How to Save $100 (or More) at the Grocery Store This Month
When gas prices were soaring in the summer of 2008, my family was scrambling to find ways to save money. We could not reduce the prices at the gas pumps, we were locked into the lowest interest rate on our mortgage, and our budget was maxed out. I knew the only way we could continue without running into the red each month was to reduce the line item marked Grocery, but I didn’t know how exactly to go about doing that.
My new grocery-shopping techniques allowed me to save over $100 the first month, and close to $200 the second month. Our monthly grocery budget dropped from around $500 to $300. (And sometimes less!) Here are the steps I took to save at the supermarket:
Get a store loyalty card
Sign up for a card that will help you save money each week at the store (and maybe even earn money back, like with the CVS Extra Care Bucks card.)
Study your store’s circular
Look through your grocery store’s weekly circular to see what is on sale. Products on the front page are called “loss leaders” and are priced very low to entice you into the store, where you will then purchase the loss leaders, but other items as well. Loss leader prices are typically the lowest prices of the season, so it is worth buying extra items if you know that you will use them. For example: If boneless skinless chicken breasts are on sale for $1.77/lb (regularly $5.49/lb), it is worth purchasing 5-6 packages to freeze for use in the coming weeks.
Make a meal plan and a shopping list
After studying your grocery store circular, plan a few meals using the products that are on sale that week. (If you need extra help with this, my $5 Dinners blog has a feature called the bargain meal of the week, where different contributors from all over the country post a recipe based on their grocery store circular. Also check out $5 Meal Plan.) Create a shopping list based on your meal plan and what you already have in your cupboards. Do not buy anything that is not on your list. You didn’t need it when you were at home creating your list, and you don’t need it when you are standing in the store — even if you think you need it.
Look for marked-down proteins
Watch for beef, chicken, pork, and fish that are on sale or, better yet, marked down for “quick sale.” These products can be used right away or frozen for future use. A vacuum sealer or food saver system is a worthy investment if you aim to get the very best prices on protein sources.
Buy your produce on sale
Purchase produce that is on sale that week. This is often based on what type of produce is in season. This will not only help your pocketbook, but it will also help you explore new foods and experiment in the kitchen.
Clip coupons from the newspaper
“But they don’t make coupons for the products that I buy,” you might say. Do you purchase toothpaste, deodorant and shampoo? I hope so! All of these products can be purchased with a coupon. I don’t remember the last time I paid for toothpaste. When name-brand toothpaste goes on sale for $1, you can match a $.50 coupon that doubles to $1 (if your store doubles) to get the toothpaste for free.
Consider digital coupons
If you’re not up to the paper-and-scissors task of couponing, then load your store loyalty cards with electronic coupons. Shortcuts.com, Cellfire, P&G eSaver, and Upromise are four websites that allow you to save money electronically on a wide variety of products. Sign up at each website and the coupons will be deducted automatically from your receipts. Upromise electronic coupons are deposited back into a college savings account you can set up for your children.
Resist the displays
Purchase items from the top or bottom shelf, as opposed to the ones at eye level. Manufacturers pay a premium to have their products displayed at eye level, which translates to higher prices for those products! Look above and below for other products that might be similar to what you are looking for. Walk past the large displays for holiday/seasonal items or the cardboard displays that jump out at you as you round from one aisle to the next.
Leave the kids at home
Shopping with the kids makes it difficult to focus on your shopping list, your coupons and your mission: To get in and out as quickly as possible, saving the most money possible! Leave the kids at home. There’s something to be said for shopping at 10pm! [J.D.’s note: I love to shop late at night. Kris and I used to do that when we were younger.]
Make it a game
Challenge yourself to save $5 one week, $10 more dollars the next week, $20 more the following week, and so on. Before you know it, your grocery bill could be half of what it once was!
With a little time, planning and extra effort, saving money at the grocery store can be both fun and rewarding. By utilizing these techniques and becoming a “professional” grocery shopper, I prevented our family from running into the red during the months when our budget was just about stretched to its limits. Happy saving!
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There are 75 comments to "How to Save $100 (or More) at the Grocery Store This Month".
What if you are like me? A single dude who only spends $60-$90 a month on groceries.
This is a good review of how to shop well! We also follow a lot of these principles, although sometimes having the kids in the store makes me move through faster (less stocking up on unplanned bargains).
It would have been helpful to know that you’re feeding two adults and two small children on the money you’re talking about. (Went and looked at your blog, though to find that detail — if that was strategic, it worked!)
A change that significantly reduced my family’s monthly grocery bill was adding non-flesh protein sources into the rotation. We eat a lot more beans, lentils, and soy than we used to. Even when we have meat, it’s often the side or flavoring instead of the main focus.
I’m a devotee of the farmer’s market, and I’m okay with paying more for better quality (especially for meat). I cut back on other stuff I don’t care about, and I don’t have to have meat at every meal. In fact, we have it a few times a week and eat a lot of vegetarian meals.
