adventures in grocery shopping

Thursday is grocery shopping day. Each week I examine the upcoming week's menu, determine the ingredients, calculate the amount of food needed for each meal, take stock of our cupboards, consult with the cook, and head into San Salvador for a marathon shopping trip (on a good day, it takes approximately 20-30 minutes to drive from the Home into the city, 1-2 hours to shop, 20-30 minutes to return). I shop for all household needs and food items, except fruits, vegetables and rice; it's another employee's task to shop for these at the local tiendona.

A successful trip to Price Smart, 1 ½ carts full

Shopping trips include visits to two stores: Price Smart (the local version of Sam's Club or Costco) and Hiper Europa (your average grocery store). The grocery list designates which item should be purchased at which store; if we need large portions of an item, or if it's cheaper to buy in bulk, we buy it at Price Smart. I have a $400.00 budget, must procure itemized receipts (a tedious process here) and make every penny count.

The first time I went grocery shopping, I was an observer. I took note of which items were bought where, where each item was located in each store and how much was too much to pay for certain items. The second shopping trip was my first time in charge. We (Justin is my shopping trip chauffeur) left around 10:00 a.m. and returned around 3:30 p.m. (to be fair, this included a 50-or-so minute break for lunch). When we arrived home, I was dead tired.

This past week, I improved my time by a landslide. I can now easily navigate Price Smart and was in and out within 45 minutes. Hiper Europa gives me a little more trouble because items aren't organized as nicely as Price Smart, and it's usually at Hiper Europa that I have to find random household or school supply items, like shoe polish or Styrofoam. Luckily, the store employees have been quite helpful, and understand my sometimes halting Spanish. This week Justin and I left around 9:50 a.m. and pulled back into the garage at 1:00 p.m., making this excursion just a little over 3 hours. Much better than the 5 ½ hour marathon the previous week!