In this area the grocery stores I go to often have things on sale that are cheaper and better than the ones on sale. So I shop the in store specials. I find I am just the opposite if I am hungry nothing looks or sounds good. If I have recently eaten every thing finds its way into my cart.

When I shop with my wife, which is 99% of the time, we purchase sushi for two and dine on it while we shop. I love shopping!

Not ever ; )

I love shopping too! I just make BAD decisions when I go shopping hungry....really bad ones.

Oh, yeah. If we shop when hungry, we get way more than what we went there for. But, at least I can say that we don't get stuff that we won't eat. We do eventually consume what we buy on those binges.

Amy, maybe you could take some of the stuff you don't think you'll eat to work, and give it to your coworkers.

Easy solution, keep a protein bar in your vehicle. Eat it before entering the grocery store, I often do so on Sundays when stopping on the way home from church.

I enjoyed reading your grocery buys. Got a chuckle out of some of the items. I have learned to eat a bacon sandwich just before I go out to shop. Now how would I have learned to do that?☺☺

Lindsey at the time I thought I would eat it. I was so hungry everything looked so good! I like most of what I bought,such as the cereal, but I know I shouldn't really be eating that much of it....

Not to sound grumpy, but my coworkers already benefit too much from my "generosity" and have no gratitude,class or desire to reciprocate. I'll toss it before I bring it here for them.

Just some examples:

-all the condiments I buy disappear within a week. And i buy huge bottles. There are only 5 of us and I barely use any! The last 2 bottles of mayo were emptied (then returned to the fridge empty) and I didn't use them at all!.

- I bring paper plates and bowls and plastic cutlery for myself. I dont mind if they get one of them if they need it. But a pack of 85 plates should last more than a few days. I have started locking up a second stash. There were many nights I came here to find all my plates and plastic cutlery gone,save a handful of plastic knives.

I bring bath and body works hand soap for myself specifically. But again, I dont mind if they use it. The company provides soap that smells ROTTEN. Anyway, I got a text the other day when I was off informing me that "we are low on hand soap."

And don't get me started on the halloween candy and candy canes........

I may bring the ravioli to stash in my locker at work in case I'm in a bind without food. I'm pretty sure it wont expire for 30 years at least. :)

Just the other day, a bag of Lays plain potato chips found their way into my cart. Fortunately, I was disciplined enough to put it back and swap it for a single serve bag of Lays.

Yesterday at the farmers market I was so good. I bought green beans, salad mix, tomatoes, cucumbers and peaches. Then, somehow, I ended up standing in front of the baked goods stall and a large piece of baklava went home with me too!

I won't eat any of that stuff in one sitting though. The chips will be eaten four or five at a time and the baklava will be cut up into smaller pieces with one small piece being allowed each day. I don't like to totally deprive myself of the things I consider special treats.

Raye that's a good idea if I can find a good one! All the protein bars I have tried before have that gross chalky cardboard texture going on that really works my gag reflex.....

I really think my mistake was going so long without eating. I have not been that hungry in a very very long time. I was shaking and lightheaded i was so hungry. I KNEW better when I left for work. I KNEW i should have taken something, even if just a snack,but i just couldn't face food right then.

amylou, try the chocolate cherry Kind bars. Like all these things they're just glorified candy bars, but at least they have some protein and nuts to keep you full longer, and they're quite tasty.

Could you possibly donate some of your 'mistakes' to a local food pantry?

Maybe bookwoman. I'll for sure look into that. My sister and her husband do a lot for a small rural food pantry. I'll ask her.

I went to Sprouts hungry. Luckily that's a pretty safe place! I came out with peaches, lettuce, roma tomatoes.....and......chocolate covered almonds. Not too bad. :0)

I love Kind bars, but they may not fare well in a hot car. Maybe some raw almonds would help stave off hunger at an inconvenient time.

I keep one in my handbag at all times, but never in the car - you're right that it would get too hot. Nuts are a great idea if that's where you want to keep some food.

I try never to shop hungry because you are right that everything looks delicious when you are hungry. I do most of my shopping at Trader Joe's and, while they have a selection of snack foods, there are healthier choices amongst those snack foods to help fend off the munchies, if needed. Also, I only take one shopping bag in with me and I don't get a cart. Once I fill the bag, I'm finished shopping, so I'd better have at least a few day's worth of non-snack food in my bag...lol!