I do try to buy my meats on sale, but what do you do when you are always on the go go go? It’s just so hard it seems to find the bargains all the time when you have to actually schedule time to go to the store.
It seems like this post is recycled about every 2 or 3 months on here. I don’t know how much mileage this blog can get out of 1) use coupons 2) make a meal plan and 3) buy staples but it is getting a little redundant. They are great tips to know, but nothing new here.
For produce, I hit up my neighborhood produce stand. While this is not true everywhere, many stands here in Seattle Proper have the same produce priced at 60% – 75% discount from grocery store prices.
great tips. i used to be a big believer that coupons made you spend more but now that i follow several coupon blogs i’ve learned that they can make a huge difference
I’m with Mike (#1), I only spend $110 a month. It helps to make big batches and eat the same thing all week or freeze some portions. It’s boring, but it saves money and makes cooking more fun.
I save $15/wk just by buying fewer prepared goods: I bake bread once a week, granola once every two weeks or so, and make sure that whatever I cook will make leftovers the next day. It does require time, but I personally find it a great break during the day (since none of this takes very long in actual work time). And it’s a great way to teach kids some cool skills. I find that clipping coupons (while great when it works) doesn’t … always/usually work: the store brand is frequently cheaper unless something’s on sale. (Plus I buy all natural/local for which there are fewer coupons.)
@Nicole (#5)
Believe it or not, I agree with you: this topic is covered at GRS a little too often. Part of this is because there’s a demand for it, however. People are always e-mailing me with questions about saving on food. And there are actually entire blogs devoted to the subject. All the same, I’d expect to see less of this in the future. But the topic will never go away completely.
Regarding upromise – I have always ignored the upromise program because I don’t have any kids. I just found out this past weekend, that you can sign it up to contribute to your Sallie Mae student loans. I signed myself & my husband up. I’m so happy to find out about all the products that I buy can contribute a percent to my husband’s student loans. It doesn’t cost me anything extra and it is not just for grocery stores. It’s for all kinds of stores.
I find that if you can get to the stores early in the morning that you can get some deals on closeouts and close dated items.
As far as printing coupons most of the stores I try to use them at will not allow me to use them because many have been hit with fraud. They even post they do not take printed coupons. We don’t have cvs or any of those type of stores where I live so as far as getting free stuff that does not happen real often, I would have to say you can only cut so many corners.
My family WILL NOT eat beans, no matter how many times I have tried, I can personally say that I don’t care for them myself. So cutting out meat is not an option either.
I do go to a local meat market and buy a whole or half hog, and half of a beef, and find it is a great deal, since it keeps me out of the stores by having my freezer full, the meat that comes from the local meat market, is so much better than anything you will buy in a grocery store.
Although I do use some coupons, I do not have time to run store to store playing the coupon game. Especially if I have any of my kids with.
As much as I can “save” by not bringing my kids with I do bring them with, especially my older kids so they can see what stuff costs, my oldest son was shocked when I asked him to get a block of cheese and it was over $10.00. Wow mom I didn’t know cheese was so expensive! Now he knows why I get mad at them if they don’t eat the food they take!
I think it’s funny that this was posted so close to the post about how we waste 25% of the food we buy. Most of the food I waste is because I get too ambitious about shopping with ads or coupons. Chicken breast might be a great deal at $1.77/#, but if you wind up throwing a bunch away because it was at the back of your freezer and you forgot about it, it wasn’t such a good deal.
You also have to be careful of coupons that they fit into your lifestyle. Coupons are there to entice you to buy something you wouldn’t have otherwise. They only help if you would have bought it anyway. Buying cookies you got 1/2 off and never eating them so they go stale isn’t frugal.
I used to clip and organize coupons, but then I realized that while working full time there are other things I can do that have more bang for buck. For example for the past couple months I make cookies and quick bread (banana, pumpkin, etc) every week to keep from buying them. That has saved me more than coupons would. That is what fits into my lifestyle.
JD, if you cover food again I would be interested in various systems people use (and the context of their lives as they use them), beyond “clip coupons” or “cook at home more”. I have found I can’t plan beyond about a week before I lose track of my proteins and things get pushed back. Then I try to have “eat from the freezer” weeks when the meat I froze because it was a great deal or my plans changed gets eaten. Grocery shopping and cooking is a system much like everything else. You need to do what works for you, and more people might find what works for them if they are exposed to more ideas that work for other people, especially other people in their same situations. What works for a SAHM won’t work for me, and vica versa.
I agree – these posts are the same everywhere. I think by now we all know that to save money at the grocery store, we have to pay attention to sales and what’s in season, etc.
Here’s the thing..the people that can really get deals like this, live in area’s with stores that will double coupons and that do offer a customer card. Most of those in my area won’t. Or you mention upromise – I signed up for it years ago and no grocery store in my area is on the program. So it’s prett much worthless unless I use it to shop-online.
