Heather's $200/month grocery plan
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| Thu, 01-06-2005 - 10:38am |
It seems like I type these tips in different contexts over and over again because they can help so many people in so many situations, so I thought it might be helpful just to go ahead and post the complete system in one place for anyone who can use it.
I cannot take credit for the entire system, as it is based largely on the tips and ideas in Amy Dascycyn's "Complete Tightwad Gazette," highly recommended reading. But I can testify that it WORKS, and we DO NOT feel deprived on our low grocery budget.
The kingpin in the system is your price book. Mine started on scraps of paper and evolved into a little hard-back notepad (salvaged, of course, from dh's office where it was being thrown away--you don't have to buy anything for this). You can arrange this any number of ways, but the point is to start tracking the cost of items you buy regularly. You may want to start with just big-ticket items (meat, for instance, which forms the core of our grocery savings) and work your way down as you get the hang of it and it becomes routine.
One way to set up the price book is to have a page for each type of item--meat, dairy, baking, non-food, produce, etc. At the top of the page, write the category. Divide into columns. Head each column: Item, unit, then one for each of the grocery outlets you have regular access to (this will include warehouse stores, regular supermarkets, WalMart, farmer's market, discount grocery store, etc.).
You'll also have to carry a calculator. I still have the one I used in grammar school. When you buy an item, or when you see one on sale for what you suspect to be a low price, write it down. For each item, choose a unit scale that seems appropriate--per ounce, per pound, per serving, etc. Write the unit you are measuring in the unit column. Each time you record a price, you'll record it in the column for the location you found it, along with a date. Having the dates will help you to track trends, which is a later step.
You will only write down prices when they beat a current low price you have recorded. The goal of this exercise is to determine the lowest price available for each item you regularly purchase. If the lowest price is a sale price, you also want to know roughly how often that sale price occurs (the reason you record dates). Some items are regularly lowest at a particular location (some examples in my price book include canola oil, which is regularly cheapest in the WalMart brand; and butter, which is regularly cheapest at the Aldi). Others are usually the lowest on sale (items in this category almost always include meats, which are a popular "loss leader" item at supermarkets, and baking items, which often go on excellent sales around the holidays). For items that are regularly available at their lowest price, the price book simply tells you where to buy them. For items that are regularly lowest on sale, you can use your price book to determine how much you should buy when it's on sale in order not to have to buy it again until the next sale.
Using this method, you will never pay more than the lowest sale price for any item. It may require a freezer, if you have space for it, but not necessarily. If you do need a freezer, start searching the classifieds. We bought our 14.7 cubic foot chest freezer, two years old, for $135 (can't remember the brand, but it is a commercial quality freezer). I've seen them for less, even given away at times. Even at $135, if it allows you to use this method, it will probably pay for itself in a month.
A note on produce: we eat only what is in season. It is cheaper and healthier this way. Apples in Fall and Winter, peaches and nectarines and grapes in summer, greens in cold weather, tomatoes in hot. The exception for us is bananas, because they are cheap and, well, pretty much always in season somewhere in the world (other than that, we try to eat local produce). We eat "luxury" fruits only when on an exceptional sale. Peaches and nectarines we eat when they drop below $1 a pound in summer, grapes the same. Apples are 69 cents a pound at the farmer's market when in season, and bananas are always 39 cents a pound there. Occasionally, there will be a really amazing windfall (this will happen in any category occasionally, and because of your price book you will recognize it for what it is and take advantage), like the time our local supermarket had a bin full of mangos for 25 cents each. I filled two full produce bags with them, and we ate mangoes for days, with abandon. What a treat! Also, at Christmas it has become a tradition to eat expensive exotic fruits as a treat, so we still get our pineapple, mango, coconut, etc., fix, but we do not consider it a necessity.
At first, this method will cost a lot, as you fill your freezer, but after a while, your weekly expenditure will drop dramatically, and you can set aside the excess for stocking up when you hit a great sale.
I shop the weekly circulars from each of the area supermarkets, and will drop in to one if they have a low price on an item I can stock up on. It sounds like a lot of shopping, and at first it is, but once you have a stocked fridge/freezer/pantry, you will probably find yourself shopping less frequently, because you will only have to replenish your stores once in a while. In our family, it usually works out that I may go to the farmer's market and WalMart one week (they are close to each other and consistently the lowest price on many items), then the next week I may drop in to one or two supermarkets having sales. I may hit Aldi the next week and the farmer's market for apples and sweet potatoes. Some weeks I may not shop at all. And so on.
