Grocery Shopping While Travelling

Coming from someone who values locality in food, this seems heresy to say, but sometimes my food travels. Or rather, when I travel, I look for local food to take home with me. I don't travel far away and I never fly. I do take day trips to see family an hour or so away, and I take weekend trips within the state or maybe the state over. When I do, I look for opportunities to enjoy local or "exotic" food at a good price, and bring it home. The gas consumption is minimal since I'd be taking the trip anyway, so perhaps a tiny bit extra for the extra weight (although I'm sure 10 pounds of food isn't adding to my gasoline consumption too much).

When I visit my parents an hour away, I visit a favorite grocery store. It's a scratch and dent grocery and it's phenomenal. I find organic cereal for $.33/box and whole grain pasta for $.59/lb. Every so often, I find ends-and-pieces of local jerky for $5.99 for a 5 lb bag. However, since it is an hour away, I don't make a special trip just for that store. It's only ten minutes from my parents, so I stop when I'm already out that way. The savings over buying those items at the grocery store is more than the cost of gas, meaning I essentially get paid to take the trip out there. Win.

When we drive out to the boonies to go for a day-hike, I like to stop at farm shops and roadside stands to get the local's garden surplus. Just outside my favorite state park, there is a little roadside stand. The offerings are just whatever the home-gardener has a surplus of, but it's fantastic produce and a great price. $1/lb for tomatoes, $.50/large squash, $.25/zucchini or small squash. I prefer my money to go to a real-life family, rather than some grocery store.

When we took our honeymoon to Amish country a few hours away, we really hit the food jackpot. There were several scratch n dent groceries. We bought pasta and canned veg at bargain prices. We drove by a grain mill that sold whole wheat flour at the same price per pound that white flour cost in our city. We bought a few bags, and tossed all in the freezer upon returning home. Our honeymoon package included a $150 gift certificate good at the inn's restaurant, bakery, gift shop, or general store. We ate our meals at the restaurant. On the last day, we had over $100 left. We went to the bakery and got a few loaves of bread (some for the freezer) and a few sweets. Then we went to the general store and spent the $90 left on jams, jellies, coffee, tea, pasta,spices and bags of trail mix.

When we go to Chicago to visit family, we have a few stops that we have to make, mainly to bakeries. One bakery sells cookies for $.20 each and sub rolls for $.33. A few ethnic bakeries offer some of our favorites that we can't find here, and don't (yet) know how to make. This provides a little splurge, but at a discounted price. We'll sometimes stop in Chinatown for our stockpile of herbal teas and other items, or we'll stop by a neighborhood with a fantastic selection of exotic produce at bargain prices.

By keeping our eyes open when we travel, we're able to get great scores on food. We often save money over buying more exotic selections in our town, and we get to try lots of new things without the cost of going to a trendy restaurant. Often, the grocery savings is close to the cost of gasoline, thus making our trip less expensive. Whenever you venture away from your neighborhood, keep your eyes peeled for some fun, new food adventures.