I personally stock up on non-perishables when on sale. I try to match coupons and sales as often as I can and usually save money that way. Luckily one store in my area will usually offer $10 off of a $50 purchase at least one Thursday out of the month, so I try to reserve my shopping for those days and I go multiple times. I usually go once on the way to work and then again on the way home.
My DH and I don’t eat a lot of manufactured food, so most of those coupon deals I ignore, but I do use store loyalty cards everywhere (and they do help) and I buy store brands often. We also this year bought a promotional package from Omaha Steaks – about $70 and so far we have had ten meals, and there’s still stuff in the freezer. That’s pretty good.
If people really need to cut grocery bills, the first place to look is at beverages. Juice & sodas are expensive, and aren’t nutritionally good choices versus fruit and water. Bottled water is a pure luxury in the U.S. where tap water is almost universally safe.
Flavored milk products are fantastically high in sugar & chemicals … choose regular milk and add Ovaltine. Flavored yogurts likewise … switch to vanilla, or better yet plain, and save tons of money plus calories; sweeten with honey, a spoonful of jam, or real fruit.
Kim – about how much money goes toward the loan payment? I always ignored the upromise ads on the sallie mae website, but now I’m kind of intrigued. Is is scammy, or does it really help? Lord knows I would love a way to pay down that loan faster, and my sister and mom shop online alllll the time.
I used to do the grocery game, clip coupons, etc. but I’ve found a better way to save money. I do as much of my shopping as possible at Aldi’s now. They have most of what I need and the store is small enough that it keeps me from impulse buying. I also can get most of my grocery shopping done in 15 minutes or less – something I could never do at a regular grocery store. I usually spend around $30/week now for my husband and I. This covers almost all of our meals (we go out to eat about once/week). Less time on cutting coupons and grocery shopping and more money in my pocket – it definitely works for me.
I’m too lazy to look for coupons for groceries. I know how I am so I worked it into my process. I just buy in bulk frozen meat products at Costco and buy everything else at WalMart. I end up not paying more on my overall bill than I would if I go to the regular grocery store. I had a bad experience with WalMart quality a while back but have given it a second chance…
Everyone should consider joining a wholesale club. I work at BJ’s, but Sam’s and Costco also work.
If you’re a savvy shopper it is quite easy to save A LOT of money by buying in bulk.
I have used this website : http://www.grocerygame.com with great success. It basically combines grocery store sales with weekly coupons, so you don’t have to do the work yourself.
I found this post repetitive too… but it never hurts to hear that I’m on the right track! 🙂
I’m also glad I found Erin’s blog — that article about bone-in split chicken breasts was great! I’m surprised she didn’t mention that in her money saving tips. The more prep work you’re willing to do at home, the less you’ll pay at the grocery store. (Which is why I learned to cook raw shrimp — it goes on sale more often).
What I want to know is what the heck are you eating if you only spend $60-90 a MONTH on food?
My guess is lots of ramen and hot dogs.
That’s the low end of my WEEKLY spending, and I’m single. I buy mostly fresh or frozen fruits/veggies, 1-2 packages of meat a week, whole grain bread, eggs and cheese or yogurt. Sparkling mineral water and hot chocolate. Not much in the way of processed foods.
I’ve only heard of the “loss leaders” concept recently, thanks to my involvement in personal finance blogs. I have to say, I’ve saved a ton of money using that tip alone!
A lot of people “complain” that they have to structure their weekly meals according to what’s on sale at the supermarket. My take – what’s wrong with that?? You are getting fresh items at a great price and saving a ton of money. Food is food, and there’s nothing wrong with using your money in better ways than paying full price.
“Leave the kids at home.” – this is golden advice. Most parents don’t realize how incredibly obnoxious their children are to the rest of us. The last thing I need when picking up my groceries is some disruptive kids yelling, screaming, blocking the aisles, running around, and just being a nuisance.
People – you don’t need to bring all 2.5 of your children into the store just to pick up a gallon of milk, and if for some reason you must, please keep them controlled and restrained. I personally would pay a premium on groceries if I could find a grocery store which disallowed children to enter.
I don’t have time for coupons at the grocery store but I use them a lot for restaurants and household items.
We are working on reducing our grocery bill ($400-$500/month for 2 adults, 1 dog, eating out once a week) and have found this is what works for us:
Most groceries are bought at Trader Joe’s.
Costco for bulk items like: soymilk, bread (we freeze them), fruit, cheese, dog food, salad greens
We also grow our own food in the summer and subscribe to a CSA. Sometimes shop at produce stands and farmers’ markets.
We do like good quality food.
However, I think the biggest culprit is lack of meal planning. I agree with the 25% waste. We don’t waste that much but still need to seriously consider reducing waste. My goal is $300-$350/month.
Frugal bachelor is funny – I know he doesn’t mean to be, but wasn’t he a little boy once? I’m biased. Some of my happiest memories are of my 3 yr. old little grandson, shopping at the grocery store together. But the poster suggested not bringing kids as a way to save $ to avoid kids from seeing something they want, as opposed to their sometimes rowdy behavior and that effect on others. Kids have energy. They can’t help it.
