What's your "Should I buy this or not?" algorithm at the grocery store?
I don't know if algorithm is the right word...I also considered "decision tree" or "rubric". Bear with me, and I'll explain.
In a recent miscellany post, I mentioned that as long as something meets my nutritional goals and is reasonably affordable, I'll buy it.
And that got me thinking about how we probably all have a mental list of criteria we run through when we are making decisions at the grocery store, even though some of it is automatic and subconscious.
So, I'm gonna try to type mine out and see if I can figure out what things I consider.
1. Is it providing good nutritional value?
This is probably one of the top things I consider! I'm always trying to feed myself in ways that help my body, so I look for foods that provide vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein.
Of course, I do buy some things that are strictly for enjoyment (like coffee!), but in general, most of my cart contents pack a decent nutritional punch.
That way, my grocery dollars are providing me with a lot of value.
2. Is it sorta unprocessed?
I'm not going to say I eat an unprocessed diet, because I'm not getting food straight from the farm!
But I aim for "sorta unprocessed". For example....
A block of Parmesan is less processed than a can of spray cheese.
A container of half and half is less processed than a container of flavored coffee creamer.
A bag of frozen chicken breasts is less processed than a bag of frozen chicken nuggets.
3. Is it quick and convenient?
At this point in my life, I prioritize speed more than I used to. That's why I buy bags of frozen chicken tenderloins vs. whole chickens, and it's also why I buy rotisserie chickens pretty regularly!
As long as a quick and convenient food also meets the first two criteria (decent nutrition + sorta unprocessed), I'll buy it.
(Ooh, salad kits fall under this heading as well!)
4. Is it reasonably affordable?
Some foods meet all three of the above criteria (nutritious, unprocessed, and quick), but they're not very affordable. For example, some stores sell ready-made meals that are pretty nutritious and also quick to heat up, but they are rather expensive.
I'm willing to pay a little more for convenience, but I have my limits.
5. Is it minimally packaged?
Almost everything we buy is packaged in some way, but there are levels to this! I try to prioritize food that has less packaging.
6. Do I want to eat this?
I almost finished the list without including this question, but it's important! If a food is nutritious, unprocessed, convenient, affordable, and minimally packaged, but I'd be miserable eating it, what's the point?
Food serves a purpose (keeping me alive), but I also think it's supposed to be an enjoyable experience. 🙂 I buy and prepare food that I want to eat!
Relatedly, this is why I also buy some items that meet none of the first five criteria (like...cookie butter. Chocolate. Ice cream. Hot cocoa packets.) They're just not the bulk of what I buy.
It's also why I buy sauces, spices, and dressings; they make food more fun.
Always changing
When I look back at earlier times in my life, I can see that these priorities have shifted and changed with different stages of life.
For example, when I had a more barebones grocery budget, affordability was the highest priority!
And in stages when I was home more, I was less concerned about "quick and convenient" than I am now.
What do your "Should I buy this food?" criteria look like right now?
Maybe your rubric looks like mine, or maybe you're avoiding GMO, buying organic, working around allergies, or something else entirely. Tell us about it!
All of the above. I'm aiming for more whole foods and also less processed. It looks like I'm going to be eliminating or reducing lunch meats as they've just been classified as a Class 1 carcinogen. I don't eat a lot of this type of thing but I do love bacon in anything and pepperoni on my pizza. Also ham in split pea soup. I'm also concerned with packaging and pesticides. I try to buy what I know I will eat and fresh produce in small enough amounts that it won't get wasted.
My rubric is a lot like yours and it has evolved similarly.
All of the above, and I also buy organic and regional products whenever possible, even if they are a little more expensive. For example, I don't buy onions from New Zealand because there is a regional alternative (I am from Germany), but I am willing to buy bananas and coffee from South America :-).
My first check point is, Will my family eat this? Most of my family ( especially me!) are not adventurous eaters, so I won't buy anything I'm not certain about. Any exotic choices wait until I have my older kids home, or a strong recommendation from someone I trust.
My second checkpoint is cost, is it at a price worth it to me? An example: Beef is expensive now, but I did buy a nice roast for Xmas dinner because I wanted a spread. I got over three meals from it. Mostly I stay within my price points though.
My third: will I have the time or energy to cook/deal with it? This is why I buy prepackaged crackers and yogurts for my kids' lunches. I could buy all the ingredients for homemade lunches, but I don't have the time or interest right now. I need easy food I know they'll eat. And if I bought a big box of crackers to package myself, there's no guarantee that it would last for lunches.
I always had this decision tree in my head but never really thought about it explicitly- what a good exercise!
I like this question! I’ve noticed how varied people’s WIA is and it will be interesting to see their algorithms. My priority is foods that are nutritious, minimally processed, additive- and pesticide-free—and tasty. I eat the same breakfast (hot cereal with fruit) and lunch (a loaded salad) every day, and a lot of my snacks are the same daily as well, so that makes shopping somewhat easier. I don’t enjoy cooking and do buy some convenience foods, even though the less-processed ones are more expensive. I do worry about the price of food rising and needing to adjust my algorithm in the future.
