Grocery food shopping as a "hobby."

[Anonymous]

I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

Do you have a job, or kids or anything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

No, but you could encourage them to find the absolute best deals every particular store if they are hell bent on going just to get out of the house. Buying only items on sale (or digital coupons) at each particular store that week is often cheaper than Costco/BJs/etc. Although from what you're describing, something else is at play here.

[Anonymous]

I’m kind of this. I’m very afraid of running out of food. My fridge and freezer are always packed.

[Anonymous]

I'm kinda like this, but I don't really waste food.

[Anonymous]

My dad really likes grocery shopping (and cooking) and goes to multiple stores and farmers markets to get the best options at each place. But he still buys the right quantity for whatever his plans are.

But unless they've asked you for budgeting advice, this is none of your business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

Do YOU have a hobby other than to think about what others are doing?

[Anonymous]

They should buy nonperishable things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

Do YOU have a hobby other than to think about what others are doing?

OP likes to plug things into AI and then post it on DCUM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

No, but you could encourage them to find the absolute best deals every particular store if they are hell bent on going just to get out of the house. Buying only items on sale (or digital coupons) at each particular store that week is often cheaper than Costco/BJs/etc. Although from what you're describing, something else is at play here.

Yep, this is what people do when money matters.

My mother was raised by farmers who had come of age during the Great Depression, and consequently taught her to be thrifty. Then she moved out on her own and her chauvinistic father was determined to force her back where she could be looked after. The only way she could get the car she needed to go to work was for him to cosign and he would only cosign for a car that she couldn’t afford (in that area a car was a necessity - if there was any public transportation it was entirely insufficient and I don’t think it was even started until a few years later). Between rent and car payments, she often went hungry with the only thing that keeping her from starvation was her share of the vegetables from the garden on the farm that she had helped to pick and process (and her father complained about those but my grandmother overruled him). Then she married my father and working as a secretary (with the help of the GI bill) put him through school while supporting the family. By the time I was old enough to understand money, our family was solidly middle class, but she was remained respectful of the value of her money.

I can still remember a time (I think I may have been in junior high?) when she and I hit every branch of the local grocery chain, going through the line separately, so we could each buy the maximum limit of hot dogs that were on sale that week and stock up the deep freeze. By that time, regular price hot dogs would not have strained the budget, but “wasting” money would have been a strain on Mama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

I don't know anyone who does this.

But it sounds like a version of hoarding. The hoarders on the Hoarders show usually hoarded food as well as other stuff. The disorder exists on a continuum so they may or may not be in trouble with the condition.

I think a lot of people buy stuff they don't really need: they buy more than one item if it's on sale or buy the giant size of something because it's cheaper by the ounce but then don't use it. I have an aversion to a super-stocked-up-kitchen. I find it overwhelming. We're all different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

1. It is creepy that you know that "a few people" you know "can't eat all the food [they buy] and it goes to waste." How on earth do you know this?
2. As far as "...all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat" goes -- no one needs your opinion on how they spend money; stop judging others over something like this and MYOB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm realizing I know a few people who shop too much for groceries go to many different stores to shop to "get out of the house" as ones person tells me. Then they can't eat all the said food and it goes to waste. I don't know how much money they're wasting but all of them are on a fixed budget and shouldn't be wasting it on food they can't eat. Do you know anyone like this or are you like this?

Do you have a job, or kids or anything

+1000

[Anonymous]

Depends, do they have 4 teen sons?

[Anonymous]

If I were retired I might go to mire than one a week. I like certain things from certain stores. But I also hate wasting food so I would never buy more than we would eat. Now it's usually one a week. Trips to Tader Joes etc are only as time permits.