Grocery Store Coupons Encourage Unhealthy Eating

[diggitydot]

Did you guys know that Amazon has coupons?

[Pollyanna]

Eh, let's lay blame for unhealthy eating at the foot if retailers and big food companies. I don't buy it. We are a family of eight. I can feed all of us for an entire week on $200-$250/week. That is not clipping coupons but being smart and shopping the sales.

DS17 just did a food stamp project where he had to shop for food and live off what a single person on food stamps is given by the govt. After the week he had food and four dollars left over because I taught him how to shop and what's the best value for your dollar.

The grocery stores and food companies need to sell their product , not encourage us to eat better.

[Phoebe]

I agree that most coupons are for stuff I would never buy.

[BonBon]

Around here, the only coupons that come with the paper are for the processed stuff in the center aisles. The grocery stores themselves don't put out coupons. They do have sale circulars.

[SoonerTexan]

I love Sprouts for produce, but man, it does seem to have a short shelf life. When I buy Sprouts produce, I plan for a couple of trips a week so that we can eat what we've bought and not let things go to waste/go bad. I do love their prices on nuts and meat.

I've heard people say this actually, but I've never had a problem, except for berries. I think it is because they don't chill berries when they are on sale and they keep a whole bunch in the center of the store. But they never last long at my house anyway!

[houseelf]

This reminds me of economist Richard Thaler's book, Nudge. He opines that in order to meet our cultural need for free choice against the backdrop of usual public initiatives, we should slate the deck to "nudge" people in the right direction. i.e., automatic enrollment into 401k programs and having to specifically opt out rather than opt in, placing veggie/low cal entrees at eye level in the high school cafeteria line, etc. Maybe this research can spawn a movement to encourage some sort of public health interest initiative to change this tide.

This family of five spends at least $900 a month on groceries. We eat lots of produce and fresh meat. While I do shop sales, I rarely use coupons. I saw a family budget for four where the family listed $250/month on groceries. I *really* wanted to see how they made this work. Sure, I could cut *some* money out of this, but I'm not sure I could cut this down by 3/4.

[Michele]

We spend 250-300/week at the grocery store and we are part of a CSA (veggies) and get our eggs from the CSA (so that needs to be added in - I don't remember how much I pay a season). And we spend about 400 a month at Costco. We also go out at least 1x/week. Yeah our new food budget is killing the savings I had from moving in with my folks. I'm poorer now, but I eat more. :/ It's ridiculous how much we spend on food. Embarrassing really.

[Cleave]

A Whole Foods opened not terribly far from us and had a huge opening day sale. I bought two weeks' worth of bread and milk and meat, plus a few sundries like chicken stock, for $50 (after coupons, including a $10 off $50worth of groceries). Granted, we mostly mix meat in with other foods rather than eating it plain, so two weeks' worth of meat isn't as much for us as for others, but still. $50! Two heavy groceries bags of food for $50! I am still a little giddy about that.

[Cleave]

This reminds me of economist Richard Thaler's book, Nudge. He opines that in order to meet our cultural need for free choice against the backdrop of usual public initiatives, we should slate the deck to "nudge" people in the right direction. i.e., automatic enrollment into 401k programs and having to specifically opt out rather than opt in, placing veggie/low cal entrees at eye level in the high school cafeteria line, etc. Maybe this research can spawn a movement to encourage some sort of public health interest initiative to change this tide.
.

I just added that book to my library queue. Thanks for the recommendation.

[spotty_dog]

Incredibly, lettuce does not have a marketing department as powerful and well-funded as ConAgra! Who knew!

When I couponed I got things like frozen pizzas (yeah, not great but quick and reliable for the toddler), pasta sauce, dairy, canned foods, applesauce. I always tried to stack coupons with sales to get the best deals, and also shopped for fruit and veggies by sales or pricebook daily prices. I definitely improved both our eating habits and our budget during those years.

These days, without care I can go up to $1000 pretty easily, but I confess I haven't calculated our spending recently! I should, I always do better for a bit if I run the numbers. Grocery circulars can have good deals that aren't coupons per se, you just have to know your chain and if it's likely that the best deals are just loss leaders or if it reflects a lower price on your whole grocery basket.

That said, I'm excited for my garden this year. I really really hope to get away with more produce in our diet without paying too much extra in farmer's market costs (love our farmers but can't feed my family exclusively at those prices!) Speaking of which I am going to finally get a 1/4 beef soon. We have eaten at least 90% grassfed for years and we need to bite the bullet and pay up front to get better prices and a wider variety of cuts. For about $725 I can get enough beef to last my family a couple of years, including prime cuts like filet mignon and the increasingly-elusive flat iron. We also need to get a 1/2 lamb (DH loves lamb but I don't love the prices or paying them for non-grassfed) and a 1/2 pork (hopefully my farmer gets back to me about the Berkshire weaner she was going to get me in February!) and some freezer chickens -- commercial chicken is such a letdown after truly free-ranged, even DH is sold (even at $20 a bird! But my farmer will cut the price if I help on processing day...)

[HouseofWool]

Store brands are often less expensive but check the labels. I've found that a lot of the store brands have greater sugar content in cereals, for instance, than the national brands.

As for produce, bring your Aldi and other stores' circulars to Wal-Mart. Yeah, WM is depressing but their produce is reasonably good. I really do well price matching produce.

I just wanted to thank you again, MrsK, for the price match tip. I saved somewhere around 5 bucks yesterday on fruit alone. It was awesome.

[MrsK]

Glad to help! I need to get back to bargain shopping. Sometime near the end of the last pregnancy, I stopped using it and comparison shopping. I've been going to the more expensive grocery store and buying whatever ready to cook and deli salads are on sale. Spending 2x as much as usual for half as much groceries. Between that and the helpers our costs from December through February are staggering. DrK keeps saying that it's necessary and temporary but I just can't stand it.

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[MrsK]

Glad to help! I need to get back to bargain shopping. Sometime near the end of the last pregnancy, I stopped using coupons and comparison shopping. Opting for convenience, I've been going to the more expensive grocery store and buying whatever ready to cook and deli salads are on sale. Spending 2x as much as usual for half as much groceries. Between that and the helpers our costs from December through February are staggering. DrK keeps saying that it's necessary and temporary but I just can't stand it.

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Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk