It seems like every time I go into the grocery store, prices are increasing...and not by a few pennies either. I have to shop for food for the cooking school, so I'm in the store often, too. I recently came up with a list of ways to help save money at the grocery store. Some things may seem obvious, some may not work for you....but hopefully there's a tidbit or two you can use from this.
1. Make a shopping list….and follow it
2. Don’t’ shop hungry
3. Shop the weekly sales. Plan your meals according to what’s on sale. If you have a freezer, but extra and freeze it. It’s great when you’re eating chicken breasts you paid $2 a pound for and they’re $4 this week!
4. Use coupons; both ones from your newspaper and online coupons
5. Get a raincheck when the store is out of the sale item. Use it on a week when the item is NOT on sale.
6. If you have a local store that price matches, go thru your local food ads and note what the sale price is elsewhere. Your store will give you the item for the same price.
7. Don’t assume that the larger package is a better deal. If your store has a tag by items showing how much it costs per ounce, pound, etc., do some comparisons. Often the bigger package is more expensive per pound than the smaller package. You can always bring a small calculator to do the comparison yourself.
8. Don’t assume that a name brand is always better. I have found some store brands that I like even better than name brands. Buy a small size item to try it out. If you don’t like it, you only have a small amount. If you do like it, buy more next time you go to the store.
9. It’s not a bargain if you just buy it because it’s cheap and you don’t use it.
10. Splurge on the items that are important to you. I prefer fresh (never frozen) fish. It costs more, but it’s well worth it.
Those are great tips,
Those are great tips, thanks!
The only one I would add is: if you're not happy with something, RETURN IT!
This includes food. If it is not up to your expectations, take it back and ask for a refund. Too often people buy produce, bread, meat, etc. then find that it's not the quality expected, or even that it's moldy or spoiled, so they just throw it out.
All that wasted money adds up!
I don't know why I didn't
I don't know why I didn't think of that. I've kept things in the freezer until I got back to a specific store so that I could return 'icky' meat or things like that. Of course if you do that, you need to call first and get a name of whomever you spoke to and mark the date you spoke to that person. It might be embarassing to bring a piece of icky meat 2 weeks after the 'use by' date without some way to show that it was 'icky' before that date. :-)
www.simplyimpressive.com
I've also noticed that i can
I've also noticed that i can get some items cheaper at Super Target.
just~me
Great tips - thanks for
Great tips - thanks for sharing! And, for those of you who are new to Arizona Moms - I have a website (well, sort of a blog) and I list the top 10 deals each week at Fry's, Basha's, Safeway, and Albertson's. I haven't had a lot of time to be creative with it, but it's free and I don't make you give out your e-mail address or anything. I update it every Wednesday morning, so you can see the best deals without having to go to each store's website.
I'm hoping to add other stores (like Sprouts) in the future, but my 7-month-old has kept me busy! :)
http://www.phxgrocerydeals.com
I have been ordering from
I have been ordering from bountifulbaskets.org. Every 2 weeks, you pick up a basket of fruit and veggies, bread and whatever else they have available. IT's very reasonable, you get tons for the money and it's really fresh. One caution, you don't get to choose what you get, so you need to be flexible(although I haven't ever gotten anything I didn't know how to use) with the produce.
Thanks for the great tips!
Thanks for the great tips! I never thought about checking to see if grocery stores price match on sale items - do they? I'm going to check that out. I do try to sale shop, and sometimes have found myself running to 3 or 4 stores. With the price of gas, that is no longer a savings...
I don't know if anyone shops
I don't know if anyone shops at Ranch Market (different locations in Phoenix) but their produce is so cheap - and fresh. Just yesterday I bought cucumbers (4 for $1), 6 lbs of onions for $1, peaches for $1/lb among others. Great meat & fish departments too. It's a bit of a drive for me but I think I'll be trying to get out there more often.
Lattemom is the mother of three energetic kids ages 6, 8 & 11 and a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com.
Thanks for the good tips. I
Thanks for the good tips. I always have a problem with #9 - buying something because it's cheap and never using it.
jesshod is an arizonamoms.com discussion leader living in Surprise.