Where we live, it's at least a 20 minute drive home from the closest grocery store. So it never fails, whenever I buy cold foods, they are warm by the time I get home, and frozen foods are melted. Plus all the other foods are rolling around the back end of the car. So I came up with a solution for both problems.
For the foods rolling around, I got this idea from this site actually. Someone on ThriftyFun several years ago sent a tip in about keeping a laundry basket in the back of the car. Voila! No more rolling around!
And to keep my food from thawing out, I also keep a cooler in the back of the car. With it I keep large heavy duty trash bags. After shopping I put all the cold and frozen items into a trash bag and put it in the bottom of the cooler. Then my next stop is to buy some ice. I buy it at the store if they have it. If not, there is usually a place within a quarter mile or less to get it. I put it on top of my cold/frozen foods. This keeps them nice and cold and/or frozen until I can make it home and get them into the fridge/freezer.
If I happen to think of it earlier in the week, I will make up some extra ice at home and keep it in a trash bag in my chest freezer till shopping day.
By Cricket from Parkton, NC
This page contains the following solutions.
Every time we restock our weekly groceries, we make sure to bring our cooler. We place the cooler in the trunk with ice packs.
