Groceries are expensive. Period. And I never thought I’d be at “that” age to say this kind of stuff, but…I used to pay .98 for a box of generic saltine crackers and now two years later I pay almost $2 for the same box. It’s time for me to make some changes in the way I grocery shop and I’m sharing what I learn with you all. Some of these tips, tricks and principles are tried and true and others are in a test run around here but all of them hopefully show us how to save money at the grocery store.
Let me say, The Littlest Way does not apply only to our spiritual lives, it encompasses every aspect our lives. To me, The Littlest Way means doing something, anything and everything as a means to know, love and serve God. Using The Littlest Way mindset as our guide in grocery shopping can mean saving money and that money can be given to charity. Or, the more money we can save will help relieve some of the burden off the family finances; some of us are single income families with lots of kids at home all day, some are two income families paying school tuition from elementary to college and some are retired and living off less than you may be used to. Throw a medical issue, a major home or car repair into the already delicate balance of family finances and things can get messy quickly. These tips will help out no matter your financial, home or work situation.
To get started, we have to have a plan. Period. We will not be able to save ourselves anything–time or money–if we do not first have a plan. {Click Here to Share!} Our plan should include three things: a grocery shopping plan, a meal plan and a saving money plan. Let’s take each one by itself.
But first things first…let’s have an idea how much we can or want to spend. We all need some type of monetary boundary. This serves a couple of really good reasons. First, if we set a specified dollar amount and stay under it, we suddenly find ourselves with some “extra” money. This “extra” could be used to stock up on a great grocery deal for our family, purchase a couple extra items to donate, make an extra payment or a principle only payment on a loan, invite friends or family out for a special meal, use it for a date night, or open a saving account just for those weeks or months when we have a little overage. We’ll be surprised how quickly a couple dollars here and there can add up. This overage may come in handy during the holidays when we may want to give a little more to charity or need a little more to help our family through the extra expenses of the holiday season.
It’s also fun for some healthy competition between you and you. It keeps you on your toes and makes you bring your “A-Game” each time you shop. No more time and money wasting shopping trips! Let’s get started.
1. A Grocery Shopping Plan
The very first thing we need to do is see what’s on sale for the week. “But wait, I do all my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and they don’t have weekly sales,” you may say. Hey me too! And you’re right, Walmart does not have a weekly circular that comes out with sales, but they do price match the sale ads from other local stores in our area. So the first thing we do is look over any local sale ads. Sometimes these come in the mail; mine does on Wednesday’s. They are also a part of our local Sunday paper. Start skimming those ads, especially the front and back pages for the best deals.
I’m going to use a recent grocery trip of mine for some examples.
A local grocery store had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.99 a pound if I bought their family size pack. I thought that sounded like a good deal so I wrote it down on my list, making a note of the sale price and the store. A couple of side notes; first, Walmart now says we do not have to have the competitor sale ad with us. I try to still take my just in case anything is called into question in my mind or the cashier’s mind.
Second, it helps to start keeping a document or a page in a spiral of prices for items we buy; this way we’ll know if something really is a good deal or not. I just started an excel spread sheet where I type in the product, price of the product at different stores based on what they have listed it for in their circular or what I have paid. Looking at my list, I can tell that Walmart usually has their chicken breasts priced $2.98 a pound. $1.99 is a great deal, so I put chicken breasts on my list to price match at Walmart. I’m getting the same sale price but only having to go to one store. I usually can price match from about two to three stores at Walmart. I get the benefit of the sale and only have to drive to one store. Win–Win!
Another example, we have an Aldi’s near by and some of my best price matches can be found there. This particular week, they had avocadoes on sale for .33 cents each!! Walmart’s price for avocadoes was $1.48 each!! So obviously avocadoes went on my list for the week. I already had the chicken on my list…I can already start to see a meal come together, can you?
This post ended up getting pretty long so I’m going to end this one here and have a Part 2 on How to Save Money at the Grocery Store next Friday.
Let me add one more thing to this post. Have you heard of Walmart’s Savings Catcher? Ah.MAA.Zing! I should be their official spokesperson for this. You can use your computer or put the app on your phone. After you shop at Walmart, take a picture of the bar code of your receipt or enter the numbers above it. Their system will search locally to see if there was a better price on something you purchased. If there was, they will give you that money on a Walmart Gift card!! Even though I price match already, I’ve missed $10.47 in the past month. If you shop at Walmart, you need to be taking advantage of their Savings Catcher Program.
Where do you do most of your grocery shopping? Large discount store, local grocery chain…
Read part 2 and part 3 of How to Save Money at the Grocery Store.
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. I took an online survey and received this Bible for free. First, it’s not Catholic so it’s missing some books. But other than that, I really love this Bible. It’s perfect size for my purse, the paper is awesome–no bleed when I mark in it, and I do like this translation sometimes. But let me tell you the greatest thing about it, since it was free, I’m not afraid to mark in it.
, use 
, add 
, 
or written notes in the margins.
, a couple of us coughing and the air conditioner running.
by Jamie Grace
by Jamie Grace
by Big Daddy Weave
. An intentional and fruitful school year.
…Yeah!!
–here’s a two pack because this is a fun project to do with a friend.
–these are also the acrylic paints I use in my 
–for covering the scrapbook paper questions/quotes
