A tip for buying groceries while on vacation

Gretchen Rubin

Fortunately for me, the Big Man loves to go to the grocery store, wherever he is. Here on vacation, where the grocery store is the only store in town and just a two-minute bike trip, he once made five separate shopping trips in a single day.

I, however, am not a fan of grocery shopping. I decided to come up with a short list of the foods that we HAD to keep in the house. I realized that we could live for a week (well, I could live for a week, others might start to complain pretty quick) with just eight items.

1. broccoli
2. apples
3. whole wheat pita bread
4. non-fat plain yogurt
5. crunchy peanut butter
6. raspberry jam
7. skim milk
8. Cheerios or Total cereal

Plus coffee and Diet Coke.

Am I advocating this list for others - or even my own family? Nope. I'm ADMITTING to it. I recognize the limits of the nutrition here. Obviously, we eat lots of other things. But these are the bedrock foods.

I'm not sure whether this is a "tip" or just an interesting exercise, though somehow it has seemed useful to identify our idiosyncratic food foundation. And when on vacation, it has made it easier to know what food supplies to watch carefully. Running out of grapes - not a big deal. Running out of apples - we must take immediate action.

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