Wow, Chef Boyardee beef ravioli, haven't thought of that in more years than I care to admit, didn't know they still made it.

I buy the 100 calorie packs of low sodium almonds (Blue Diamond). They are compact and easy to stash. I can't eat a sweet protein bar when I'm as hungry as you were. Makes me feel worse. Nuts seem to be the best for evening out my hunger and shakiness from low blood sugar.

Well, amylou, that sounds normal. The same thing has happened to me when I was not as hungry as you were. I dragged home a large bag of potato chips - that was not on my diet. What's more, I ate most of those.

I've had that happen, but none of your choices would have begun to tempt me. I'd be doing potato chips or such. (At least with the canned ravioli you can always donate it - probably also with some of the other items. )

When I'm very hungry I crave protein, carbs such as pasta and fat, not sweets. Not so much salty crunchy snacks, either. When I'm vaguely hungry but can't decide what I want it's usually because I need to eat a very nutritional salad and that satisfies better than anything. I rarely eat salty snacks but DH goes to that every time. I'm more likely to want something sweet and sinful after dinner which I need to find a way to cut back on, this is the worst thing to do and then go to bed on it. And since it's after dinner it's not because I'm hungry that I want to eat it, I guess it's a mental thing??

Amylou I went shopping on a fast day, I am doing ADF, brought home a carrot cake. I waited until the next day, ate a piece and thoroughly enjoyed it, and then threw the rest of it away.

Yes! I do better if I bring a list or do NOT bring my son though. He is a bad enabler. I admit it, I am a bad enabler for him. Together, it grows exponentially.

My husband always is with me at the grocery store. He pushes the cart and I have my chair. When we get home to put away our food I find numerous things that I didn't put in the cart and were not on the list lol. I have to ask if he got it or did a random person accidentally put it in our cart. It's amazing how many random people put things in our cart! Ha! I am guilty of it myself at times too. I went to the farm store for homegrown tomatoes and ended up with those and half of a watermelon.

Growing up I used to like Chef Boyardee - ravioli, spag and meatballs. Recently they were having a special on them so I bought a couple of cans.....to have just in case I can't be bothered to cook (it happens!). They were awful and I wound up throwing them in the garbage. Taste buds must certainly change as one ages as I cannot imagine eating that stuff now and enjoying it........unless I was starving!!

Although I sometimes shop when hungry, I generally do not purchase much what isn't on my list.....or certainly not junk food, which I find to be almost always unappealing and sometime downright nasty. What most often happens is I get more than what's on my list but generally 'proper' food :-) More of a fruit selection, very likely more meat than I had planned on, definitely cheeses. No cookies or prepared bakery items, rarely ever chips. And the idea of Coca Puffs and chocolate milk kinda makes me feel nauseous............

> Fortunately, I was disciplined enough to put it back and swap it for a single serve bag of Lays.

A "single serve" bag. That's funny. They all are single serve bags. Its just that some servings are much larger than others. Open bag. Start eating. When the bag is empty -- that was one serving.

That's why I try to never buy potato chips.

When I am shopping I'm less tempted by sweets or snacks, more by what is currently on sale. The store I frequent often has "Buy 2 Get 3 for Free" If if is something that I normally buy I might come home with 10 of them, even if I know I already have some at home. Sometimes even if it is something I wouldn't be tempted to consider, the great sale price might draw me in. Most recently it was packages of frozen beef ravioli or cheese-stuiffed manicotti

Ha, ha! Good point, Bob. I'll rephrase that and say that I put back the large single serving bag (you are so right about that) and replaced it with a small single serve bag. But there was a part of me that really, really wanted that large single serving bag!

amylou, I can so relate to your story about the soap.

When I was working, I used to stop on my way to work to buy the newspaper (with my money) so I could read it at lunch time. I'd put the paper on the break room paper to share with my co-workers. By the time I sat down to lunch, the paper had been taken apart, some sections were missing and articles cut out. Grrrrrr.

