Grocery Store vs Trader Joe's vs Super Target vs Wholesale Club

bbbamI said:
Eighty six cents for two beers....what kind of beer do you drink? :eek:
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Natural Light. $12.99/30 cans at RiteAid ($11.99 until recently).

agegate_r3c1.jpg
 
Natty Lite. They also make Natty Ice. Even more alcohol content for one low price. Wooo! Problem is, by the time I am ready to drink one, I have to have so many in me already that ... I shouldn't be drinking anymore. Phew.

-CC
 
Ditto on what WantToRetire Said..
Coupons via the Internet and we also Get Sunday's Paper on Monday, for free.. Our Rich neighbor throws them out and gives it to us Poor Folk...I offered to split the cost, but he doesn't pay for it either, His Company does..

Bar-B-Q alot and we have our Q hooked upto our House gas ...

Extra Freezer in a Garage..When sales on on, we load up...I also added an extra 3 inches of Foam Board Insulation around it as well..for the Summertime around here..

Hope that helps
 
One of the clues to saving money on grocery shopping is plan your meals around what is on sale . I get the food circulars and circle the things I want and decide on several meals and go shop .My food budget is $400 a month for two people but we usually come in under that amount . That includes food, paper products , cleaning supplies , shampoo ,and wine . Clue number two is never ever shop when hungry . You'll end up with bizarre things in your cart .
 
Holy crap on a cracker that is good stuff.

Is crap on a cracker as good as $#!+ on a Shingle? :LOL: sorry, couldn't resist! I am awful.:blush:

Moe, like you, I don't (can't) break "food" out from the general "grocery" category. If it was purchased at Giant or BJs, and it wasn't a major electronic item, it's counted as groceries.
We spend about $400 a month for 2 people and 2 cats, and that's with a separate freezer, coupon clipping, stocking up during sales, and some Depression-era food-stretching tips I learned from my Mom.
As others have pointed out, good food costs more of late. Fruit, whole grains,vegetables, meat, and fish have all gone up.
 
Amethyst said:
Holy crap on a cracker that is good stuff.

Is crap on a cracker as good as $#!+ on a Shingle? :LOL: sorry, couldn't resist! I am awful.:blush:

Moe, like you, I don't (can't) break "food" out from the general "grocery" category. If it was purchased at Giant or BJs, and it wasn't a major electronic item, it's counted as groceries.
We spend about $400 a month for 2 people and 2 cats, and that's with a separate freezer, coupon clipping, stocking up during sales, and some Depression-era food-stretching tips I learned from my Mom.
As others have pointed out, good food costs more of late. Fruit, whole grains,vegetables, meat, and fish have all gone up.
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Whats funny. Ive said to people $@#@ on a shingle before and they looked at me funny. At least I know someone else knows what Im talking about now :LOL:
 
TJ's vs Target

I went to Trader Joe's and Super Target tonight. I'm going to start collecting my receipts and create an excel spreadsheet to see where the good deals are (and exactly how much I'm spending). Here's the comparison so far:

Trader Joe's
3 pepper (orange, red, yellow) - $3.69 -- they're 3x more $ at Harris Teeter

Sliced Turkey - $5.99/lb not the best deal but a lot better than paying $10.99/lb at Harris Teeter

TJ O's Cheerios - $1.99

European Yogurt - $2.99 (not as much protein as Greek yogurt but about half the price)

Target
32oz Egg Whites - $3.45 - much cheaper than TJ and Harris Teeter

1lb 93/7 Ground Beef - $2.99

10 Waffles - $1.82

String Cheese - $2.99 for 12 (still kind of high considering each stick is only 50 calories)


Overall Target may have had slightly better prices because more stuff was on sale. However, I prefer the produce at TJ's so I'll probably continue to shop at both.
 
Ive said to people $@#@ on a shingle before and they looked at me funny. At least I know someone else knows what Im talking about now :LOL:

Oh, I know many things...few of them useful...I have a mind like a cluttered attic sometimes! :flowers:
 
Sliced Turkey - $5.99/lb not the best deal but a lot better than paying $10.99/lb at Harris Teeter

You buy sliced turkey? What a wastrel. Just kidding :LOL: :flowers: Buy a couple of whole turkeys on sale (.59 to .79 a pound). Store them in the freezer. Roast a turkey. When it's all cooked and has cooled, remove the breast meat, slice it with a slicer or good sharp chef's knife, package the slices in aluminum foil, label/date, store in freezer till needed. Boil the turkey carcass for soup stock. Make a couple gallons of turkey vegetable soup, using the rest of the meat. We can eat hearty for a week on that soup, and we're bigger-than-average, active folks with good appetites...
 
Amethyst said:
Ive said to people $@#@ on a shingle before and they looked at me funny. At least I know someone else knows what Im talking about now :LOL:

Oh, I know many things...few of them useful...I have a mind like a cluttered attic sometimes! :flowers:
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AKA: barf on a board
 
Amethyst said:
Sliced Turkey - $5.99/lb not the best deal but a lot better than paying $10.99/lb at Harris Teeter

You buy sliced turkey? What a wastrel. Just kidding :LOL: :flowers: Buy a couple of whole turkeys on sale (.59 to .79 a pound). Store them in the freezer. Roast a turkey. When it's all cooked and has cooled, remove the breast meat, slice it with a slicer or good sharp chef's knife, package the slices in aluminum foil, label/date, store in freezer till needed. Boil the turkey carcass for soup stock. Make a couple gallons of turkey vegetable soup, using the rest of the meat. We can eat hearty for a week on that soup, and we're bigger-than-average, active folks with good appetites...
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Good advice. I should cook whole turkeys more often. It's probably healthier (less sodium and additives) than sliced turkey too.
 
bank5 said:
Thanks for the reply. What kind of meats do you get from Costco and do you freeze them? I'm trying to decide on getting a membership to a wholesale club. If there was one closer or more than 2 of us, I would definitely do it.

