Environment: Reduce -- Shopping

Having reduced the amount of mail coming to our house, our next goal is to make conscious, thought-out purchases with as minimal packaging as possible.

While we're not big shoppers generally, we do periodically find ourselves with "stuff" that isn't as useful, or as used as we might hope it would be. We also find ourselves sometimes over-buying groceries and find ourselves not being able to eat all the vegetables by the time they go past their prime.

In looking at impulse shopping, I've found some solid pieces of advice, namely:

1. Make a list - and stick to it. Don't go in a store just to "browse" -- it is my (personal) kiss of death and a large bill!

2. For grocery shopping, the following tips sound like they just might work for us:

• Write things down as you run out of them
• Plan your meals (and keep in mind what you already have in the pantry when planning your meals)
• Buy fruits and veggies in season (this is consistent with our reduce-our-impact-on-the-environment project)
• Sketch our my shopping list to go with the layout of my grocery store in mind. If I group all the veggies and fruits together, and all of the canned goods together (etc), I'm much less likely to wander aimlessly through the store and see something I don't need on sale
• Don't be starving when you go to the grocery (also good for weight loss). If I'm taking kids with me to grocery shop, I bring a snack for them, as well. Nothing as miserable as two kids with low blood sugar shrieking through the store (nor as likely to make be buy all sorts of over-packages, nasty treats to make them be quiet!)

3. Have a cooling-off period. For all purchases other than groceries (assuming I have a written grocery list), have a three-day cooling off period. For purchases over $100, make that a seven-day cooling off period.

Since we grocery shop once a week, and shop for other things less frequently, the status reports and updates are likely to be spaced a little further out.