But, the most annoying part of all that was some days I wouldn't get the paper because I didn't have time or the machine hadnt yet been stocked with that day's edition. Boy, did I hear about it. "Where's the paper?" "Why didn't you stop for the paper?" "There's an article I want to read!" OMG!

The entitlement got so bad, that I started leaving the paper in my car and going out there at lunchtime to read it. Eventually, I stopped buying it altogether.

They did the same thing with the candy dish I kept on my desk (stocked with my funds). Not only would they take fistfuls of candy, they'd whine if the dish was empty. Sometimes, they'd rummage through the drawers of my desk looking for bags of candy. And, these were people who made a lot more money than I did. Honestly!

I did not mean to go off topic, but your post upthread made me think of that - hadn't thought about it in years.

@amylou - I loved your OP and chuckled out loud. It's so very true.

I actually like to shop hungry, if I'm not hungry I don't bring home much because not much looks good. Then I have to go to the store again.

If I am doing my normal grocery shopping,I never do so hungry. But this incident was unavoidable, as I had to get stuff for dinner. Even so, when I shop not hungry I still give in to impulse buys, but never anything like the other day. Not usually anyway. I am more likely to pick up something new to try. Not stuff i havent eaten in 2 decades or more....

BTW, I am keeping the cocoa krispies AND the chocolate milk.....

Dawn it amazes me how adults in a work setting can be so tacky. I discovered yesterday that they had dipped into my secret stash of cutlery when the stuff in the open had run out. I guess I will have to actually lock things away. It's sad. I would never dream of using anything that other people had bought. I confronted one of them once. This girl ate SO FRIGGIN MUCH of my halloween candy I had to say something about it. She informed me that she was a "broke young lady just starting out." When I reminded her that we all make the same hourly wage,she countered with, "well. I am married and you're not. That makes a difference. " I am still confused as to how... Anyway,I think she was taking some of it home as well. She is in her late 20s. Old enough to know better. I actually snapped at her again the other day. We were working together,a blessedly rare occurence. A driver came in and asked if i was going to decorate for halloween again this year. Then he went on to say that he loves when I am here and the decor is up because everyone else either turns all the regular lights on to drown out the halloween lights or turns of all the animated stuff or both. She blurted out,"yeah we turn it off and turn the lights on. We dont wanna put up with all that. This is day shift." I told her, "You people eat up all my GD candy you can learn to put up with my decorations." She was taken aback and insisted that she gave me 20 dollars last year to cover some candy,which is an absolute lie,and I told her so. Then I told her that this year, take the 20 dollars that she imagined giving me last year and buy her own candy to gorge on. It was mean yes. She has an eating problem. She also has a nasty attitude problem. Last year I bought close to 500 dollars worth of candy and snacks for my trick or treat bowls. This should have lasted all month long. It lasted less than 2 weeks. Same thing the year before. The only difference in those past 2 years from the years before when it DID last all month????? Her being employed there. I chose not to bring that to her attention. To do so would be petty.

Ha! It WAS brilliant! I still cant get over someone thinking it was okay to borrow someones cutlery like that. Or anything out of their desk without express permission. I was horrified when a coworker handed me back my hairbrush that I kept up there. It went right in the trash. Who raised these cretins?!?!?

I'd say they were raised by wolves, but that would be an insult to wolves which are actually quite civilized within their family groups.

Hyenas maybe?

More like baboons.

Licking the cutlery! LOLOLOL brilliant!

When I was working in an office, the company provided plastic cutlery and paper plates, plus there was pizza day the first Friday of every month, and there were tons of pizzas for everyone to have for lunch that the owner provided. Those were the only days I ate in the company lunchroom. I lived 1.3 miles from work, and my commute was four minutes, which meant that I could go home for lunch.

I used to take excess food to work to give away, but it was generally something I grew and had too much of, such as figs, when they were in season. One woman from Israel particularly liked my figs, and so I invited her to come to my house one week-end and pick some for herself. She brought her husband, and they picked quite a few figs. I was getting about 40 figs a day and needed to get rid of them. She made some fig jam with some of the figs and gave me some of the jam, which was very nice.

