Saving Money on Grocery Shopping

[bee9984]

I found this tonight and thought since alot of us are focussing on stockpiling and trying to keep our food costs down this would be a good read for us all even if we are doing all of the recommended suggestions or maybe someone will pick up something new

http://www.wahomeschool.com/groceries.htm

Saving Money on Grocery Shopping

Food is expensive! Especially good food. Yes, ramen can be had for a dime on sale, but most of us would prefer not to pay on the other end -- with health problems down the line. We're currently spending about $500/mo to feed our family of 7 (3 adults, 2 teens, 2 pre-teens). It can be done for a lot less, but that's the amount we're comfortable with, and it allows extras and a small cushion.

If you came to this page from an area outside of Western Washington, your local grocery stores may double (and triple!) coupons. If you're so fortunate, you might want to try The Grocery Game. For $10/mo, she does all the work and lays it out for you. There's a 4 week trial for a dollar, so you can try it first. Here on the Puget Sound, except for two weekends a year when QFC does it, I haven't found a grocery store to double. We have to work a little harder for savings!

Rule #1: It's not a bargain if they won't eat it! I had to learn this the hard way -- with 20 pounds of ground turkey marked way down. Paul hated the taste and refused to eat it. He also declared that the children didn't have to eat it, either. It ended up being dog food. Always remember to take your family's uniqueness into consideration when shopping. This is one of the biggest spending errors you can make when grocery shopping. If it's something new, buy one, make it that same night and run back for more if your family likes it. How many of us had leftovers from Y2K that ended up being given to the food bank because it would take an emergency for the kids to eat it?

Brand Loyalty. Most frugal sites will tell you that brand loyalty is a bad thing. I'm going to disagree. Sometimes it DOES matter. If I fix a meal that goes from great to okay because we used generic mustard instead of French's, the quarter I saved isn't as important as my husband's satisfaction. See Rule #1! If your family isn't quite as particular, by all means use what you can find on sale. But, once again, take your family's preferences into consideration. You can usually find that name brand on sale once in awhile anyway. If you are needing to cut as deeply as possible, they'll need to grin and bear it. But if you have a cushion, use it.

Stockpiling - the Number One Way to Save. If you change nothing else, change how you think about sales. When you happen upon a good sale, think in terms of a YEAR rather than immediate need. "How many bottles of shampoo will my family be using this year?" Right now, we have more than 30 bottles bought on a Buy One, Get One Free sale using a high value coupon. They ended up being less than .25 apiece. My eventual goal is to have three years' worth of items stockpiled so that I can "shop from my pantry" with items bought on sale, and simply supplement with my household budget. That's a long ways off, but we're making progress.

How to Start Your Stockpile. It's really difficult to get a stockpile going when your budget is already stretched to the limit. You usually need some sort of cash infusion to begin. It can be as simple as taking $100 from the tax return, or cutting out that one fast food trip a month. Put it away. It's not for regular shopping, it's for the Big Sale. Stockpiles can be anywhere. Ours is mostly in the garage. If you don't have room there, under the bed, at the bottom of a closet, that space under your desk where your feet don't reach, or any place that's accessible is good.

Start your stockpile with a Big Sale. How do you find that? The EASIEST way is to register free at Deal A Gogo. Yes, I know there are tons of forums dealing with groceries. I've found Gogo to be the best for me. They run on donations which they never ASK for (I toss them a few pennies when I have an odd amount in PayPal). Do yourself a favor and register at a time when you have a few hours to look through it. The forums are organized by grocery store (or other type of store). You'll need to sign up for the various stores' promotional cards. I try not to give more information than is necessary. HOWEVER, if you do not have privacy issues, signing up for QFC's card will mean that they send you discounts and free grocery ($10 off a $50 purchase type) coupons. Safeway denied doing it to me, but I have received phone solicitor calls for the same screwed-up name that prints out on my receipts. For me, I found that too coincidental. They don't have my current information. You have to decide for yourself.

