Heather's $200/month grocery plan

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Heather's $200/month grocery plan
11
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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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-19-2004
Mon, 01-10-2005 - 11:02am
The way that counter is- even if the door was gone the corner of the counter is still sticking out too far. So we cannot get anything through that darn counter and the wall!!!! DH was tempted to get the saw out and shorten it so the door would open the whole way, but he said it might split the laminate and make it look really bad!
Thanks anyway Sandra! Guess we'll just have to wait until we move to buy one! ( And leave that stupid countertop for someone else to deal with! LOL!)Nicki

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