Need budget ideas for grocery shopping

[kymom99]

Know your prices in the store(s). When I lived in California, my local grocery stores (Nob Hill & Safeway) were expensive. Safeway usually more costly. I did a lot of my shopping @ Walmart first then Target. Now I live in GA. We have Kroger & Publix. Kroger is less expensive. Since moving here, I actually find Kroger at a better price point (most times) than Walmart & Target. Kroger also has an APP with digital coupons. I accumulate points which goes towards gas. I was a big fans of coupons in the Sunday paper but it’s not that great anymore. I do like to shop Costco for chicken & beef, & toilet paper. I’m careful @ Costco because it adds up quickly & it’s easy to go overboard. At the grocery stores, I buy mostly what’s on sale. I rarely buy something that is not. Buying the store brands saves money too. I’ve been trying more & more store brand & I don’t see a difference between that & name brand.

I like Krogers homesense line of products. I use their multi surface cleaner and also their toilet paper.

 

[Buzzsgramma]

We are Costco members and we shop Aldi too....we mainly have Costco for the gas...which usually used to be about 10 cents a gallon less than any place by us....
I think for families it's a great cost saver....since it's just the 2 of us....we can't consume that much...but i do like there beef and chicken ...we do get all our paper products from there...

 

[Sadeesmom]

1. My biggest savings come from making a meal plan and basing a list around that. Then order your list online for pickup at Walmart or sams or a combo of the 2. I also fill in with Aldi runs for staples and Publix for treats that are on BOGOF specials. The biggest thing for me is placing the online order and staying out of the store.

This is me all the way....I just can’t figure out how to also get coupons to work with it!

 

[neatokimmo]

I buy 75% of our groceries at Kroger. I ditched Aldi, their per ounce prices are higher than Kroger’s sale items. I do about 10% from a butcher (half a cow), 10% from the farmers market, and a few odds and ends from Sams.

That being said, I only buy sale items at Kroger with the exception of heavy cream, kale, broccoli, and butter. I pretty much buy those things weekly regardless of the price (all of which are lower priced than Aldi). I never ever pay full price for things like meat. If chicken is on sale, I get enough for ten meals. I always scout out the mark down section and freeze it. Before we got the cow, I wouldn’t pay more than $2.50 pp on meat. If pot roast was $3.50 on sale, I’d buy chicken on sale at 99 cents to average it out.

When something goes on sale that can easily be stored, I’ll buy a bunch. Example, purex free and clear detergent was 1.99 for thirty something loads when you bought five. I get to the store and the bottles are “special”with fifty loads. So I grabbed five. It’s a years worth of detergent for $10. It isn’t like it will go bad.

Kroger has herbal essence shampoo and conditioner for 1.99 when you bought five. Ibotta had 1.30 rebate for conditioner, 1.00 for shampoo. So I got 5.90 back on a $10.90 purchase.

When pasta is on sale for fifty cents a pound when you buy ten, I buy the ten.

I buy bone in chicken breast and debone it myself. One time when I was feeling all frugal, I weighed stuff and figured it was really $1.33 pp with the waste. But it wasn’t injected with solution like boneless, and I had the bones and scrappy meat for stock. So bone in, at 99 cents, is a great budget stretcher.

I do the survey for fuel points, log in and add digital coupons, and always browse sales ads logged in. Every month I get two sheets of coupons. One sheet is what I have bought in the past (I don’t really care if they track it), and another are items they think we might like. There is usually two free items also. Last month it was cereal and peanut butter.

I really like Kroger.

 

[Laurie75M]

Check it the thread ‘Eat at home’ on here - we are up to thread 3 - to snack of ideas

SMH....I never open that thread because I thought it was Eat at Home for 3 and we are a family of 4. Didn't even occur to me that it was part 3.

 

[barkley]

Besides coupons what are good ways to save on groceries and shampoo /laundry, etc.?

We have a Sam's and Costco membership (Costco is a gift yearly). We are a family of 4 ( 75% of time 3 as DS is away at college).