As I have said elsewhere, I now have access to a restaurant surplus store (also known as a salvage store) where the prices are so incredibly low that I no longer follow the method described above religiously. I don't need to, because the surplus store is a rarity in the world in that it is cheapest on nearly everything, and I stock up each time I go. I still shop the farmer's market, and I still glance through the flyers for good sales. Aldi still has the best prices on butter, eggs, and bread. I still buy cheese and hot dogs on sale, and because of my price book, I know when something at the surplus store really *isn't* as cheap as I can get somewhere else. It is worth your time to see if there is a surplus store in your area, and to check it out if there is. It is a very different shopping experience than what we are used to, but it has been more than worth it to us.
A few other tips on making the groceries you have go further: Substitute dry milk for whole milk in recipes--it is about a fourth the price per serving. Substitute 1 Tbsp soy flour and 1 TBsp water for each egg in a recipe--WAY cheaper and tastes the same once baked (obviously, don't try this in an omelet or quiche! lol). Save the broth off canned and cooked veggies in ice cube trays--freeze then store in freezer bags and use instead of expensive store-bought broth. Eat your leftovers. Waste nothing. Bake bread (not necessarily cheaper than store-bought, but yummier, more filling, more nutritious, and because it's so good, may naturally take the place of more expensive snacks in your family's diet).
:)
Hope that helps someone. I know it has changed the way we shop and changed the way we live, without really changing the way we eat. It is so great to cut expenses without cutting nutrition or taste.
Blessings,
Heather

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I've always wanted to try the "price book" method! I think it's a great idea. I also loved Amy's Tightwad Gazzette! (Got it at the library) Did you ever notice at Shop and Save there's a sign on the door that says "We do not allow price comparising"? (or simular to that.) Do they mean the consumer or other competition? That's strange.
I really want to get a big freezer, but in this house, unfortunately, there's no room. There's no way to get it in the dingy basement either because whoever built this place didn't cut the kitchen countertops right and the basement door slams into them! It leaves barely enough room for me to fit a laundry basket and myself through. Right now we have a 25# turkey in our refrigerater's freezer from DH's work! (They give all employees one at the holidays)So you can imagine how stuffed full that little freezer is! I guess I'd better cook it soon! I definately am going to buy one when we build our house in 2 years.
We usually do our big grocery shopping once a month at SuperWalmart which is 30 minutes away. We spend about $260~ which includes any household items and diapers. Then I will just shop the circulars around home and pick up about $100 worth when that stuff runs low. This is for a family of 4. I'm going to start keeping an eye on the things I buy most and write it down like you said. Dh hates Aldi's and will not let me even go in there- it's far away from us to, so I can't really sneak there. I thought a lot of the items were good though.
Also one word of caution: when freezing meats for stocking up- if you rewrap it, please restick the label that was on the meat back onto it. If there is ever a recall on meat- you will be able to find out if you have it. This happened to my aunt. She had a big freezer full of meat and when the recall occured for a certain ground beef she purchased- she had no clue which one it could be. All of it had to be pitched- no one wants e coli!
Thanks for the post! Nicki
Heather thanks for sharing your tips and ideas. We can use all the information we can get to save money and live better.
I use a less detailed price list. I started with my WalMart receipts and began building a shopping list that included the price I paid for each item. I add items and update prices after each shopping trip. I check the prices from the sales papers and buy when the price is lower than my list price. I have this saved on a Microsoft Works word processor document. I print out a new list highlight the items I need to purchase and at the bottom of the page I write out the sale items advertised at other stores so I can get WalMart to match the price.
I think since grocery prices are so varied and the items we need to purchase are varied this is one budget category that can really help to save money. You can choose steak or burger. You can choose brand name or store name. You can have four course meals or soup and sandwich. It does take time to plan but the return of savings is worth it.
Julie
I never thought to write down prices and compare to get the cheapest. Great idea.
I hope this isn't a silly question but what is a salvage store?
Pat
I think they work differently in different places, but a salvage place basically "salvages" things that would otherwise be thrown away and then sells them for really cheap. Many places have lumber salvage, hardware salvage, and the like type places (think Samford and Son LOL).
A grocery salvage store works on a similar principle, except that they have to abide by health and safety regulations. Basically, ours has contracts with various restaurants and chain groceries around town, and when those restaurants have more of an item than they can sell or serve before it expires, he buys it from them for next to nothing, then he sells it to his customers for cheap.
Shopping is very different from in a supermarket. Frozen food is offered only at certain times of days, and everyone wears gloves and lines up along the walls of a warehouse-sized freezer. The food is in cases on pallets in the center of the warehouse, and someone walks through and tells everyone what is available that day and how much it is.