I’m not keen on the loyalty card idea. Yeah, it saves you a TON of money versus shopping at the same store without a card, but in my experience, stores that don’t have such a card are cheaper anyway.
I guess get all the stores’ loyalty cards so that when they have an especially good sale, you can get it, but shop at Wal-Mart or whatever otherwise.
The content may be “recycled” every few months, but it is “new” to me. With the economic downturn we’re definitely cutting back and trying to save where we can. I just e-mailed this post to my wife, who is the primary shopper for our family. Great tips!
Most importantly, don’t go to the store hungry!! Like my mother always told me, you inevitably by more when you are starving. Eat a little snack, and then go. You’ll save your waistline and your wallet.
@db (#22) she said she spends $300/month not $90.
Erin’s website is a great resource for me to use what I have in my pantry instead of shopping all the time. I highly recommend it.
Not bad for an article :3
I find it helpful to keep in mind a few things:
1.) Store brand is cheaper, and sometimes with the same exact ingredients as the ‘original’ brand (cereal comes to mind specifically, and that stuff aint cheap!
2.) What are you getting for your money? For example…chips lets say. We all know they are tasty (and highly fattening) but- lets face it- full of air with less chips due to settling.
So it helps to pay attention to the WEIGHT of the packagaing, because that is how much you are getting for your money.
3.) Agree with don’t buy stuff you don’t need…gotta cut down on that XD
4.) Finally, a coupon organizer! Yes, I’m a guy but I gotta say those lil’ old ladies have the right idea when it comes to those, and it’ll save you time when you’re going thru your list 😛
I’ve found that it pays to learn and follow the cycles of ethnic holidays in your area. My area is heavily Pennsylvania Dutch, and a traditional dish in that culture is pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s day. I buy a year’s worth of pork right after Christmas, when it’s the cheapest it’ll be all year.
Another tip is that when you buy in bulk, keep a freezer inventory taped to the door. I draw a little diagram to show where everything is, and it’s all in dated baggies. Before I open the door, I know exactly what I’m going to grab and where it is. Plus, a quick glance tells me all I need to know for my grocery list.
@Mike:
There’s still room to save; I’m a single girl living on a part-time minimum wage, and can’t ever spend more than $50/month. So it doesn’t hurt to try them out.
@Kathryn (#29)
I think db was referring to the first post (#1)
one thing I hate is loyalty cards. What message does that send to customers without a card who are shopping at the same store? I know it take seconds to apply for the card, but isnt just walking into a store over another enough loyalty to get a discount?
These are great points, but its just the first one that really bothers me on a personal level…(sorry for the rant)
@Kathryn:
I didn’t say I spent $300/mo on groceries. I said $60-90 is on the low end of what I pay per trip. My average bill is more like $110-125, though sometimes I can keep it to around $75. (NOTE: that includes any other household products, like shampoo, laundry detergent or toilet paper, etc. — I don’t break down the trips to food-only cost.)
I don’t actually go once a week — I go to the grocery store about once every 10 days, so about 3 times a month.
I have a difficult time believing anybody who says they are spending $60-90 a month is eating properly. I just don’t believe it.
Partly its because I’m a finicky eater. I won’t eat hot dogs. I can’t stand mashed potatoes or pork and beans. I won’t eat white bread or fake wheat bread. I won’t eat white rice or even, anymore, regular white-flour pasta. That’s the sort of food I think anybody eating for $60-90/month is eating.
Even that website of Erin’s — if you spend $5/meal, in a month that’s $150, assuming you only eat once a day. If you want to eat twice, I guess that’s $300.
I looked at Erin’s website, and the prices don’t seem realistic to me. Perhaps it’s where she shops. She had things down like spending $1.25 on 3/4 lbs of burger. That would make the burger about $1.65/lb. At the stores I have available to me, I never see hamburger below $3/lb — usually the higher grade is more like $4.99/lb.
I don’t buy burger unless it’s marked down, but I still can’t buy burger for $1.69/lb. For that matter, I don’t like to eat much red meat so I don’t buy burger much.
She had a can of crushed tomatoes for 41 cents — a can of crushed tomatoes costs me $1.29 for the cheap brand, if it’s on special.
There is also a time factor here. For example, I do not have time for coupon clipping. It’s got such a low reward factor for me, since I don’t buy much processed food, that I just rely on store specials.
I do not have the time or patience to review circulars and plan purchases from them. For that matter, I don’t get the paper to get the circulars.
Maybe for larger families it makes sense to buy in bulk, but when I’ve done it, I’ve ended up throwing so much stuff away because it goes bad, that it’s not worth it. For example, few months ago I had to throw out 3 packages of chicken breasts that I’d bought on a great special a year earlier, then it got buried and forgotten in the freezer. What is the benefit to buying in quantity if you end up throwing a bunch of the food away?
