the shopping bags. Had the croutons not been on sale, I probably could have kept it down to be contained by the two bags I had.
Originally, I was thinking that just in the future, I ought to have full shopping trip bags in my cars, collections of bags stuffed in one big one, and just take that into the stores. But since today's buying decisions were made on the availability of one particular item, perhaps it ought to be take what bags you think you need and then one more overflow bag for the just in case.....and use that to limit the purchases.
Now, of course, we could say, "Alternately, you could just give up croutons........," but as that croutons are used in my salads, stews, & pastas (they have even replaced the loaves of bread for spaghetti), my standard fare of eating, that's really not possible.
As far as the shopping bags go, that's more ecological than economical and more emotional in I like the way they make me feel........which might explain why I am such a shopaholic when it comes to grocery shopping. But the cure to that probably is to adjust one's shopping and one's living to stockpiling once a month and then returning to the store only for the things that are needed more frequently such as fruits, lettuce, & avocados.............................
...............................and staying out of the crouton aisle.
I find it much better to make a list before I leave home and stick to that list no matter what is on sale.
I always have enough bags, my budget is under what I had planned for usually and if it does go over it is less than $3.00 over and I do not have to purchase any other bags and I don't have a bunch of croutons sitting in the pantry for months.
I find it much better to make a list before I leave home and stick to that list no matter what is on sale.
I always have enough bags, my budget is under what I had planned for usually and if it does go over it is less than $3.00 over and I do not have to purchase any other bags and I don't have a bunch of croutons sitting in the pantry for months.
I agree. I'm learning that a list is better. Had the $1.42 Asiago cheese croutons not been marked down to a buck, then there probably would have been little else to trip such a buying spree. Even the wine aisle wasn't attractive today.
As croutons go, in my world, they are like capers and brown rice. In that they hardly sit around for months and it is a disaster when you look up and realize you don't have any in the house.
I don't use re-useable shopping bags because it's unsanitary. I reuse the store's plastic bags as garbage bags. So it prevents me from buying and using like Glad Bag plastic garbage bags.
$3 apiece for paper bags? Wow, in our few cities with plastic bag bans they are 25 cents, in most places they are still free, paper or plastic.
They aren't paper. Not really sure what they are made out of, but they are large with handles and burlap type material on two sides and a heavy plastic something on the other two sides.
I don't use re-useable shopping bags because it's unsanitary. I reuse the store's plastic bags as garbage bags. So it prevents me from buying and using like Glad Bag plastic garbage bags.
I used to do the same thing but where I live they now charge 5 cents per bag now which I refuse to pay. They're also talking about an outright ban on them. So I carry several reusable bags in my car at all times. I throw the cloth bags in the washer every so often and wipe out the plastic ones with Lysol wipes to try to keep them clean.
Seems pretty silly to me. You bought croutons that were on sale yet wasted money on more bags that most likely you didn't really need after that one trip to the store. You ended up not saving any money and most likely spending more.
Couldn't you have simply took your stuff to your vehicle and then come back into the store after you emptied one of your bags and got the rest of your stuff?
Besides, what is the harm in using a plastic bag? Not only are they recyclable and usually made out of recyclable material, they also have many more uses. One good example is using them for trash can liners for small trash cans. Guess what that does? Keeps you from wasting money buying plastic trash bags, which are not made out of recyclable material, which are more harmful to the environment.
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