I need guidance on how to save on our groceries and daily cost of living expenses. I know it will take time but any small steps to get started would be appreciated.

also a family of 4 with a dd in college (graduates this saturday).

i wanted to reduce my expenses in the same areas this year so i'll pass on what worked for me.

-take stock of what you already have on hand. it gives you a reminder of what your household considers 'staples' and also sometimes we forget that we already have several backups of a particular item.

-if you have a stand alone freezer consider organizing it by types of products. i have all the meats by types on different shelves so that i can tell at a glance what we have to meal plan/grocery shop around. all the frozen veg/carbs in one area, cheese in another..... i do the same with my 'pantry' so at a glance i know what we've got to plan around using vs. buying more.

-again, if you have the freezer storage, i highly recommend a vacuum sealer so that you can take advantage of sales on meats and then break them down into meal size portions. we eat allot of lamb, not cheap but we enjoy it so i get the legs at costco and dh breaks them down into 1# portions which we bag up and freeze. i used to buy more of our meat at costco but i find that watching the sales i can frequently get better deals.

after this is done-start to track, everyday for a few months exactly what you are spending your money on. it will show you what you are buying/repurchasing vs. buying and not using. i think most of us are influenced unconsciously by the grocery habits of our parents. for years i thought i always had to have certain items on hand (largely baking oriented and certain condiments) because i grew up with it always being on the shelf. i came to realize that we rarely used these and if we did they were spoiled before and had to be replaced. now that i know what we actually use regularly i only buy the occasional need stuff when i am actually planning on using it.

on actual purchasing-

take advantage of sales but only to the extent that you will use the item. as an example-we use allot of catsup so if it's on sale i buy enough for months on end b/c if i can save 30% on the cost it worth it. saving the same percentage on something i only use a couple of times a year isn't so much of a deal for me.

watch for sales targeted to events/holidays-with summer approaching there's lots of deals on bbq oriented foods like condiments and breads. right after big bbq holidays like 4th of july it never fails that my local stores have their end caps filled with rock bottom priced meats that were packaged up with holiday purchasers in mind (i get several turkeys after thanksgiving as well). likewise, if you are into prepared baked goods-those red, white and blue cupcakes that are marked to 50% off on the 5th are just as good as they were at twice the price the day before (and freeze well for future kiddo snacks). i STILL have a stock pile of halloween foods in my pantry. i stock up on the big box (30 or more) trick or treat sized bags of chocolate covered pretzels, cheese puffs and muddy buddies for 2 reasons-perfect for dieting adults/ideal for putting in lunches (used to get the fruit treats and small rice crispy treats when the kids were younger as well). much less expensive than traditional snack sized packaging.

for meats-look to what your plans for a meat item are and then get the least expensive option available.
for example-if i need ground beef i will not pay over $4 per pound for the good stuff if there are nice roasts on sale for less than $3 per pound. i will hand the roast to the butcher at safeway and ask him to grind it up for me (i've also had them cut it up into stew and fajita meat). same item-lower price. chicken-i grab a few whole when they are on a great sale but largely wait until a good sale on value packs of pieces and then break them into individual meal sized packages to freeze. pork-i can get pork roasts on sale for less than sausage sells for. i get the butcher or dh (with the kitchen aide) to grind it up. season it, bag it, freeze it. pork chops-tenderloins are cheaper than chops at costco and they can be sliced into the chops (i've not done it but i've read of people who have costco butchers chop and repackage it for them).

paper goods-i'm to the point where target offers the best deal on the pick your size variety of paper towels (and we go through allot less using these) so i wait until they are doing one of those $5 gift card promos. i do multiple individual orders at a minimum of $30 each so that i get free shipping/a $5 gift card on each order that i can use on a future purchase. i've also found that unless costco has a sale, the charmin toilet paper is cheaper at target on sale (which is frequent).

laundry soap-i haven't found a lower price than walmart for the big boxes of arm and hammer w/oxy clean. orange cleaner and **** and span i get at the dollar store. i also get men's deodorant, toothbrushes and foil pop ups (individual sheets of foil) there.