What I do — what I have time for — is that I come up with two or three meals I want to cook, and the ingredients I need. Then I go buy any items I don’t already have on hand. When I make it, I portion it into several meals to be reheated later.
If I’m not feeling like cooking, I come up with an alternative. Like tonight, instead of raw chicken I bought an 8-pack of deli chicken to have for several days. The cost of 8 pieces ($7.50) is the same as a pack of chicken breasts (yes, around $7.50), and I don’t have to cook for a few days. (a bonus since I work late a lot.)
I’ll get probably 5 meals from that chicken, and will add frozen vegetables and a piece of fresh fruit to the meal.
My wife has taken off with the couponing and is getting great results.
Solid advice and a good reminder that while groceries are a big expense, they can be easily manipulated for big savings . . .
A couple of ideas that aren’t mentioned. We have several grocery stores around, and I go to almost all of them over the course of a month. The high end store in our community has a really nice meat option….they have a section of Pick5 for $19.95. I often pick up the majority of our meats there, and since it’s high end, they often have organic or no hormone meats from the Amish country not far away. They also have a 3 for $9.99 chees section, with no-hormone cheeses. Thes items go directly into the freezer,(yes…cheese CAN freeze!) unless I’m mkaing it that night, and a list is made of all the meats we have on hand. Check out your high end stores for deals like this. I also shop Aldi’s…great for Euro items (like German coffee) and produce, etc…
One other tip that I found invaluable in the Tightwad Gazette (please pick up one of her books…they are invaluable!)is that when you are tidying up from dinner on Monday, decide what you’ll make for dinner Tuesday night, and if something needs to come out of the freezer, it’ll have 24 hours to defrost, and the decision factor is done for the next day. I keep a month worth of menus on my frig, and look theer for my next nights dinner…sometimes just thinking about what to prepare is daunting. If you give yourself that 24 hours beforehand, you’ll never be stuck with a frozen chunk of whatever, and say to yourself “it’s easier to eat out!”
Step 1. Shop at Aldi’s.
Step 2. Repeat.
Quote:”db says:
25 March 2009 at 4:33 pm
What I want to know is what the heck are you eating if you only spend $60-90 a MONTH on food?
My guess is lots of ramen and hot dogs.”
CORRECT! I also eat frozen veggies, hamburgers and lots of boxed foods. My joke is, if it doesn’t come in a box or a bag, I don’t eat it. The microwave is my BEST friend. In addition to that I spend about $150 a month eating out. So my total food bill for a month is $250 or less.
Take the easy route and ditch the traditional grocery store for Trader Joes. When we started shopping there we began to shop less frequently, eat more variety, and save money.
Also it’s spring now, so it’s time for everyone to think about a CSA program and Farmer’s Markets. Check out localharvest.org for information about your area.
This is one topic that people always seem have a lot of passive barriers set up to say why they cannot save money shopping. To save a lot you have to change your mindset a little, something has to change or you get the same results!
We are a family of 4 and spend $60-80/wk on groceries, toiletries, cleaning products and food for the dogs. I really have to max out the deals and stock up when things are lowest, and adjust our meal plans to achieve this goal.
As far as those who say there are no coupons for the food you eat…right now I have some for organic greens and produce, yogurt, milk, meat, juice and more. There are more out there than junk food coupons!
Another tip not mentioned is pay attention to those coupons that print at the end of your grocery transaction, you may be surprised what you get…this week I bought 7 boxes of cereal (total $9) and received 3 coupons for a free gallon of milk (up to $4.69 so I can even get organic milk!) Sometimes there are coupons for $5 or $10 off your next order that are simply generated by what you bought that day! How many people never take those or don’t look and just throw them away?
I’m envious of those of you with access to so many grocery options. We don’t have Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, and our Wal-Mart doesn’t have groceries. We have two semi-national chains and that’s it.
Look for marked-down proteins. Watch for meats, chicken, pork and fish that are on sale.
Dried legumes( beans, peas ), oats, sweet potatoes, low sugar,salt peanut butter are ubiquitous and almost always cheap. They are also healthier than the quoted alternatives, which will save you more money in the long run on medical bills. Better for the planet too and better for animals.
It pays to learn about nutrition. You can save money by learning what you need, then finding the cheapest healthy source. There are recipes that will turn *any* food into a tasty treat.
It may go without saying, but be skeptical of “sales,” especially on produce. Buy items in season, but make sure they’re in season where you live or they’ll still be very expensive. I’ve lately seen sales on peaches and nectarines which aren’t in season anywhere in the Northern hemisphere. I see asparagus on sale at Thanksgiving and Christmas when it’s not in season.
If you haven’t educated yourself on how much things cost generally, when they’re in season, what a good deal really is, then you’re at the mercy of the store. The stores put things on sale in order to sell more or to draw you into the store, but you can’t trust the store to be thinking of your best interest. Only you can do that.
