Frugal Green Living: Shop Like A European (Or Like Kelly)

I previously asked, Am I a failure as a Frugalista? because we didn't do quite a few of the things that most other frugal sites and posts recommend. For instance, our own editor Collin wrote exactly two years ago today: Write a Grocery List Before You Shop (and Follow It!) I thought myself a failure because "Most frugal websites recommend making a careful list of what you need, buying in bulk and using your freezer; We shop daily, locally, find what is fresh and you already know how we use our freezer."

Marjorie Harris recommended: "Have a meal plan for the week so that you buy what you need and use it all up.", but I thought, PG food writer Kelly shops every day and has the option to adapt meals to serendipity, the daily ebb and flow at the greengrocer and the farmers market.

I thought we were pretty much along among the frugal living types to do this. However, one of my favourite writers on frugal living, Philip Brewer at Wisebread, agrees; He calls it "European style shopping," although it was perfectly ordinary in the United States as well, back in the days when people shopped at grocery stores, back before the invention of the supermarket." He writes:

When I'm buying groceries for the household, I shop almost every day. Instead of planning a menu in advance, I go to the store and look around to see what looks good. That way, I can get whatever's fresh and cheap....All you have to do is trust yourself to go for good deals on real food instead of making impulse buys of stuff you shouldn't be eating anyway -- and then be worthy of that trust.

He also points out that you don't need that much stuff when you shop this way, so it is quick and easy.

Over at TreeHugger, I often quote Toronto architect Donald Chong's dictum: Small fridges make good cities -- when you shop daily, you respond to the marketplace, the baker, vegetable store and farmers market instead of the big weekly shop at the Wal-Mart. You are also supporting your local neighbourhood store instead of the big long drive to the megamall. I am so pleased to find that someone I admire as much as Philip does this too.

Check out the whole Frugal Green Living series for tons of tips on going green on the cheap.