Friday, February 15, 2008
In my last post I talked about identifying the top 30 places we potentially waste money. Since everybody has a tendency to eat, the grocery store is a likely candidate for everyone’s list. Here are ten things I’ve done to reduce our grocery bill by about $150 each month.
I know there are people out there that have gone crazy with some pretty cool but far-out/time-intensive ideas for saving $ at the grocery store, but honestly, I’m not interested in becoming Amish to save a few bucks.
Here are a few things that anyone can do to save cash at the grocery…
1. Create an exhaustive shopping inventory list
When I pulled a grocery shopping coup d’état in our household and took over grocery shopping duties, one of the first things I did was begin compiling a list of everything we buy. Over time I compiled an exact list of everything – food, personal products (ex. hairspray), household products (ex. lightbulbs, air filters), and automotive products (ex. Oil, fluids, filters). That’s my shopping list. It’s all on one crammed sheet. On the side are sections for each meal for the week.
2. Shop the same time, same day, same process, and same stores every single week
Every Monday on my day off I print out my inventory list and check everything in the house (and the list I keep on the fridge of stuff during the week when I think of it). Then, having gotten the input of the entire clan the night before, I make the dinner menu plan for the whole week. My whole goal is to shop ONE TIME that week. I’ve found the secret to spending more money is to have multiple people shopping a bunch of stores more than once a week. The more people go to stores, the more they spend, period.
3. Find the cheapest stores and master them
I have a simple route I take each Monday (most days unless I’m behind). First, I go to Wal-Mart. If there’s anything on my list I always get it there. 9 times out of 10 it’s cheaper than any grocery on personal products and non-perishables. Second, I go to Lowes for any remaining household items on the list. Then I go to Giant for whatever groceries remain on the list. Every week I try to master those three stores – coupons, aisles, sales, etc.
4. Find coupons, but don’t go overboard
We find coupons four ways 1. cards mailed to us 2. midweek circulars 3. online coupons at Giant’s website and 4. the Sunday paper (which in Philly really comes on Saturday, go figure!). Sometimes I’m able to find additional online coupons (but usually waste time searching). I used to have a complex box to hold them, but that actually wasted more time than anything else. Now I just put them in a Ziploc baggy. When I print out the inventory sheet and circle my items to be purchased I simply mark a “C” next to the items I have coupons for.
5. Use the 15 second rule
If you pull something off the shelf to buy it, make a point to spend an additional 15 seconds looking lower, higher and around that product for something cheaper. Most stores put their money makers at eye-level.
6. Buy generic/bulk only if you will use it and save money
Many times it is cheaper to buy name brands with coupons, but not always.
7. Don’t take your kids
Let them play in the street unattended before you take them to the grocery store. :) Kids, especially older kids, will add to the bill.
8. If married, challenge each other
Lisa and I have a little healthy competition going when it comes to grocery shopping, and it saves us money. She’s convinced I spend more than she does. I’m convinced running around to multiple stores chasing sales wastes more time and money. So we have this whole “let’s see who can save more money” thing going on. Couple friends of ours actually have an on-going competition to see who can save more with coupons. $150 saved at the end of the month is $150 in the bank. $150 invested in a simple ING savings account every month for five years is $10,000.
In my last post I talked about identifying the top 30 places we potentially waste money. Since everybody has a tendency to eat, the grocery store is a likely candidate for everyone’s list. Here are ten things I’ve done to reduce our grocery bill by about $150 each month.
I know there are people out there that have gone crazy with some pretty cool but far-out/time-intensive ideas for saving $ at the grocery store, but honestly, I’m not interested in becoming Amish to save a few bucks.
Here are a few things that anyone can do to save cash at the grocery…
1. Create an exhaustive shopping inventory list
When I pulled a grocery shopping coup d’état in our household and took over grocery shopping duties, one of the first things I did was begin compiling a list of everything we buy. Over time I compiled an exact list of everything – food, personal products (ex. hairspray), household products (ex. lightbulbs, air filters), and automotive products (ex. Oil, fluids, filters). That’s my shopping list. It’s all on one crammed sheet. On the side are sections for each meal for the week.