The Big Sale -- what's a big sale? It's one with multiple discounts. Recently, Albertson's had Quaker items on sale $15 for 10. Good deal, right? You got to deduct $5 instantly when you bought 10. Even better! Now they were only a buck apiece. Usually when an entire brand group is on sale at one of the big three in our area (QFC, Albie's, Safeway), it's on sale at at least one other. QFC had manufacturer's coupons printed in their flyers -- $3 off of 5 Quaker. I went and asked if I could have some and was told to take as many as I wanted. Now that $10/10 became $4/10 (two $3 coupons per 5). So I have a couple of years' worth of oatmeal, some breakfast bars, chewy granola bars (which I *know* won't last as long as they're supposed to), and various other Quaker items. That means that when I do my big shop next month, I'll have paid $3.20 for a month's worth of cereal instead of $16. ~$13 saved for each month of the next year -- from one Big Sale. Can you see how hitting even ONE Big Sale per month, and buying a year's worth, can have a great impact on your budget? Smaller sales are useful, too, though you'll have to decide individually whether they rate buying a year's worth of items.

How do you find the coupons for the sales? You can bite the bullet and get a Sunday paper if delivery is available in your area. Yes, you'll save enough with the coupons to justify it. Plus, your dh will get to read the Sports section. A two-fer! Blinkies are another source. They're found in the store. The discounts aren't usually as deep as a Sunday supplement, but often one store will have a blinkie and another will have a sale on the same item. If you think you might use it, take as many as you'll use. I have dumpster-dived for coupons when they have been especially good. When the recycle bins are getting full, it's an easy reach. I wouldn't ever climb inside one because that's just not worth it to me. You can also use a coupon clipping service. Snippin' Savings is a good and very reliable one -- they charge a nickel per coupon to find and cut them out for you. When they are high value coupons, this is an excellent route. Organize and save your coupons so that you don't shop thinking, "Oh no! I know I have that coupon at home." Time is money. You'll need to find a balance that works for you.

Internet coupons. Want to try out Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, but choking on the price? Try doing a search for "coupon" +"Magic Eraser". More often that I imagined, there are coupons on the Internet just for the taking. Of course, you'll spend the ink money (unless you print them at a Mason country library), but if it's a good coupon, it's worth it.

Catlinas. Catalinas are those red and white coupon things that pop up with your receipt. They're from Catalina Marketing, hence the name. They are NOT random (well, a few are, but most are generated from what you buy). Some Catalinas can have GREAT deals -- $ off your next shopping trip, free grocery items, or great mail-ins. Check the Gogo site's threads on the store you're planning to shop. We have recently gotten free tickets to Narnia, free Propel, and $10 off our next order. They can occasionally be an excellent deal.

Two-fers and Three-fers. Oh, what fun to find these! A two-fer is simply an item already on sale that you have a coupon for. A three-fer is one on sale that has a coupon PLUS a rebate. I used to think that rebates took too much time and effort. I still do -- if they're less than $5. But a $10 rebate on $22 worth of vegetables on sale that you have $7 worth of coupons makes them almost free. Special offers are great fun, too. For Christmas, I purchased some P&G items (with coupons, of course) and sent away for a free Disney Princess alarm clock. It's beautiful and well-made, and was the perfect present for my niece. That's another version of the three-fer.

Membership warehouses. If I got it at Costco, it MUST be the lowest price, right? WRONG. While there are certainly good deals at the superstores, they're not always the best. Make yourself a price book and track it for awhile. Then you'll know what's worth buying there, and what isn't.

*Military Commissaries. The Commisssary can be a great benefit! But just like membership stores, it's not always the best deal. This is especially true when you are using high value coupons. The Commissary charges the 5% surcharge on the before price. Add to that another 3% or so for the bagger, and you really need to watch your price book. In my experience, boxed and canned goods are significantly less expensive on Base. So is dairy. The produce and meat tend to be of a lesser quality than the big three. The Commissary is NOT less expensive that the loss leaders or two-fers. The Bangor Commissary is much cleaner, better stocked, and nicer than the Bremerton one. YMMV.