I recently moved out of my mom’s home, and it is frightening just how expensive it is to eat well. My boyfriend and I don’t like to skimp on quality, but there are always ways to save some money. We plan the shopping list ahead of time, and try to buy what’s on sale. I’ll check out the weekly flyer when I plan out the list. I’ll replace more expensive products with generics if I know the taste/quality is similar.
It takes some thought and a bit of imagination, but it isn’t too hard to save some money on groceries. One of the biggest things I find that helps is to only shop max once a week. We used to go every couple days and pick up odds and ends and not stick to the list, and it was EXPENSIVE.
“Look for marked-down proteins…marked down for “quick sale”.”
We hit our local grocery store early (at opening) on Monday morning, which is the best time to get the meat markdowns from the weekend. This is especially true after a holiday weekend, like Memorial Day or Labor Day or Independence Day. Ask the personnel at the meat counter when the best time is to get those good deals. Often they will be happy to give you the scoop.
@beforewisdom: I tend to agree with you about non-meat sources of protein. they are usually healthier, too! However, I do like to eat a good cut of meat occasionally. Also to serve to guests and shopping the meat markdown section is the way I do it.
I agree with Sandy E! Frugal bachelor is funny, maybe that is why he is a bachelor! I am sure he was a saint when he was young. I would have to say most of the kids in the store you see are not like this, but there are some. Some people do not have the luxury of having some one to pawn there kids off on when they go to the grocery store, but I try to bring mine when they are not tired and I do try to leave the younger ones at home. I have found very few times when I have had to leave the store but it does happen. That is part of having kids. I can’t control anyone else or there kids so I try not to stress out over it to much.
Does the picture in the story look like it was taken at Tom Thumb or Randall’s, or is it just me?
In my view, saving money on groceries is one of the most challenging jobs you can do if you don’t have time.
My wife and I work outside the home and find ourselves scrambling into the grocery store on our way home from work and grabbing the things we need without taking too much time. My wife in particular is a speed shopper out of necessity. I tend to wander in circles and am like a deer caught in the headlights when I notice how much things are costing. It’s not a pleasant experience. OK you know who does the grocery shopping most.
I think your suggestions are very good but like anything worthwhile, they take time and effort. So you need to put a value on your time and work out the cost benefit of the effort and time to see if it’s worthwhile.
Greg
For the posters who say they can’t shop in bulk because they lose things in the freezer and then have to throw stuff away because of freezer burn/spoilage, here’s what I do.
I put a dry erase board on my freezer door and list what goes in and when. This way I know just by looking at the door that I have 3 packs of chicken breasts, 2 packs of raw shrimp, 4 packs of pork chops, etc. When I pull something out to defrost, then I cross it off the board.
Now I can buy the super saver family packs, break them up into single servings (another tip: put the marinade in the bag with the meat, as it defrosts the meat is automatically marinaded), and easily plan meals. Prep work takes about 30 minutes when I first come home from the grocery store. Saves me money, saves me time.
The key to saving money for us seems to be shopping at 4-5 different stores. It’s annoying but still seems to work best. For example, Trader Joes has the best prices (and quality) on many items such as dairy, breakfast cereals, pasta, bread, and dog food. Fred Meyer is the best for slow-churned ice cream, when it goes on sale. Safeway is the best for those frozen dinners which I keep at work as a back-up if I don’t manage to bring lunch. Costco has the best price on the chicken stock I use for soups all winter. (Meat and produce we buy based on quality not price, so we are not saving money there.) We don’t make extra trips; if we’re out of something we do without until it’s practical to get to that store again. (Except for milk and bread, which I will buy at our neighborhood store; though it’s not as good as TJ’s, it’s still reasonable.)
A bit exhausting but it works! 🙂
If people were to look at my budget and what I spend on food for a month I *know* they would tell me I could easily save a lot of money there but it’s a true struggle for me.
I can be frugal in many places but I’m a horrible cook who hates cooking, hates leftovers and finds it hard to follow any of these tips when I share an apartment (AKA little freezer space which is shared) and I’m only at home 4-5 days of the week on a *good* week.
I need to find the blog for those of us without large freezers, cooking for one to two people and enjoy variety. 😉
I think a decent segment of your audience falls into the same area I am. Recently graduated, tight budget and living in an apartment. I’d love to see more ideas for those of us just getting started!
Great blog and thanks for the guest article!
People always tout farmer’s markets as the best place for inexpensive produce, but I don’t find this to be true. At all. I did a comparison, just for grins, once of in-season produce at both the regular grocery store and the farmer’s market. The farmer’s market was 30% more expensive.
I still shop there, but for other reasons.
Frugal bachelor probably doesn’t know this, but most parents hate taking their kids to the grocery store and only do it because there isn’t anyone at home to take care of them and families need to eat. So cut us parents some slack! Kids don’t really want to be in the grocery store either. At least my 2 don’t.