2. Shop the same time, same day, same process, and same stores every single week
Every Monday on my day off I print out my inventory list and check everything in the house (and the list I keep on the fridge of stuff during the week when I think of it). Then, having gotten the input of the entire clan the night before, I make the dinner menu plan for the whole week. My whole goal is to shop ONE TIME that week. I’ve found the secret to spending more money is to have multiple people shopping a bunch of stores more than once a week. The more people go to stores, the more they spend, period.
3. Find the cheapest stores and master them
I have a simple route I take each Monday (most days unless I’m behind). First, I go to Wal-Mart. If there’s anything on my list I always get it there. 9 times out of 10 it’s cheaper than any grocery on personal products and non-perishables. Second, I go to Lowes for any remaining household items on the list. Then I go to Giant for whatever groceries remain on the list. Every week I try to master those three stores – coupons, aisles, sales, etc.
4. Find coupons, but don’t go overboard
We find coupons four ways 1. cards mailed to us 2. midweek circulars 3. online coupons at Giant’s website and 4. the Sunday paper (which in Philly really comes on Saturday, go figure!). Sometimes I’m able to find additional online coupons (but usually waste time searching). I used to have a complex box to hold them, but that actually wasted more time than anything else. Now I just put them in a Ziploc baggy. When I print out the inventory sheet and circle my items to be purchased I simply mark a “C” next to the items I have coupons for.
5. Use the 15 second rule
If you pull something off the shelf to buy it, make a point to spend an additional 15 seconds looking lower, higher and around that product for something cheaper. Most stores put their money makers at eye-level.
6. Buy generic/bulk only if you will use it and save money
Many times it is cheaper to buy name brands with coupons, but not always.
7. Don’t take your kids
Let them play in the street unattended before you take them to the grocery store. :) Kids, especially older kids, will add to the bill.
8. If married, challenge each other
Lisa and I have a little healthy competition going when it comes to grocery shopping, and it saves us money. She’s convinced I spend more than she does. I’m convinced running around to multiple stores chasing sales wastes more time and money. So we have this whole “let’s see who can save more money” thing going on. Couple friends of ours actually have an on-going competition to see who can save more with coupons. $150 saved at the end of the month is $150 in the bank. $150 invested in a simple ING savings account every month for five years is $10,000.
9. Buy canisters for cereal
Like my pictures ? (I'm proud of myself...didn't know I could actually shoot a picture and get it up on the blog). The best thing I did recently was buy five canisters for our cereal. For the longest time I always noticed remnants of cereal at the bottom of the box. It was a waste because it was never enough for a bowl. Now with the canisters I can buy cereal in bulk, save money, see what’s left, and become the cereal Nazi and tell people “no empty canister, no new cereal for you!” It’s also environmental. And besides, removing the box will also allow you the opportunity to buy generic without anyone knowing about it.
10. Finally, always shoot for monthly savings, not weekly savings
The more you save, the more you have in cash reserves. The more you have in cash reserves the more you can buy things on sale when they come up that will save you money on your monthly bill, but not necessarily on your weekly bill.
For instance, the last time I went to the grocery I used a coupon and doubled it on a sale item and bought TWO things of laundry detergent. I usually only buy one, but now I’m set for a very, very long time. I spent more that week, but will save boatloads over three months.
I know for a fact that most of you are better at this than me, so I would love to hear your ideas for saving at the grocery store
Live frugally. Give generously. Live well.
Brian
10 comments:
I really appreciate you doing this Frugal Pastor Series. My husband and I are a young couple and in the past 6 months, we both got new, better-paying jobs (another testimony to God's faithfulness in tithing). We have a goal of being able to save to buy our first home in the next year. After the Mad Money Series, we became serious about creating our budget. Since we have been reading your Frugal Pastor Blog Series, we have been motivated to clean out our home to create places for our bills and receipts this very weekend. The insight of someone who has been managing a household for years is very valuable to those of us who have only a year and a half under our belts!
But is shopping at Wal-Mart the most ethical of choices? Sure, it may be more "frugal" for your own middle-American household, but it supports business practices globally which are highly suspect (and which I will not go into detail about here).
Great ideas. We're more on the "Amish" end of things but these are great ideas for when I'm feeling not so motivated.
About Wal-Mart...I knew someone was going to post a comment about that.
