Grocery oops

[spotty_dog]

In our family, we've opted not to budget strictly. We pay ourselves first (to retirement accounts), then try not to spend everything that's left, so that we can send some more to savings. But every couple of months I try to tally a few months of expenses in certain categories to make sure things aren't getting out of wack.

My grocery shopping and cooking habits changed a lot in September, so I just ran those numbers. Smugly, I was sure that my regular shopping trips to the bigger store with the better prices, and my lower consumption of meat, and cooking from more basic ingredients, would be good for the budget. Well, I was wrong. Groceries went up more than 20% compared to July and August.

I did stock up quite a lot during this shopping and cooking binge, and I think we're not going to need meat or dried pasta for a while! So hopefully October will be better because of that. But other than simply being more mindful about treat foods and too-frequent shopping trips, are there any other painless tips out there to reduce a grocery bill? I think I'm going to re-start my price book in order to keep better tabs on cost vs. value...I am pretty sure I even have a pay-for app for that, in fact.

[MDPhDWife]

I plan my grocery shopping around the weekly sales ads. I do my best to buy what is on sale and if it's a staple item like boneless skinless chicken I'll buy enough to last us until it goes on sale again. Sale cycles generally are 6 weeks. Of course this only works on things that aren't perishable or will freeze well. I'm a couponer, so this method not only applies to groceries but also toiletries, cosmetics, paper goods, cleaning supplies, etc.

Instead of running to 4-5 different grocery stores to buy what's on their sale ad, I just go to Wal-Mart to buy everything because they will ad match their competitors.

The exception and my weakness is Trader Joe's though. I feel like I spend so little for groceries between ad matching and coupons, that I splurge on the things we really love from TJ's.

[MrsK]

I plan my grocery shopping around the weekly sales ads. I do my best to buy what is on sale and if it's a staple item like boneless skinless chicken I'll buy enough to last us until it goes on sale again. Sale cycles generally are 6 weeks. Of course this only works on things that aren't perishable or will freeze well. I'm a couponer, so this method not only applies to groceries but also toiletries, cosmetics, paper goods, cleaning supplies, etc.

Instead of running to 4-5 different grocery stores to buy what's on their sale ad, I just go to Wal-Mart to buy everything because they will ad match their competitors.

The exception and my weakness is Trader Joe's though. I feel like I spend so little for groceries between ad matching and coupons, that I splurge on the things we really love from TJ's.

This. Every word.

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[spotty_dog]

Where do you find coupons? When I was really budgeting, I followed hotcouponworld.com, which had a forum for my major stores localized to my area, and that way I picked up the Red Plum when it was likely to stack well with a store sale, snagged the occasional Sunday paper, etc. But now that we're not in a major metro area there's no one doing the footwork for me to match the circulars to the coupons. I guess if I were less picky about meat and produce I could shop the discount grocery (we don't have a Walmart with a full food inventory) but stinky half-spoiled chicken from God knows where creeps me out. :\

Thanks for talking this out with me, I *know* this stuff but have gotten in bad habits! I'm also a fan of spending more on food and less elsewhere in order to support local foodsheds and get higher quality foodstuffs, but I don't think we're eating 20% better this month!

[poky]

Thanks for talking this out with me, I *know* this stuff but have gotten in bad habits! I'm also a fan of spending more on food and less elsewhere in order to support local foodsheds and get higher quality foodstuffs, but I don't think we're eating 20% better this month!

Maybe not, but do you have 20% more food stocked up? Track the spending over a longer time period to get a real feel before you worry about overspending.

[Vanquisher]

Maybe not, but do you have 20% more food stocked up? Track the spending over a longer time period to get a real feel before you worry about overspending.

I agree. Unless you are wasting produce, you might have more in stores (pantry and freezer). Cooking things that have overlapping ingredients helps to cut costs too.

[Ladybug]

Eating healthy cost a lot more. It's not suprising that poor people have less healthy diets. Everytime I start a health kick I spend more money…and I'm not wasting either. The produce kills us. Organic…i can't even swing TBH. My sister only eats organic, but she only has one child. I can't afford it without giving something else up. The membership food places don't save us that much money. It's just convenient to get large quantities and pack them away.

I feel like we're forced to decide between budget and health. They rarely cross paths. At least we have the resources to make those choices. It's a real mess for poor families.