Because ours is a Christian-run business, a prayer is then said and then everyone can shop. You pick out what you want and bring it back to your cart at the wall. When you are done, you go in to the main part of the store and stand in line to pay. They have non-frozen items too, though they are not always a very good deal, which is why it's important to keep a price book even if you have a salvage store.
Have fun with your price book! Don't let it overwhelm you at first--start small, like with just meat comparisons, and work your way up. It's easy to get discouraged if you try and write every single thing down right off the bat. And you will start to see results, even just comparing meat prices and buying only when it's cheap.
Good luck and blessings,
Heather
Heather - great ideas!
KRISTI, mommy to:
Aldi is pretty much like any other grocery store, except without the frills. For instance, you don't automatically get grocery bags for your things--you can either put them item-by-item into your car, or bring your own bags, or buy bags while you're there. Carts cost 25 cents to use, but you get your quarter back if you return it. They don't carry name brands and they don't have fancy displays. Other than that, it's your basic grocery store, with aisles, and sections, freezers, and coolers, and mostly the same stuff available, though they don't have as many varieties as a larger store, and sometimes may not have one thing or another.
I like their bread just fine, and it's CHEAP (69 cents a loaf for the wheat bread--less than that for white). They also have butter for $1.99 a pound, which is the cheapest you can get even on sale elsewhere. Those two items, plus canned goods, are the things I rely on Aldi for. Oh, and spaghetti. I've not noticed that it's much different than other brands, but I'm not really picky either.
Since you're in Charlotte, you should know about "A Discount Groceries," on South Blvd. It's between Remount and Tremont, near Atherton Mills. It's the salvage store I was talking about. It is definitely *not* your standard grocery store. The owner gets surplus food from area restaurants and sells it for pennies on the dollar. It is a very different shopping experience. Frozen food sales are at noon and 6 pm on weekdays (they have sales on the weekends, too, but I'm not sure of the times). In the main portion of the store there are dry goods, canned goods, etc. Some of these things are good buys (like the Frito Lay's that were 50 cents a bag once--that's the large, family size bag), some of them are so-so. Price book comes in handy there. But in the back is a warehouse-size freezer, where the frozen food sales occur. Everyone lines up their carts along the wall. The food is on pallets in the middle of the room, and someone goes through the room holding things up and telling everyone what is available that day and how much it is. Then a prayer is said, and everyone is allowed to pick out what they want to buy and put it in their cart (which is left along the wall). It is worth the trouble. I never pay over a dollar a pound for meat now, and I can get NICE cuts of meat. Some things, like hamburger patties, may sell for 50 cents a pound. Also lots of convenience foods--burritos and the like, a case for $4 to $6, for instance. Dannon yogurt, 12 for a dollar. Restaurant-quality soups in large bags (enough to fill a good-sized pot) for $2. And so on--you get the point. My shopping now consists of visits to "the blessing store" as we call the salvage store; the farmer's market for produce, eggs, and honey; Aldi for bread, canned goods, and spaghetti; and WalMart for a few staples that are hard to find elsewhere--canola oil, for instance. I also occasionally hit a "loss leader" sale at a supermarket, to pick up some exceptional value like sugar or flour on a really good sale (cheese and hot dogs are another item frequently available best through loss leaders). As I said, doing this has allowed my family not only to subsist on $200 a month, but even to have an occasional bottle of wine or dinner out on that same budget; not to mention, since purchases at the blessing store are usually done in large quantities, I always have food on hand even to feed a largish group of last-minute guests. Kinda nice.
Aldi is worth at least a quick look. And I always am willing to try a store brand once. If I don't like it, the most I've lost is a buck or two. If I do like it, I can save far more than that over a lifetime. And there are certain things I don't buy store brand--for instance, the Walmart brand of cheese is quite disgusting, lol. But most of the time, the store brand is produced in the same factory as the name brand, and there's really no difference at all, or it's minor.
Gotta run.
Heather
figures we dont have anything like a salvage store in New York. The only thing we have is costco or Sam's which are cheaper on a lot of items but some items you have to buy in bulk and i just dont use that much of it. We do have national liquidators but they dont sell any items that need refrigeration. Its also an hour away. I am going to start my price book today though on meat, milk, and laundry detergents and stuff
mary anne
I think you may be pleasantly surprised at how far your grocery money will go just using the price book method. Yes, the salvage store is awesome, but it's not necessary in order to save big bucks on your groceries. Good luck, and I hope you enjoy price booking it!
Blessings,
Heather
How about taking the basement door off the hinges? Could you fit a freezer in then? You could always put the door back on or perhaps hang a folding door, which would give you a little more room to fit through the door.
Sandra
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