KS – It is usually cheaper for me, but not on all things at all times. I often ask farmers’ market vendors if they’ve got any imperfect veg/herb/fruit that they’ll sell at a lower price and am frequently rewarded. Generally this means that the item isn’t as pretty or needs to be used up in a day or two, not that the quality is actually lower. The vendors seem pleased to be able to sell these items, not annoyed by my questions, as long as there aren’t other customers waiting in line to buy at full price.
Another tactic is to shop in the last 15 minutes of the market. The vendors don’t want to cart any unsold items home and are often ready to deal. This saves me the most money, but my trade-off is that I can’t always get everything I want. I balance my budget against whether it’s important to me to make a particular recipe. Generally, when my budget is tight I’m willing to create meals from what’s available rather than insist on particular items.
In any given trip, I do think I spend more at the market than in a grocery store for an entirely different reason: I buy more produce because the overall quality is so much higher there.
@Chiefcaba – I keep trying to answer you thoughtfully, but the truth is that the only way you’ll save money and meet your budget is to bite the bullet and learn to cook better. Cooking from scratch is the cornerstone of frugal eating.
You don’t like it? So what! I hate to clean toilets but I’m not going to hire a maid or buy a new toilet every time mine gets gross.
I learned to cook better when I was just out of college – I like good food but I couldn’t afford to eat out without debt so I learned to cook. I too had roommates, shared fridge, little freezer space, but I just treated it like an engineering problem: These are the mission parameters, how do I succeed? (I’m channeling that scene from Apollo 13 right now.)
It’s your life, your time and your money – you get to choose how to spend it. I suspect that right now it’s more important to you to not cook than it is to save your cash. There’s nothing wrong with that unless it’s causing you to go into debt.
I spend more on wine than I can ever justify in a frugal budget, but I’ve never had a car payment and my wardrobe stinks (not literally, I do laundry, too, though I hate it). These are my choices and I make them happily. If you want to spend less on food, make the choices that make it possible. If you’re unwilling to make that choice, find another area to save and enjoy your meals out.
Actually the advice to “get a loyalty card” should be “make sure to use a loyalty card if the store you are shopping at had them or, preferably, shop somewhere without them.”
A number of studies have indicated that these grocery loyalty cards actually just return the price of goods to the baseline costs – those ‘discounts,’ on average, simply bring the cost down to what it is at stores that don’t use those cards.
Sometimes they are indeed used as loss leaders, but more often the resulting price is simply brought into line with what stores that don’t have these cards charge.
well, crap – neither shortcuts.com or P&G eSaver allows signup for stores in my area, like Stop & Shop, Shop Rite, Kings, Pathmark, Acme, Foodtown, Wegman’s, or A&P
I find the best way to save money at the grocery store is to leave my husband at home. When we shop together, we spend about 25% more. He has a tendency to pick up a lot of items that we don’t really need.
Too bad. I like his company!
@post 52 — Your bulletin board idea is a great one. I can also tell you right now it’s one that will never get implemented in my household. I just don’t have the time to give to all that — all that buying and separating out and tracking.
I just don’t have that sort of time. It’s really not worth my time — I’ve tried it. It isn’t worth it. Maybe if you’re trying to feed a lot of people. Cooking for a single person, not really.
I also don’t have the time to go hunting down food bargains between 3-5 different stores, or schlepping off for a 10+ mile drive out to the suburbs to go to Costco.
I have a Safeway and a King Soopers within 1/2 mile of me. That is where I shop. Usually by dropping in after work around 8-9 pm when I’ve run down my current supplies. There are no Aldis or Trader Joes here.
I should also say — I’m not having any problems with my food budget. I’m fine with what I’m spending. I have zero interest in getting down to a $90/month grocery bill.
This whole issue is quality of life — squeezing your food budget to the last cent isn’t always practical. You can do it — but then you sacrifice time.
There is only me in my household — only me for food prep, for cooking, for consuming what is prepared, for cleaning up, for shopping, for planning.
I generally work from about 9 AM to about 7-8 PM Monday through Friday. I also work on average two weekends a month. On top of it I’m nursing along a fledgling home business. Time is precious.
I have some additional advice (that require extra time though). Both allow me to save 50% on products concerns (I’m in France, the price difference might not be the same where you live).
A) beans, lentils, chick peas and so on, I buy dry (you can buy them bulk, too, they keep for very long) rather than canned. It takes a bit longer since you need to soak the beans or peas overnight (the lentils are good to go, though), but the price difference is huge.
Compare the price per weight, and remember the beans and chick peas will likely weigh double once they’ve been soaked. The taste is also a lot better. It does require a bit of time to put them to soak before you go to bed (or to work) but then you don’t need to watch over them.
B) I went even further with bread. By buying the flour directly, I can get whole grain for half the price of white bread (here again, mileage may vary in your country).
I can’t bake well, but both tortillas and pitas can be cooked on the stove. It takes some time to prepare the dough, but then it keeps 3 days in the fridge, and you can freeze the tortillas/pitas.