Honestly there are potentially suspect business practices taking place in every sector of the economy. From shoes to coffee to fruit...on and on. I think people target Wal-Mart because they are the biggest, easiest target.
I'm not saying I disagree with you. I read the same stuff you do about Wal-Mart, but I think we could generate a list as long as our arms of names of companies with business practices we wish would change.
One approach would be to boycott these stores and products (from a position of power) or work from within the system as a servant and consumer and try to instigate change that way. I prefer to utilize the later approach.
Why? I see tons of people at Wal-Mart in the community and it gives me an opportunity to make connections with people far from God. Second, I think the last thing people need in the church I serve is for their pastor to become a self-proclaimed spiritual Ralph Nader.
Hopefully even if you disagree with me, I hope you respect that position.
I also buy most household goods at Wal-Mart. It is much cheaper, and they take coupons. I find using coupons at the grocery stores that double them saves even more. Acme doubles up to a total of $1, Genuardi's (while it is more expensive for things that aren't on sale) doubles the actual value of the coupon up to 99 cents. (If your coupon is for 75 cents, you will save $1.50)
I also started using canisters for cereal. I tend to buy a lot of boxes when they are on sale and the kids would always open them all, so now I have 2 containers, and until one of them is empty, no new cereal!
Try looking at Target for clearance items in their grocery dept. We recently found Malt o Meal brand Tootie Fruities in jumbo sized boxes that contained 3 bags inside for $3.48. Each box also had $1 off milk coupon attached. A few days later we went back and those same boxes had been marked down to $2.48. Basically with the milk coupon taken into consideration, that is 50 cents a box of cereal. Of course the kids will be eating them for the next 4 months, but whatever!
Great ideas here. I already use some of them. I am always looking at finding ways to save money on food.
I am big on meal planning as a way to save money. It helps you use food you already have and you know you are buying food that you will use. There is nothing worse than spending big bucks at the store and still not knowing what you are going to have for dinner.
I actually post menus and grocery shopping lists on my website. Check it out if it sounds of interest to you.
www.CarriesCooking.com
So, your grocery list/inventory, is that so you don't have to make a new list each week. I am unclear about this . . please tell me more.
I like the practicality of your suggestions and am glad it is working for you. We recently got a membership to Costco and find we are spending less money as we have less to get at the grocery store each week-thus reducing the "oh we can just buy this" mentality even though we don't need it.
A couple of ideas that save us a good bit of money: 1. Get a Costco Executive membership. It costs $100, about $55 more than the regular membership, but you get 2% back on your purchases. Every year we've had a membership we've earned over $100 back making our membership free and then some. I also take anyone who wants to go with me and allow them to make purchases on my membership card - anything from 10lbs of peanut butter to a flatscreen TV -- they get a great price and I get 2% cash back.
A caution: Warehouse prices are not always a bargain. I made a list of what we frequently buy at Costco and what those items cost there (broken down by units like ounce, sheet, item, etc.) and created a cheat sheet that I taped to the top of my coupon box. Whenever I shop for like items at other stores I use the cheat sheet to see if it's a better deal than I would get at the warehouse.
2. You should never pay more than .50 - 1.00 for deodorant, haircare products, bath soap, handsoap, toothpaste, etc. and often you can get them completely free. Shop CVS and Rite Aid. Both offer rebate programs with different items each week, many times you get a product free or close to free after a rebate (you submit Rite Aid rebates once a month online - no stamp needed! and CVS' are often immediate, but apply like cash to your next purchase), combine that with a coupon and you've covered the tax and likely been paid a few cents to take the products home with you. They also have tons of clearance items - again use a coupon and a $3.50 bottle of shampoo costs you $.35. Oddly, they also have household items like lightbulbs, extension cords, and batteries that are free after rebate.
About the grocery/inventory list...I use it for a couple reasons.
First, I think that by using a list I force yourself to only buy what is on the list.
Second, I'm mindless. I forget stuff all the time. Having the list forces me to go through the whole house to see what everyone needs...which minimizes me getting home and later someone asking, "Did you get my deodorant?" and me hitting myself in the forehead.
great stuff on groceries, now a touchier subject...how about clothes??? does style matter?
Clearance racks? Wal-mart fall apart and buy again next month? How often should you buy? check at the end of the season? nudist colony?
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