pet food-my cats only like one brand and it's cheaper to get it (even with shipping) through chewey on auto reorder (which i love b/c they notify me ahead of time in case i want to delay a delivery). cat litter-again it's walmart unless costco or somewhere else is having a killer deal.

shampoo and such-walmart b/c noone beats their prices.

eating out-one of the biggest budget busters. sure we do it but we've tried to limit it more. it's never been the full sit down meals that have killed the budget, it's the fast food and such that adds up quick so we do pizza on $10 tuesdays at papa murphys (and make sure to do the survey so we get free cookie dough or cheese bread on the next $10 tuesday). i always do the surveys on panda express so i can pay for a 2 item meal but get a 3rd item free. i know what my family orders when we go out so i try to keep that stuff on hand, ready prepared to fix as fast as going out-precooked and seasoned taco meat/tortillas/cheese/taco sauce/small can enchilada sauce-less costly than running to taco bell, frozen chicken tenders/bbq sauce/ranch dressing, frozen mozzerella sticks/small containers of marinara, corn dogs-people go nuts when sonic offers them at 50 cents each while i can buy a box of 16 on sale for $4.99. it all adds up.

 

[tasha99]

1. Limit what you make to a rotation of favorites (variety is wonderful, but more expensive. Years ago, we repeated the same 15 meals or so over and over--much easier to stock a spice rack and keep staples that way.)

2. If your area has a restaurant supply store, go check it out. We're only 2 at home, and I still buy my meat there or Costco. Much cheaper if you have a freezer.

People are cautioning about overstocking meat in the freezer, but I've never had a problem rotating it. Write dates on the ziplock bags, and use up what you've got before buying new of the same thing.

If you like herbs, plant a little herb garden in a pot to keep from having to buy fresh.

Don't buy drinks other than tea/coffee. You can make iced tea, lemonade etc. (ETA I'm not including milk for kids in this, of course. I just notice that wine and la croix is a huge part of our grocery bill, and I'd cut them if we were economizing more).

 

[DisneyHardin]

I buy 75% of our groceries at Kroger. I ditched Aldi, their per ounce prices are higher than Kroger’s sale items. I do about 10% from a butcher (half a cow), 10% from the farmers market, and a few odds and ends from Sams.

That being said, I only buy sale items at Kroger with the exception of heavy cream, kale, broccoli, and butter. I pretty much buy those things weekly regardless of the price (all of which are lower priced than Aldi). I never ever pay full price for things like meat. If chicken is on sale, I get enough for ten meals. I always scout out the mark down section and freeze it. Before we got the cow, I wouldn’t pay more than $2.50 pp on meat. If pot roast was $3.50 on sale, I’d buy chicken on sale at 99 cents to average it out.

When something goes on sale that can easily be stored, I’ll buy a bunch. Example, purex free and clear detergent was 1.99 for thirty something loads when you bought five. I get to the store and the bottles are “special”with fifty loads. So I grabbed five. It’s a years worth of detergent for $10. It isn’t like it will go bad.

Kroger has herbal essence shampoo and conditioner for 1.99 when you bought five. Ibotta had 1.30 rebate for conditioner, 1.00 for shampoo. So I got 5.90 back on a $10.90 purchase.

When pasta is on sale for fifty cents a pound when you buy ten, I buy the ten.

I buy bone in chicken breast and debone it myself. One time when I was feeling all frugal, I weighed stuff and figured it was really $1.33 pp with the waste. But it wasn’t injected with solution like boneless, and I had the bones and scrappy meat for stock. So bone in, at 99 cents, is a great budget stretcher.

I do the survey for fuel points, log in and add digital coupons, and always browse sales ads logged in. Every month I get two sheets of coupons. One sheet is what I have bought in the past (I don’t really care if they track it), and another are items they think we might like. There is usually two free items also. Last month it was cereal and peanut butter.

I really like Kroger.

You sound like my shopping twin. Kroger is my "go to" shopping place. We have a shelf in our basement where I keep all our stock up things like spaghetti, sauce, taco shells, etc from when Kroger does those "Buy More Save More" events.

