How To Plan Your Grocery Shopping

Eating Healthily on A Budget

Chelsey Mony is Peer Service Manager at The Foundation For Recovery in Las Vegas. This remarkable organisation works to inform, educate, facilitate, organise, advocate and serve the recovery community - and those seeking recovery.

Part of Chelsey’s role is to create peer-led programs that help people in recovery regain or develop key life skills.

This clip offers some tips on a core topic - how to take care of yourself, your diet, and your budget, when grocery shopping.

Chelsey reflects that while it's normal for many of us to rely on eating out, or consuming fast food, one of the most important actions we can take to stay healthy is to cook good food for ourselves. This takes some forethought. It helps to have ‘ring-fenced’ time in our schedules for the process of food shopping, rather than leaving it to chance or impulse.

She suggests that we start by looking at what’s already in our cupboards, to avoid redundancy in what we buy, and to find out what we need to shop for.

Thinking about the ‘base’ items is a good place to start - the ingredients necessary in many dishes - such as spices, salt and pepper, oils to cook, and bulk items like rice or lentil.

Once that’s done, its time to plan ahead for the week, and decide what we’re going to eat. That way, items can be budgeted for, and there’s a clear logic to what we’re going to buy.

After that, we can write our shopping list. This can be done on a piece of paper, or our phones - but the point is to have a tangible list we can refer to in the store.

For many people, particularly those in early recovery, or suffering from anxiety, grocery shopping can feel pretty tense. Anything that can be done to make the process feel more manageable is welcome.

Getting to know the stores or shops around you helps as well, as does a friendly greeting to the staff or clerk in the shop. It all helps personalise the experience.

Finally, if you forget an item - put it on your ‘post-shopping’ list which can inform your next shop.

And remember - it’s cool to take your own bags…

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