Let me preface this by saying I went into this experiment with some pretty weird, not particularly sustainable, grocery shopping habits — at least for a someone who lives in New York. The thing is, I've been known to shop at three different markets all in the same week.

I grew up in Los Angeles, where having a car makes it easy to hit up several different stores to get everything you need. But, once I got to New York, I never managed to fully break the habit. I still head to Trader Joe's for items like snacks and staples, Whole Foods for fish and sometimes produce, and my local Key Food for everything else — despite the fact that I have to take the subway and often wait on line for upwards of 30 minutes to shop at the first two.

My reasons are twofold: I'm attempting to save money, and I also want to be eating quality food that I trust, whenever possible. But, after a particularly frustrating weekend of hitting up several different stores and wondering if my odd habits are actually helping me in the long run — or just forcing me to run all over town more often than is necessary, I decided to find out once and for all.