Grocery strategies

Avatar for sohappilyme
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Grocery strategies
14
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 10:03am

I'm just wondering how you guys handle grocery shopping. Do you buy what's on sale at your regular store or shop around?

We may a monthly trip to Walmart to stock up on canned goods (which are up to 60% off our grocery store prices, but even the ones that are pennies cheaper still represent a savings!)

I go to a butcher for most of the meat. I'm still amazed that it's SO much cheaper yet the quality is incredible! They have 80/20 chuck (my ground meat of choice) for $2.69/lb and it's now $4.99/lb at the grocery store! Boneless, skinless chicken is barely over $2/lb. They have those huge packages available, but for now I'm sticking to smaller purchases. (I don't know that I can really use everything in those big packages anyway, as I'm a bit squeamish about raw meat). They've also got bulk items such as large containers of gravy mix -- for $4 I get the same amount of mix as I would from $15 of those individual packets!

We have a garden and put up a lot of veggies throughout the summer, which amounts to nearly free food.

Then we use the regular grocery store to fill in the blanks and buy sale items and use coupons.

I was just curious as to what the strategy was for everyone else -- it never hurts to learn a new trick! =c)

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Goal: Debt free by January 2010 so we can build our dream home!

Sarah

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Registered: 11-17-2007
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 11:29am

I just have one thing to say I never buy canned veggie. Total waste We either buy fresh or frozen. Canned is half water and a ton of salt. We make our own soups too.


Mary Ann


Avatar for sohappilyme
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 12:10pm

I wouldn't call it a "total waste" in my case. Fully half of the veggies we use are put up from our garden, and I, too, make my own soups. When I buy canned, it's usually something like tomato sauce (to top homemade meatloaf) or collards (which the kids absolutely love, and when I can get a can for $1 at Walmart versus cooking fresh or frozen ones with a $20 ham to season, I'll take the can...and the sodium). We buy frozen broccoli and baby limas, plus a few other veggies but those are the staples. Almost everything I make is homemade, so if I cheat a little on otherwise time-consuming items, I still feel pretty good about what we serve. My kids rarely see a bag of potato chips or cookies and they pick the garden clean of cherry tomatoes and green peppers, which they eat straight from the plant while they're out playing (we don't use chemicals either) so I'm honestly not concerned with the "bad stuff" in the cans. I'm not a health nut by any means, but my kids have great diets and clear their plates of veggies every night.

Beyond the health aspect, there's the financial one. I make $15-$25 an hour freelancing from home, and the time I'd spend making my own tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce would result in a ridiculous loss of income. A friend of mine spent all day making sauces just to get through the winter -- I could easily buy 200-300 cans for what I'd earn in the time she spent making sauce. (And for the record, I buy the $1 cans of spaghetti sauce and turn them into what my husband raved as "better than homemade" -- and he grew up on sauce that his mom spent all day on).

Sorry for the details, but I certainly don't want to leave the impression that I just dump cans of veggies on their plates. There are seven of us, and I'm really proud of the fact that we have full, homemade meals almost every night of the week. I know many people have a greater commitment to healthy eating than we do, but I have to balance that desire with our tight budget and I'm proud of the way that I pull that off. =c)

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Sarah
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2007
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 12:35pm

Seems like you really know a lot about buying food .


Mary Ann


You did ask for tips


Avatar for sohappilyme
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 3:16pm
Yup, you're right -- I did! I didn't realize when I wrote it that it could be taken that way. In my mind I was thinking about the few canned items that we do buy and I was so closed-minded to what it sounded like, LOL. I do appreciate the tip (it's very correct!). I put a lot of thought into the grocery bill and meals, but the way the prices are spiking upward, it'd be great to learn a thing or two. ;c) Thanks for the reply!
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Goal: Debt free by January 2010 so we can build our dream home!

Sarah
Avatar for meandmypea
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 5:04pm

I would say 95% of our groceries come from Aldi. I resisted going there for so long, and I don't know why. The Aldi brand goods taste absolutely just as good as national brand stuff, and are better than store brand at Walmart, Meijer, Kroger, whatever. And I'm pretty picky when it comes to food.

If go to their website and click on their meal planner http://www.aldimeals.com/ You can click on different meals you want to make for the week and when you're done it compiles a list of all of the ingredients that you will need, and you can just print it out and take to the store.

This alone has cut our grocery bill so significantly, even more so than Walmart, that I want to kick myself for not doing it sooner. I do get some produce and some of my meats at Kroger, but not much. But I never pay full price for meats. Instead, I keep my eye out for the "Reduced for Quick Sale" meat items and stock up. I bought several whole chickens that were marked down to $2.50 a piece doing it that way.

Bridget
Avatar for sohappilyme
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 08-28-2008 - 5:18pm
We don't have one of those! AK! I'm on the mid-Atlantic coast. I sure wish we did now, though, LOL!
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Sarah
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Registered: 12-04-2006
Fri, 08-29-2008 - 3:00am

No point using store names since I'm not in North America. However, when I chose where I regularly shop, I also took into account what I spend to get to and from the store. For me if I was to shop at the cheaper store, I would be travelling outside the area that I normally travel to, so one I take into account the transport costs, I would not be saving enough to justify using that supermarket.

I find one of the best things to do is to compare prices on similar items - several times recently I've found that items that in theory should have been cheapest, such as store brand, weren't.

It doesn't work for everyone, but meal planning has helped my grocery bill immensely - I don't have to purchase as much and impulse purchases are generally a smaller part of the bill.

Lyn

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2003
Fri, 08-29-2008 - 6:21am

Have you tried looking for an Aldis? I live in the mid-atlantic as well and we have one about two minutes from my house. I LOVE IT! I save so much with their "no frills" shopping. My husband who is a total "name brand" guy loves their store brand baking mix.

samey

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-23-2007
Fri, 08-29-2008 - 6:30am

It sounds like you really know what you're doing. I could take tips from you.


In our area we don't really have a butcher, so that's unfortunate for us. We do go to a couple discount food stores in NH (we're in VT) which is only a 20 min. drive but we save tons on staples like olive oil (saving about $10/bottle, I'll buy 4 at once to save me the gas of driving as well), balsamic vinegar, cereal, spaghetti sauce and all kinds of pasta, etc. They often have things I wouldn't normally buy and it's fun to try new things when they only cost $1 (I'm talking Simple Palate spreads that I'd never pay for otherwise).


From there, I have a small garden and we pick up a number of things at the local stores, like organic milk. I do make a weekly run to Shaw's. They are expensive, but nearby. I only buy what I need and keep an eye out for sales.


Canned items: I do buy canned beans when they are cheap. Lately, they've been cheaper than dried and well worth it when I go to make dinner after a long day at work.


Dee


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2008
Fri, 08-29-2008 - 10:46am

I shop at Aldi for a lot of things. Sometimes about monthly I got to our SuperWalmart and get some other things. I make a weekly run usually for milk and fresh fruit. I try to keep those costs to a minimum.


Occasionally I do hit Meijer for a few things that Walmart and Aldi don't carry. I am much better now about grocery shopping than I ever was.


FYI - I buy canned veggies and I am ok with it. LOL. A veggie is a veggie. We live in a townhome where they mow lawns for us so I can't plant an outside garden and I just don't have a green thumb. Anyway, canned veggies for me.

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