Sometimes we would have potluck lunches at work (for special occasions), and people would bring all kinds of homemade exotic dishes that they had made at home, although one woman would bring a bucket of fried chicken that she had bought, and a few people would bring chips and drinks that they had bought. There were always massive amounts of leftovers.

The main time that I overbuy is when I go to a farmers' market, and the reason for this is that I do not go more than once a week, as a rule, and that is on week-ends. I often buy more vegetables and fruit than I can eat.

I know this is an old thread, but I saw a link to it at the side of the page.

When we decide not to dine out, we say 'what sounds good to you?'

So we go shopping, thinking we might just shop for tonight. And then another day gets tacked on, Soon the food bill is 2-3-4 times what we might have spent dining out [sans drinks]. Yeah, I can cook cheaper than we can dine out. Sometimes it's as simple as firing up the grill. And then we decide potato salad might be nice. Of course that is twice as expensive as eggs and potaoes ... well, you know the drill. At least we get a nice dessert out of the deal, which SHOULD last all weekend, but never does.

And then there's the frozen pizza that jumps into the cart, and chips and salsa.

No, it never happens.

And then meat prices of late ...oy vey

I've had problems with past coworkers ....in spades! One lady thought "I" should bring enough of my home cooked food for HER too, I brought left overs to eat....or NOT eat in the computer room. She even tried reporting ME to management!

I told her we were ALL allowed to eat in the computer room, then on our 30 minute lunch break we could go walking. The tape librarian actually made her peach cobbler because she complained so much about how good my home made cobbler looked. Then....complained about how bad it was when the other lady made it for her. ♥ Another place I worked, they drooled over my home made food....and pleaded that I should make enough for the whole crew. I tried to explain I worked a 12 hour shift and had NO time to cook for them. My hungry construction working husband....ate everything I cooked. I didn't get home until 9pm.

We finally had a potluck. I passed around a choice sheet. :0) I agreed to bring in ONE thing, had everyone vote on it.(green chili, cheesecake, sour-cream chicken enchiladas). I made a HUGE cheesecake.....and it was gone in like 10 minutes. Then the night crew heard about it....and I got complaint emails.

They had a bake sale. I brought in a pan of HUGE choc-chip walnut brownies. One lady tried to buy the whole pan off me before I could take them upstairs. I explained each brownie would sell for $1...and the pan would total $24! I told her "DON'T DO IT!". ha ha She went to the bake sale and they were "sold out".

Those were weird times.

Nicole, there is an episode of The Goldbergs where all the nerdy kids are allowed to eat in the computer room.

I hear so many stories of people stealing food or demanding others' food in the workplace. That is so weird. I've never encountered that, thank goodness.

I never purchased food for my coworkers or decorated the place up. But....Amy's stories do bring back memories. :0) There was LOTS of drama at work.

The same coworker with the peach cobbler story....I told her I'd made a duvet cover with matching shams. Then showed her photos. She immediately wanted ME to make her a set. No, no .....nooooooooooooooo!

Another woman...she was telling me what she'd done after work the night before....just a chatty conversation. I told her my DH & I were picking up ALL this rebar, hauling it away, as a side job since the plans on the job had changed, selling it as scrap by the ton. Each load was yielding $300! (scrap prices were HIGH back then). She invited herself to join us and we'd spilt it 3 ways. I UNINVITED her.

My BIG mouth got me into ALL kinds of confrontations that seemed innocent at the time.

If I was you, Amylou, and got a text to say the hand soap was running low, I would text back a link to Bath and Body Works’ online ordering page and add, ”Knock yourself out”.

I did do that once. They were offended. Waaaaaaah!

amy.....a lot of what your saying I remember also saying. I once told a woman complaining about money that we both made the same wage.....and "I" didn't have money problems. People don't "get" our logic. :0) (you said something similar in another post)

My cure for coworkers....is not to have any. :0) When you start your one-woman-business or retire and stay at home....this will all just be "weird-times-memories".

It's in your power to end this, Amylou. You've tried 'generous'. These people are ingrates. Why continue to pay for their food and supplies? Yes, it makes for great stories, but seriously, why do this? You know, 'Pearls before swine"? The experiment is over. They *are* swine.

Noting that this is an old thread...maybe you DID stop enabling them?