If you buy white flour, I can imagine you’d save even more. And if you can bake (or have a bread machine that you do use) you can make your own bread and add whatever you want in it.
In both cases, it sums up to “buy less processed, and then do it yourself”. But in the case of A, I find the effort relatively small compared with the economy that results. (I do B mostly for taste reasons, although the saving is nice too).
#Avistew: totally agree with you.
Besides the more process is the food the less nutrients you will get from it.
So try to get basic food.
“Watch for meats, chicken, pork and fish that are on sale”
Why not just meats?
@Jim – One of my friends, in all seriousness, said he didn’t eat meat at every meal, “Sometimes I eat chicken.” We had to explain why we laughed. I think the writer was just trying to be clear.
I will say that I always sigh when I see the “save money on groceries” posts on financial blogs, because the advice is usually the same: make a plan, stick to the plan, utilize coupons/store cards/bulk items. I would much rather see a price comparison, such as whether or not I save money buying at Costco? I buy a $100 membership every year (that gives me 3% back on my purchases) and sometimes I think I’m paying more, but a real comparison with real numbers would be great. Other questions I wrestle with include:
Which is cheaper in the long run, fresh or frozen vegetables?
What kinds of healthy recipes are the “cheapest” to make?
Are there reliable coupon sites, and where are they?
Where is the cheapest place to buy personal items like toothpaste, contact solution and deodorant — a grocery store, a box store or a drug store?
What stores treat their employees the best? Which stores have a poor record treating their personnel?
How do you purchase bulk meat (such as half a cow)?
Our grocery bill is our single biggest expense, and we spend about $500 a month now, after trimming down from $700-900/month for groceries/restaurants. I would love to figure out how to trim it further, but I’m not sure I can with a family of four. I also hate buying “coupon” food, which tends to be super-processed or canned, and in Arizona our produce has to be shipped in (even the CSA farms are about 100 miles from here) so produce is wickedly expensive when gas prices are high (I was paying $4.25 for a loaf of bread and $3 for a green pepper when gas was $4/gal). So, I would love more postings about grocery prices — provided the information was new.
Supermarkets are predictable. They need to turn perishable stock at certain points. Just getting to know when those points are will save you a small fortune on things like bread and meat.
A single friend of mine prowls the aisles at set times each Monday evening and comes out loaded up with baked stuff at rock bottom prices. He has a large freezer, and essentially buys what he would buy anyway at about a fifth of the price.
Shopping in a local market really is cheaper too.
If you always buy what is on sale, you always make out fairly well. The tips you wrote will work well, but it’s a lot of work.
There should always been a time vs. cost analysis when suggesting savings tips.
Some people love to find deals and some people really don’t care. For those that don’t care, learning about finding deals can help. However, they will rarely convert to a deal lover.
@Chiefcaba
I agree with you in that there needs to be more information perhaps out there for those of use singles who don’t have large families, work full-time and thus have less time for planning,cooking,couponing.
One suggestion I have for you is to start just start experimenting with the tips and suggestions you find from the mommy blogs and other frugal websites. Then start your own blog and talk about the results! I’m in the middle of experimenting with coupon clipping right now and it’s tedious. I’m also trying meal-planning even though I hate to cook. 🙂 Good luck!
I have a question, can someone point me to (or author) an article on how to buy meat and bulk and store it in the freezer? I’m interested in the actual repackaging technique. I am very unsuccessful in doing this without the meat getting freezer burnt, crusted with ice, and me rather throwing it out than eating it. My parents had a method that was a combination of freezer wrap and butchers paper, but I cant see to get the same effect they had, and they are not around to ask. For instance do people have some way of draining/washing chicken slime off before freezing?
you might want to go to WWW Foodsaver.com to see how it goes. A Food saver vacuum thingy will save your food from freezer burn and will last longer in freezer. Quality is better than just putting in a ziplock type bag, too. I rinse chicken,blot dry with paper towels or clean kitchen towel(freeze chicken in vacuum pack)
@linda
I would rather not pony up for the expense of a food saver. I live in an apartment and have a small freezer. The only way I could see a food saver making sense is if I had somewhere to put a extra chest freezer so I had the ability to go to a sams club and buy in bulk to freeze. I’d be looking to do low volume stuff, maybe a couple packages of meat and a half dozen packages of chicken a year when there is a good sale. The cost benefit of buying a lot and then freezing would be offset or completely removed if I bought a food saver.
Very useful post. I linked to it in my 30 Quick, Green and Frugal Meal Planning Resources list.
http://www.itsfrugalbeinggreen.com/2009/05/30-quick-green-and-frugal-meal-planning.html
One thing is the fact that one of the most prevalent incentives for making use of your credit card is a cash-back or perhaps rebate offer. Generally, you’re going to get 1-5% back on various purchases. Depending on the card, you may get 1% back again on most expenses, and 5% in return on buying made in convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and also member merchants’.