The only thing I don't do from your list is buy the bone in chicken breasts. I wait until the boneless go on sale for $1.77/lb (which seems to happen about ever 4-6 weeks) and stock up then.

I do also shop for a lot of our household stuff at Target pairing up coupons with the "gift card deals" they do.

 

[DisneyHardin]

People are cautioning about overstocking meat in the freezer, but I've never had a problem rotating it. Write dates on the ziplock bags, and use up what you've got before buying new of the same thing.

I keep a little mini white board on the side of my fridge with an inventory of my freezer. Since I started that, it has really cut down on things being lost into the abyss of the freezer.

 

[mrodgers]

I try to buy discounted gift cards for the grocery stores I shop at.

Hope not the online places. The online discounted store cards are mostly from people returning stolen items and getting the store gift card and selling to the online sites.

My ex use to give out several of those store cards to the same person for returning the exact same item (she and the girls she works with marks the packages before they go back on the shelf) several times in a single day even when they haven't sold said item in months.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Thanks for the information!

Yesterday I planned meals and wrote down what I needed for each. I then went to pantry and freezer to see what I had. I made my list and today shopped. I went to Aldi and bought things on my list there. Hit Sam's and Meijer. A weeks worth of meals plus 14 precooked lunches (frozen chicken taco soup and white chicken chili) was $117. That included cat sand and dish soap that I normally don't buy weekly.

 

[neatokimmo]

You sound like my shopping twin. Kroger is my "go to" shopping place. We have a shelf in our basement where I keep all our stock up things like spaghetti, sauce, taco shells, etc from when Kroger does those "Buy More Save More" events.

The only thing I don't do from your list is buy the bone in chicken breasts. I wait until the boneless go on sale for $1.77/lb (which seems to happen about ever 4-6 weeks) and stock up then.

I do also shop for a lot of our household stuff at Target pairing up coupons with the "gift card deals" they do.

But the stock you get from the scraps is soooo good. It’s a pain to debone it but about ten pounds of scrap will fit in my crock pot. So I suck it up and do it all at once.

 

[QueenIsabella]

But the stock you get from the scraps is soooo good. It’s a pain to debone it but about ten pounds of scrap will fit in my crock pot. So I suck it up and do it all at once.

Yeah, I just HATE to debone chicken! I have been known to take, say, leftover chicken thighs, and turn them into last night's chicken soup, though. That always gets gobbled up by my herd.

A lot of budget tips depend on where you live and how you shop. I'm fortunate to be spoiled for choice on grocery stores--three, soon to be 4, within walking distance, and a few more that I pass on my regular travels. So, cherry-picking specials is easy for me. OTOH, I've never had great luck with coupons--they're mostly for brand names, and I buy Aldi's or generic. But, I know some people save a ton stacking coupons on sales and BOGOs--it really depends on where you live and how you shop. I make good use of Walmart pick-up. OTOH, Target is across town, and I seldom go there. Similarly, I let my Sam's Club membership lapse--I didn't use it as much as I thought I would, and it's just as easy for me to shop at Aldi's (half a mile away) a few times a week.

 

[dosekies]

Didn't read through everything so sorry if this has been mentioned:

Purchase meat from the 'manager's special' section. It is always still good, can still be thrown in the freezer for later, and is usually a significant amount cheaper than normal.

Try the Ibotta app. I've been using it for a few months and love it. They have cash back deals for items that you buy and works at most major chain stores. They also have 'bonuses' depending on how many deals you use, shopping online, etc. which are easy ways to get extra money back!

 

[robinb]

I keep a little mini white board on the side of my fridge with an inventory of my freezer. Since I started that, it has really cut down on things being lost into the abyss of the freezer.

Great idea! I have a white board on my fridge where I make note of things I run out of and it becomes my grocery list. I snap a picture of it on my way out the door.

 

[tasha99]

But the stock you get from the scraps is soooo good. It’s a pain to debone it but about ten pounds of scrap will fit in my crock pot. So I suck it up and do it all at once.

