Comments on: What's your "Should I buy this or not?" algorithm at the grocery store?

By: Rachel R.

Rachel R. — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 07:35:03 +0000

Love this idea, and appreciate the nutrition and minimally processed angle.

Mine might be:

1) Is it on sale (particularly fruit, if fresh)? Just a new way I've been trying to save money and rotate what we're eating. My family is not too picky with fruit:)
2) What price is comparable to what I used to spend? So for example, while I like buying organic ground beef it's too expensive right now. So store brand it is.
3) Looking to avoid ingredients such as: corn syrup, added sugars, modified ingredients, "natural flavors", MSG
4) Always looking for Annie's Mac sales and then stocking up (kid favorite)
5) If marked down, what condition is it in? This works well for bagged salads, discount produce. Sometimes they are in great condition! Other times it'd be like throwing money away.
6) Not ever buying (anymore) the middle of the aisle items that are seasonal displays, and just sticking to my list or a good sale find (less impulse purchases)

By: jenn

jenn — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:34:44 +0000

Pretty much the same, although i also try to think about how much produce we will eat (2 of us) before it goes bad. Keeping a bag of frozen stir-fry veg around is a handy backup in case we run short.
We don’t eat processed lunch meat but do buy Nita trade -free bacon for the occasional treat. And once in a while, nitrates free salami for a charcuterie platter.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:51:48 +0000

Most of my decision making occurs before I leave home. I review the sale flyer and decide on the weekly menu.
We have a cow in the freezer so decisions regarding other meat are based on price. Right now I’m trying to get more fish in our diet so I watch those sales pretty closely. In the produce section I’m looking for good prices, preferably grown in the US though not necessarily organic. I like to buy local but this time of year whatcha gonna do? I do admit to buying bag salad and avocados. I eat a lot of avocados on my low carb diet. We generally buy the same things week to week. I try to avoid the center aisles and processed foots. Hubs will buy sugary/salty snacks if he does the shopping. I tend to bulk cook so convenience is less of consideration except rotisserie chicken which is on sale every Wednesday at my local for $5 (rest of the week $8.99).
So——
1) level of processing
2) will everyone eat it?
3) what am I going to make with it?
4) does it fit into this week’s/month’s budget

~Carol