Grocery shopping

I love grocery shopping. I don't see what there could be to hate about it. I get to slowly browse all of the aisles, be inspired by new ingredients, think about things that I would like to make and EAT (mmmm), and do some guilt free spending. Everyone needs to eat so I don't think I should feel guilty about spending money on food, right? Well, I'm starting to re-think this a bit. I've heard that groceries is one of the biggest expenses that is easy to cut down on. So here are some of my grocery habits that I have and I need to know what I should change. What are some ideas that you all have about grocery shopping?
- I never look through flyers. I'm a spontaneous shopper and I like to pick things up as the inspiration hits me.
- I don't feel guilty about throwing away food. I know I should but I would rather buy the apples and peppers and have them at home with the hopes that we'll eat them (and we usually do) rather than stocking the house with processed food that won't go bad. Besides, compared to the processed food, it usually is cheaper.
- I have NO problem with no name brands. In fact, no name is one of my favourite brands. It drives Dan nuts (he swearst he no name sour cream is soupier than the name brand stuff) but I think there is rarely any difference at all.
- I will almost always spend more money to buy the local food than the stuff from California. I don't care if the Gaylea cottage cheese is more than the other stuff, it says right on it that it is made from Ontario product. Yeeahh... I also always buy Hewitts when I can. I always go home from the shopping trip planning on calling all those 1-800 #'s on the packaging to ask about where it's from but I never have.
- I love to do the once-a-week big shopping trip but sometimes I just don't get around to it and I end up picking up something everyday. Sometimes I end up doing both.
- I love to grow and preserve as much of my food as I can. I figure I don't really have the energy to grow that much food so I'll buy bushels of whatever is in season and preserve as much of that as I can. Unfortunately, I don't do that as often as I would like (last year it was just a lot of red peppers). I'm hoping that as a stay-at-home mom I can one day have more time to do that (?).
- I love to host and make people feel comfortable. I know that I probably spend too much money buying the food etc. to make people come over.... although I sometimes fail in this area too.
- I love eating. I love eating expensive food. I limit myself with buying these foods but I do enjoy buying a new expensive cheese (or something like that) once in a while.
- There's a foodland grocery store about 2 min. from our place where I buy most of our stuff. It's an okay grocery store. I don't think the produce is all that fantastic and neither are the prices but it's still alright. There's a Fortino's right beside my job which I LOVE!! They have everything! They have all the meats and cheeses and funky produce you could want and it's all fresh. But the prices are a little high. I rarely shop at the food basics across the road from work. I do NOT like that store. I feel dirty shopping there but that's because I'm a snob. I should get the basics there because I do love their prices.

Pinching pennies is not fun for me. I know some people live for it but it's like pulling teeth for me. I feel like grocery shopping is my one area of life where I get to just forget about it. So is there a way to enjoy my grocery shopping and still make things cheaper? What new grocery habits can I start and still enjoy getting food?