My rubric is very similar. I also try and buy organic and fair trade, if I can. I try and buy things made in good working conditions, as a general rule.
I try to buy things which aren't highly processed but I also try and buy things which will stop me ordering takeout, so sometimes that rule is less enforced 😉
My list is quite similar to Kristen's. I agree with Christine81's addition of regionally grown/produced when feasible as part of my thought process, and mostly am not too concerned with packaging unless it is obscenely packaged.
I always say the best meals to me have 3 criteria - affordable, delicious, nutritious (honorable mention - easy to prepare). I think that idea lines up with my purchases too. Affordable is relative and must balance with nutrition. While I always appreciate a great deal, "cheap" food does not trend to be nutritious nor sustainable. I'm always working to strike the balance.
We specifically avoid sodium (doctor's orders for my husband) and corn syrup; raw sugar is okay in moderation. We cook from scratch as much as possible and are ever-increasing our reliance on our garden. That said, I do keep no sodium canned, plain tomato sauce on hand because it's handy. My homemade tomato sauce is all frozen and seasoned for specific things, like pasta or pizza--something to fix next year!
I have to say that the word "algorithm" sounded odd to me. You used the word criteria a lot in the actual text, which sounds better to me. Less like I'm a computer. 🙂
So! Buying food is a great interest of mine. I do a lot of it. 🙂 However, the stores I buy from change depending on where I happen to drive to for hay buying/basketball games/doctor's appointments/etc. And all of them are smaller stores with pretty limited options. So that is my first question: What does this store actually have?
Next is what I have on hand. This changes depending on the garden, if we've bought a cow for the freezer or had a successful hunt recently, or we've gotten a lot of roosters from neighbors to butcher.
Next is what my family will eat. This means I don't buy, say, cauliflower, because no one but me will eat it.
Next is what is most nutrionally dense. I have four rapidly growing children, three of them teenage (one almost-teenage but eats like it) boys who are already or will be over six feet tall and skinny. They eat an astonishing amount, and they need high-quality calories. That means meat, whole-milk dairy, and potatoes, mostly. Vegetables in smaller quantities. I know some would disagree with me on this, but this is my method for feeding them.
Next, the least-processed options almost always. Partially this is a matter of nutrition, partially cost. I have never purchased spaghetti sauce, for instance, only canned tomatoes. Still processed, since I could buy actual tomatoes, but minimally processed and way cheaper than fresh tomatoes, the quality of which is suspect anyway.
Relatedly, I always go for minimal ingredients. That's why I buy Daisy-brand dairy and the "premium" chorizo when I buy it. (In cheap chorizo--a kind of Mexican pork sausage--the main ingredients are salivary glands and lymph nodes. No thank you. I pay a few dollars more for actual pork in the premium kind.)
My threshold for effort in the kitchen is really high, so convenience isn't much of an issue for me. Almost all grocery store food already seems convenient to me, because I didn't have to grow it or skin it. 🙂 One notable exception to this is dairy, because I really don't want to have to get a milk cow. Though I suspect most people's definition of "convenient" is more like pre-shredded cheese and cups of yogurt, not blocks of cheese and gallons of milk. Oh, and tortillas. I will make tortillas, but I also like the convenience of having some prepared ones on hand.
Next is taste. I have very high standards for this, because I have made/harvested/processed almost all foods I buy myself, and I know how they're supposed to taste. Grocery store food is NEVER as good as "real" food. Unfortunately, I know this. Another reason I buy the Daisy brand, or Philadelphia-brand cream cheese. They taste closer to the real thing. Ditto organic carrots. That's about the only organic thing I reliably buy, because non-organic carrots taste like bleach. Gross.
And then cost. Because most of the things I buy are already cheaper than anything more-processed, I don't actually worry about this overly much except in the case of rare snack foods. I buy store-brand Oreos, Fritos, tortillas, ice cream, etc. when I buy those things. Assuming they're close enough to the name-brand in taste in texture, which they almost always are.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that prefers the organic carrots! They just taste better. And same on the Daisy cottage cheese and sour cream, though lately we've swapped sour cream for 2% Fage plain yogurt, for more nutrition and less fat. And we also usually make our own pasta and pizza sauces, especially Alfredo, because my sons maintain that jarred Alfredo sauce smells like feet!
I often have anxiety about whether I'm doing well at the grocery store (I actually have nightmares where I'm shopping, thinking I'm getting good bargains, and the total at the checkout is astronomically more than I thought!). But we buy mostly whole foods, with a few exceptions. And when I see the exceptions on sale, like my youngest's favorite mac and cheese, I stock up so we're not paying full price for it. I buy frozen fruit, especially berries, because those are cheaper than fresh, and I use them for smoothies mostly.