[spotty_dog]

Yeah, I definitely do have more stocked up and I'm waiting to see what October holds before I really judge myself a failure! Actually I think we could eat for a month without picking up anything but some fruit and salad stuff. It's amazing how much easier it is to do bulky shopping with no kids in tow!

[LynnAlicia]

Actually I think we could eat for a month without picking up anything but some fruit and salad stuff.

This reminds me of this blog I used to follow. She has some good posts about stocking up on food and then making food from it. Her and her family ate only from what they had for a month.

http://www.nwedible.com/2014/03/eat-...challenge.html

[spotty_dog]

This reminds me of this blog I used to follow. She has some good posts about stocking up on food and then making food from it. Her and her family ate only from what they had for a month.

http://www.nwedible.com/2014/03/eat-...challenge.html

Ooooh, that blog looks incredibly useful!

I live in a rural-ish area and have some "prepper" sympathies, so we've been working on food storage practices since we moved here. I wasn't kidding, if I were super strict I could literally go a month without buying a thing, we have fruits and veggies in the garden, freezer, and pantry to go along with tens of pounds of meat, beans, grains, bread products. But we're hooked on fresh apples, greek yogurt, and salad so it isn't really going to happen.

[spotty_dog]

Eating healthy cost a lot more. It's not suprising that poor people have less healthy diets. Everytime I start a health kick I spend more money…and I'm not wasting either. The produce kills us. Organic…i can't even swing TBH. My sister only eats organic, but she only has one child. I can't afford it without giving something else up. The membership food places don't save us that much money. It's just convenient to get large quantities and pack them away.

I feel like we're forced to decide between budget and health. They rarely cross paths. At least we have the resources to make those choices. It's a real mess for poor families.

What's fascinating is how universally Americans seem to bump food spending down on the priority list. It's understandable that our affluent society doesn't need to spend as large a proportion of their income on food as do people in developing countries, but compare the US to other developed nations: http://civileats.com/2011/03/29/mapp...g-infographic/

When we first left training I had this idea that I could shop almost entirely local and organic. Um, that quickly proved unsustainable. The money was only part of it; the time investment to cook from basic ingredients was more than I could handle when my kids were smaller, and there was a lot of waste. I have more time and money now and I'm creeping back in that direction...local, seasonal food has a spiritual aspect that can't be replicated in ingredients shipped across the country or the world.

[MDPhDWife]

Where do you find coupons? When I was really budgeting, I followed hotcouponworld.com, which had a forum for my major stores localized to my area, and that way I picked up the Red Plum when it was likely to stack well with a store sale, snagged the occasional Sunday paper, etc. But now that we're not in a major metro area there's no one doing the footwork for me to match the circulars to the coupons. I guess if I were less picky about meat and produce I could shop the discount grocery (we don't have a Walmart with a full food inventory) but stinky half-spoiled chicken from God knows where creeps me out. :\

Thanks for talking this out with me, I *know* this stuff but have gotten in bad habits! I'm also a fan of spending more on food and less elsewhere in order to support local foodsheds and get higher quality foodstuffs, but I don't think we're eating 20% better this month!

I subscribe to the Krazy Coupon Lady (krazycouponlady.com) blog for my match ups. I also subscribe to another local one which I find to be a little more helpful. I primarily print my coupons off the internet using the links provided in the blogs. Coupons.com is where a lot of them come from. I used to buy the Sunday paper for the coupons, but that got to be expensive and a hassle. Our local library has the inserts from their papers for people to take so if I happen to be at the library on Sunday I'll pick them up, otherwise it's all online. Also, there's all sorts of new apps that will give you money back (sorta like ebates) if you buy specific products. I love those because they don't require coupons and all I have to do is take a picture of my receipt and get money back. The names of those apps are Ibotta, Checkout51, Shopmium, Berry Cart, and groupon just launched a new one called Snap. I get a small referral credit (and sometimes you get bonus freebies if you are referred) so if you are interested, PM me and I'll send you a link.

[MDPhDWife]

Here's the Ibotta referral link:

https://ibotta.com/r/y7rr5a

Or when you sign up you can just use the referral code Y7RR5A

[MDPhDWife]

Here's the Snap by Groupon referral link:

https://snap.groupon.com/app?ref=7674fbbb2564a84c

[MDPhDWife]

For those of you who like organic and healthy foods, the Berry Cart app specializes in those offers. Here's the referral link for that one:

https://www.berrycart.com/rf/yfdXVxF6