Grocery store shopping during a pandemic

Recently, a local news network featured an 'expert' to discuss "How to save money at the grocery store during C-19"

The segment was terrible. I'll summarize. "Make a list! Buy in bulk! Plan two weeks worth of meals before you shop! Don't store potatoes and onions together!"

That there is some great tips for saving money at the grocery store six months ago, and some of it is actually *bad* advice right now.

Here are modern tips, courtesy of me.

• Get spices that you like. Seriously. This is the most important one. Spices and sauces make lots of bland food tolerable.
• Be flexible. Focus on staple foods like potatoes, rice, beans, canned vegetables and fruits, and build around that. Some groceries are not going be available, some are going to be alarmingly expensive, and some are going to be alarmingly cheap.
• Be willing to substitute. Do not plan two weeks of meals when you don't know what's going to be in stock. Try to plan ahead, but be prepared. Think about what you'll look for instead if something isn't there.
• Boxed dinners (Helper, X-A-Roni, Kraft...) can be stretched out by adding vegetables and a small amount of meat, meat substitute, fried mushrooms, or a can of red kidney beans. It's not as much work as a whole casserole, too.
• Try to eat less meat. Hamburger is $10/lb in some stores.
• Know how much fridge and freezer space you have before you leave the house. Milk lasts two weeks, but it can be frozen to keep it longer. You know how much you'll use, and how much you have space for.  How much space will extra milk take up? How much space will a thing that's on sale take up? Leave yourself a bit of room for sale items if they're available, but plan to get extra frozen something (Tater tots!) if they're not.
• Don't store potatoes and onions together unless you go through them really fast, and then it doesn't matter.