We have specific health needs: low or no sugar, and in my case, wheat- and soy- and nut- and corn-free. So sometimes I splurge on, say, Siete cassava tortillas. Or gluten-free bread. DH likes the Canyon Bakehouse bread.
In theory, my algorithm/rubric/list of criteria is about the same as Kristen's and others'. In practice, I confess that I sometimes fall prey to the temptations of Diet Pepsi and blue corn chips. 🙂 But I have recently given up bacon and deli lunch meats altogether; I strive for low or no sodium; and I'm working on eating more fruits and vegetables.
The primary portion of my rubric is whether the item is on my grocery list for the week. 🙂 I plan meals and create the lists in advance, and may buy one extra thing each for my husband and myself that are under $5.
When deciding which meals to make (and therefore which ingredients I'll need to purchase), I look at both of our schedules. My husband is in healthcare and works a few days a week until 10pm, so I will prep individual servings of a meal in advance for myself on those nights. On other nights, I'll see how much time I'll have before or after work to figure out how much time I have to prep a crockpot meal in the morning and/or cook when I get home. For all meals, I focus on protein and including fiber/veggies in some way.
I also prep my lunches for the week on Sundays or Mondays, and eat the same breakfast - overnight oats with added protein - almost every morning, which makes life easier! My husband usually prefers to eat one big brunch meal on non-working days, which is almost always a version of eggs and bacon.
My criteria for shopping are similar to yours. I do try to choose organic when possible and affordable, keeping in mind to avoid the conventionally grown versions of the "Dirty Dozen" in produce that are most heavily sprayed with pesticides. I will pay more for organic dairy to avoid the pesticides and added hormones, but it still has to be reasonable price-wise.
I like to shop my city's major farmer's market. I get to know the farmers and how they grow what they offer. They often have great suggestions on how to enjoy their products. I learned from one of them that beet greens are tasty sautéed with a little butter. I used to just compost them or have the farmer do it, but not anymore.
I will occasionally splurge on really good cheese and certain specialties like ramps in the Spring and maple syrup during sugaring season. Even with these I am usually still on budget if I plan carefully.
While my criteria is much like everyone else’s in that I prioritize whole, minimally processed, but still affordable foods, some things have changed since I retired and it’s just my husband and me at home. We eat a lot of fish, which you would think would be cheaper since Florida is surrounded by water; however it isn’t. I am not pressed for time since I am not trying to get dinner done after a long day of work and a stressful commute, so long cooking times aren’t a real consideration. My next-door neighbor and I often share things like soups that are made in large quantities, so I consider their tastes as well as ours. While not reliant on too many brands, I only buy Fairlife milk. It’s more expensive but it’s lactose free and tastes great.
Awwww...the photos at the beginning of this post took me back to when I first began reading your blog. You would unpack your Aldi purchases on the floor for a photo shoot and your four adorable littles would add a few stuffed pets to the grouping. I think this means I've enjoyed your blog for a very long time and love that your kiddos are grown and independent now. It's been a fun journey...keep up the good work. And now we've circled back to food photos on the floor. Without the stuffies.
My food purchase priorities are similar to yours. We're now a retired couple and, with more time, I have gone back to baking our own whole wheat bread (your recipe!!) and making nearly everything from scratch. I've also learned how to manage leftovers with the help of some square freezer boxes that stack and store easily in the freezer. We also buy more fresh fruit and berries. Not cheap, but so delicious and nutritious. Now that we eat all of our meals at home fresh produce never goes to waste.
Thank you for this exercise. It's good to stop and consider how our food purchases have evolved through the years.
Similar thought process. I shop the local farmers market (which we have winter indoor) not the cheapest but farm to table. I also am a member of a CSA that keeps me supplied with basics during winter and local meat.
When I venture to the grocery store it's for the dairy item, beans, other items needed for the recipe of the week.
In addition to health considerations, cost and convenience are among the criteria I use. I don't have a fully functioning kitchen, so that eliminates foods that require a large oven (mine went kaput years ago). My "galley kitchen" is entirely inadequate to cook in, IMHO. Therefore, most hot foods are microwaved, although in recent years, I bought a tabletop oven from Ollie's Outlet. It works well for a one-person household. Instead of cooking from scratch, I usually zap frozen dinners when I want a "real" meal. Yes, it's more expensive than home cooking, but still cheaper than going out or ordering in; other than the postman, you'll never see any delivery people at my door. In the mornings, I either get some ready-made muffins for my breakfast -- or a can of biscuits baked in the little Ollie's oven. Plus coffee, of course -- brewed here in my kitchen. Supper is sometimes chips, crackers or veggies and dip while watching "Jeopardy!" Admittedly, I'm too old to be doing college student/newly hired working girl cookery, but there's no real reason to put forth more effort.