I have a big ziplock in the freezer, and throw bones in as I go. Once it's about 2-3 pounds, I make stock. I tend to buy whole chicken and roast it flat--cutting out the backbone for stock (butterflied/spatchcocked). Or I buy whole skin on thighs for cheap, and cut out that thigh bone (leaving on the skin). The bone goes in the bag and the thigh gets flattened and fried in a skillet till the skin is super crispy.

 

[mjantz]

-Don't be afraid of Dollar Tree. I get my sons shampoo there (White Rain for Men) and I buy frozen fruit, french fries & some of their frozen veggies. I've also found Bumble Bee tuna & Snyders pretzels there. Its not even 1/4 of my grocery shopping but it does help.
-Salvage grocers. There's one about 20 minutes from me so I try & go about once a month. Its a bit cramped but the deals are amazing.
-I don't have hair that requires a specific shampoo so I tend to grab whatever big bottle is on clearance at Ross or TJ Maxx & use that for $4-$6 a bottle.
-Even the fancy grocery stores have deals. There are a few things I buy at Sprouts so I stop in there about once a month. Last time I found ground turkey & turkey burgers marked down to .99/package. I bought all they had & stuck it in my freezer.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Def head over to the Eat at Home thread. That thread alone has given me so many ideas for what to cook for my picky family and has also given me encouragement for new ideas I hadn't thought of or tried in a while.

Honestly, my biggest money savings in very simple, buy what we eat. There is no use, no good in buying stuff that ultimately we end up throwing away. Weather it be fresh fruits, frozen items, or pantry supplies. Stick to what you know. I buy what I know we are going to eat, not just try one time & sit in the pantry.

I shop Publix, every week they have hundreds of BoGo items, sure they offer great prices on all kinds of things, but I only buy the BoGos that my family uses. Each week I let the kids put in a few requests of the BoGos that week. They can ask for something they want for breakfast, something they want in their lunchbox and a snack they like.
Ask family members for their input, you don't have to come up with all the ideas for everyone. I was a little surprised when I started letting my kids suggest some of the meals, it was not as much "kid" food as I thought they would ask for. Their asking for things like grilled pork chops with baked potatoes & green beans. I find if it's something they suggest, they are more willing to eat it, including having it again for leftovers.
Also now that my kids are getting older, I am trying to start teaching them how to help out with the cooking. Simple meals, pre-teens can make, pancakes and sausage, grilled cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, they for surely all know how to cook pasta, lol. And of DD18 is now learning how to grill.

 

[1st*toright]

Honestly, my biggest money savings in very simple, buy what we eat. There is no use, no good in buying stuff that ultimately we end up throwing away.

THIS! And the suggestions from everyone to carefully track what you have in the pantry and freezer, and make sure you use it up before it goes bad. Same thing with fresh items - my meal planning starts with whatever is in the fridge that will go off if not used soon, then I look at sales for the week to see what is a good deal, then I fill out the rest of the week based on what is in my pantry/freezer stash.

I try to mix cheap meals (breakfast for dinner or tofu stir fry) in with meals that will cost more, so the overall week's cost is reasonable, while still eating steak or shrimp or whatever once in a while.

But, no question, the biggest thing for me has been to just pay closer attention to what I have on hand and make a point of using those things up. It results in some creative cooking (some of which turns out fantastic, and occasionally is just weird), but I'm spending way less on groceries than I used to.

 

[mrodgers]

Just bought 3 lb. of ground beef for $4.99/lb. on sale. I have no budget ideas for you. Groceries are outrageously expensive where I am. Coupons are non-existent and only 1 actual grocery store.

When I was married we tried to do the shop sale items at the grocery store with coupons. Hours upon hours of hunting for coupons that wasn't drugs or junk food and actual stuff we use and I think we saved $1.50. The next day I punched out 5 minutes later and made a lot more than that savings. Of course, the rest of the order was $100 more than we would pay at Walmart for the week's groceries. Spent $45 on 3 lb. of ground meat, toilet paper, a roll of paper towels, and half a pound of lunchmeat. That's half my 2 week budget. Got tired of surviving on $3 frozen pizzas.

Food and automobiles are pricing themselves way out of my demographic.