Shopping list

I am leaving my fingerprints on many of the day-to-day chores that defaulted to Mrs ERJ.

One of those tasks is shopping.

I firmly believe in the 6 P approach: Prior Planning Prevents Pizz Poor Performance.  And the best time to plan is before the bullets are flying overhead.   For shopping, that means a list with enough detail that Dad can work from.

Here is a portion of the list that I use:

This is a work-in-progress.  The intention is that the family members will circle the items we are running out of and pencil in a number for quantity.  One major bonus is that I can read the list and it is, by necessity, whittled down to those items we actually eat and use.

It is tuned in for the closest grocery store, Family Fare in Eaton Rapids.

Family Fare is a small chain of grocery stores.  I like their layout.  You turn left, away from checkout after entering the door.  The layout starts with produce and end with bread, eggs and frozen foods (squishable and thawable items) and then immediately dumps you out at the check-out lines.  I wish every store was a rational in its layout as Family Fare.

The list has the aisle number and it is ordered if approximately the order they come as you weave West-to-east, east-to-west, aisle-by-aisle.

Where I am fighting the tide is for items like cleaning products.  No other product is such a scam.

Reading the back of one soap/shampoo/conditioner type product:

• Water.........................................(Pure profit to the bottler)
• sodium laureth sufate...................(Detergent, just like dish soap)
• sodium lauryl sulfate.....................(Detergent, just like dish soap)
• glycol distearate...........................(Crisco.  Unsaponofied animal fat)
• fragrance......................................(To make you feel special.  Very small percentage)
• cocamidopropyl betaine...............(Foam booster.  To convince you that you are clean)
• sodium citrate...............................(pH buffer and chelating agent)
• Dyes and other chelating agents

Virtually EVERY cleaning product intended to wash our body parts (and dishes and clothing) has the same list of ingredients.

"But I am special!  My delicate (fill in body part) would positively shred if I used anything less expensive."

Perhaps, just perhaps, you could put just a dab in your hand and use the water pouring out of the shower head?  You don't need to use a quarter cup of product if you are not paying for water and gums and ethyl cellulose to bulk it out.

Just squeeze a dime-size puddle of that dish soap into the palm of your hand and rub it into your wet whatever.  Or, if you want to be high tech, squeeze it into a cup and dilute with a quarter cup of water (about 60 milliliters if you are Canadian).

---End of rant---