Shop from a list, right? It depends. In general, no. Unless, of course, you already know what's on sale. One way to do this is to take the ads side by side and compare them against your coupon stash. Once your stockpile begins to grow, you'll start to shop from the SALES rather than from a menu. Advice to "make a menu and a list, and stick to it" is poor advice indeed. If an unadvertised sale is good, stockpile it! Unless you're just learning to cook, most of us are better off buying from the loss leaders and sales, THEN deciding what's for dinner.

Freezers and Extra Refrigerators. It costs about $12 a month to run a freezer or refrigerator. You have to figure that cost in when deciding whether it's worth getting one. For us, it is. Try to keep it full, and it will cost even less. You can use water jugs when it starts to empty out. What to store there? Jane R. stores bread from the day old bakery (off Loxie Egans near the DMV in Bremerton). "They still have a few days left on the expiration, but they're marked way down." Cash 'n Carry has a chicken sale every once in awhile that can't be beaten, and 80 lbs will fill about half the freezer when rebagged. I recommend rebagging large items into meal-sized bags. If you use the regular storage bag for the meat, then put it into a freezer bag, you can re-use the more expensive freezer bag. I don't re-use bags that have stored meat.

Tips for in the Store. Be friendly! Get to know the people who you regularly shop. "What's good today?" to a total stranger will likely get you a different answer than when asked to a butcher you shop regularly. Ask about markdowns. Don't demand, just ask. "Do you have a specific time when you markdown the bakery items?" Resist the urge to take them all. Are you buying 100 boxes of something on a Big Sale and there's only 102 out? Ask if there are more in the back that aren't unboxed. You'll save a stocker some time, plus they'll be easier for you to carry. The last piece of pizza or last pudding cup, etc is "the pig piece". I just can't bring myself to take it :-).

Remember, Time is Money. There's a balance. Each of us has to figure out where to put the fulcrum. There are some women who spend hours every day on this and it pays off big. Most homeschoolers probably don't have that kind of time. Find what works for YOU, and realize that when Martha only spends $120 to feed her family of 5 for a month, she's spending fewer hours with them. It's the balance that works for her.

Some comments on local stores. This, of course, is our opinion. Yours may vary greatly.

--Albertson's, Port Orchard. Of the big three, they definitely have the best prices and the best sales. Be careful of the regularly priced items, however, since that seems to be where they're making up the loss leader losses.

--Cash 'n Carry, Bremerton (behind the Callow pawn shop). Great if you're buying in bulk. But if that #10 can of green beans simply means waste, get a more manageable size. They have occasional excellent sales, and it's worth checking when you're in the area.

--Cosctco, Silverdale. If you have a membership for another reason, great. I wouldn't purchase one just for groceries. If you are a savvy shopper and coupon user, you can save more elsewhere. Good deals are bread products and produce.

--Oroweat Bakery Thriftshop, East Bremerton. The manager's specials are a great deal. Some of the other stuff isn't marked down all that much. Worth stopping into if you're on Wheaton Way, but I wouldn't make a special trip.

--QFC. Great loss leaders, and the best meat in the area (especially the beef). Wait for a sale on the beef, then stock up. The best customer service in the area

--Safeway. Better overall prices than QFC, but can't touch them for service. Excellent fresh produce.

[lukesmama]

Thanks, I enjoyed reading that!

[marei]

Me too. Was especially glad to hear that they thought menu planning and sticking to it was not a good idea - this would never work for me. What does work is having a well-stocked pantry and I can decide each day what I want to cook.
Thank you for posting.

[i.m.cheap]

My small chest freezer (7 cu. ft., manual defrost) is VERY effecient to run. The total energy cost for a YEAR is $36, or $3 a month. I love having a freezer. Good article, thanks for posting it.

[bee9984]

You are all welcome