Grocery shopping, I have learned on my budget journey, is a game. It is Me vs. Proctor & Gamble, Me vs. The Store, Me vs. Betty Crocker, and there was no way Betty was gonna win. Not if I had a say in things.
Why do I say it is a game...
I guess I started thinking of it that way to motivate myself to do my best at being a smart shopper, and allowing us to still enjoy all the brands we had used all along. Certain things about the grocery game annoy me, and pits consumer against company. Take a 2L. bottle of soda (pop in other areas of the country). The current cost is $1.89 - $1.99. The price has risen consistently over the years for flavored water with bubbles. A couple price increases were when most things rose in price because the price of gas increased, and I understand the cost to get goods to market was high. However, when the cost of gas decreased, the shelf prices did not. Not a penny. So the companies see they can still sell their product at the higher price, people bought it, and that was apparently a price point the market could bear. Now take into account that, on any given week, soda is on sale for 89-99 cents, and the companies are not being charitable and giving the product away out of any sense of benevolence, they are still making a profit that suits their profit margins. Think about that next time you pay full price for a bottle. When paying full price for a bottle hurts, you are now a member of the team, and you are in the game.
I am not singling out the soda manufacturers for any reason other than a quick comparison. Every company is guilty of the same pricing based on rising costs, but never lower the price when their cost goes down. That said - back to the game.
The object of the game, as I choose to play it, is to get the grocery brands we like, with few substitutions, but on sale either by store sale price or by coupon, and if the planets align and the sun is shining just so, a combined sale price plus coupon savings. Be still my heart. Extreme couponers live for those deals. They have elaborate tracking systems. Realistically, I am in the game to win, but not at the cost of devoting my life to this. An hour a week, yes, making it a living? No. So realistically, you can glean some information from this blog, and save a bit of cash, maybe even an easy thousand a year.
I stipulated the grocery brands we like because I have made the mistake of buying store brand food items and been disappointed. Once in a blue moon you may actually find a product that tastes pretty darned close, but to me, it is rare. I think there was a cereal in a bag years ago that was good, but paying $5.00 for a frozen pizza and throwing it away because it is inedible is a waste of money. The picture may look like DiGiorno, but believe me, DiGiorno's owners can sleep soundly that the store brand is no competition. I have found, however, that paper goods tend to be good buys for the store brand. Things we buy store brand include facial tissues, paper plates, plastic cups, plastic cutlery, napkins, sandwich, freezer and kitchen garbage bags, and dishwasher soap. You may have other things you have tried, and if you like them, great! Leave me a comment and let me know what else to look into.
That covers the obvious savings of store brand. Now let's look at popular brands and how to save.
My shopping game starts each week with the delivery of the local store circulars. We get about 8 or so different ones every Wednesday, and I look at the big 3 that we frequent. By "look at" I mean I check them for any coupons that will take say $5.00 off your total order of $30.00 or more. The store that offers that is in the lead for the week as to who will get our business. They will at least get a portion of it. That means $5.00 of free food or goods, and $5.00 more stays in our bank account. Every little bit helps.
The circulars for all 3 of our choice stores are online by Thursday, some go live on Wednesday. I wait and look at them all in one sitting. I quickly go through the categories and add items to the cart that we use. I never buy an item because it is on sale, just to buy the sale item. It has to be a brand we like. If we don't like it and it gets tossed, that is no savings at all. I now have three lists, and I can see that 2 stores have our brand margarine on sale, and one is 50 cents cheaper. They also have 15 items we use on sale, whereas the other store has 8. It's a no-brainer. The $5.00 off your order coupon wasn't at this store, so I will look at the items for the store with the coupon, look at my coupons, see what I can get there, and make a quick special trip.
Some people will shop many stores. My mother was a consummate budgeter, and she shopped many different stores in a week to save money. I did not get her genes for patience.
So, to summarize the grocery dilemma of over-spending on groceries, and playing my little grocery game, it boils down to:
- maintaining a well stocked pantry,
- knowing what is in the pantry and refrigerator before shopping,
- reviewing the weekly store sale circular,
- making a list
- shopping for sale items,
- using my clipped coupons
- using store saving coupons for total order
- and keeping the preparation time expenditure to an hour or less a week.
With those points made, it is not rocket science, and no I didn't invent any of it, and you may do it better than I do. I know that. But sometimes, just once in a while, you can connect with someone and make a difference. And they, maybe even you, didn't have to spend a dime for some online download, or a dollar for a book. Plain and simple, these things worked for us, and took our weekly grocery bill from a $200.00/week average to $120.00/week average. Total annual savings = $4,160.00.
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