If I get a chance I'll drive around today, compare some of the prices, and respond back the best savings
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At Costco we buy:
Organic ground beef, $3.99/lb
Regular ground beef, $2.19/lb
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, $2.79/lb
Chicken thighs, $1.19/lb (bone-in, skin-on)
Whole chickens, $.79/lb (in a two-pack)
Pork shoulder (country-style ribs,boneless): $1.79/lb

These are all in big containers, so we portion and freeze them. More later, kids are crying.
 
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We buy the "beef in the bag" at costco and cut our own steaks. Buy Costco ground beef and re portion it for our needs. Lots of good meat and some fish there. We will continue to go to costco or sam's, whichever is convenient to wherever we end up ERed.

R
 
We buy bulk, dry, organic beans and cook huge pots of them. Put them in the smaller Mason jars (about the size of a normal can of beans) and then freeze them. We do it with red beans, pintos, black, Garbanzo, navy, red, lentils, etc. Three nights a week we have beans over brown rice, amaranth, quinoa or teff, all of which we also buy in bulk by the pound at the health food store. We chop up tomatoes, onions, avocados, maybe some corn, etc and put on top. And then have a salad with it, which we get in bulk from the farmer's market. We eat only organic and yet have still drastically reduced our grocery bill by moving to this three or four nights a week. And I don't think there has been any sacrafice to our health by doing so.
 
Gator,

That's quite an advanced vegetarian diet. How does your monthly bill compare with the $400 or so that most of us appear to be laying out for groceries?

(Granted, I include coffee, aluminum foil, napkins, and cat food in our $400--we probably spend <$350 a month on human foodage).
 
Bank, it sounds as if you're following some South Beach variation, with low carb and low fat, with a large portion of your calories coming from protein. That being said, I can offer some suggestions:

As others have noted, buying in bulk can dramatically lower your costs. One of the biggest bargains is a family pack (3 pounds) of chicken leg/thighs at 0.39/pound. Since you're cooking them longer than breasts, the fat renders out and you have a tastier, juicier result.

Buy in season - buying peppers right now is more expensive because they come from South America. Tomatoes taste lousy right now, and they're more expensive than in the summer. Canned tomatoes are a better choice.

Avoid packaging. The three peppers for $3.69 seems like a good deal, until you actually look at the per pound price, which puts them at about $4.00/lb. In contrast, red peppers are on sale locally for $0.99/lb. Usually whenever something is packaged together for convenience, the price is higher.

The more preparation you have to do, the cheaper the price usually is. You pay for convenience.

As noted before, look for ethnic markets. Asian supermarkets in particular are good deals. The quality of produce and price are hard to beat.

Trader Joe's is not very cost effective in comparison to my other options. Exceptions to this are nuts and selected other foods. In general, TJ's is about convenience rather than real groceries.

Know what good prices are a stock up when you see a screaming deal. A local store had white albacore tuna on sale recently for 50 cents a can, and we bought about 20 cans. Then look at the weekly sales flyers for all your local stores (easily done online in about ten minutes) and look for good deals to stock up on. Loss leaders are particularly good deals. The easiest way to identify them is if they require additional purchases or the amount you can purchase is limited.

Cold cuts are very pricy - you can eat steak every day more cheaply than sliced cold cuts. As noted before, you can make your own ham or turkey cheaper than buying at the deli counter. And a quicker way of having turkey is to buy the Hotel breast, roast it, using the leftover carcass for stock or soup.

Use your freezer. This saves not only money but time, and helps eliminate waste. Its just as easy to make enough chili, pot roast, or other food to last several meals as it is for one.
 
randyman65 said:
Bank, it sounds as if you're following some South Beach variation, with low carb and low fat, with a large portion of your calories coming from protein.
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I'm not too familiar with the South Beach diet, but am somewhat following the the P90X nutrition plan. It's not geared towards losing weight but getting ripped. I'm suppose to eat 3,000 calories and over 100 grams of protein a day. That much protein quickly adds up $. I've had great results so far and have learned a lot about nutrition. Feel free to send me a PM if you'd like more info about.
 
I know about it - I've used BB products before. And I would hazard that you're taking in quite a bit more than 100grams.
 
For that high of a protein intake, I'd recommend getting a lot of your protein from shakes. I use the 100 % whey protein (vanilla) sold at Wal-mart.

My trainer buys protein powder online in huge quantities--you might want to check that out as well.
 
Amethyst said:
Gator,

That's quite an advanced vegetarian diet. How does your monthly bill compare with the $400 or so that most of us appear to be laying out for groceries?

(Granted, I include coffee, aluminum foil, napkins, and cat food in our $400--we probably spend <$350 a month on human foodage).
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It really depends on the season and the availability of fruits/veggies locally. We go through a massive (and I mean massive) amount of fruits/vegetables with just DW, DD and me. Because we eat organic it adds up. Every morning we make "green shakes" that consist of about 14 bananas, celery, kale/spinach or some other green, ground flax seeds, berries and then something like mangoes or strawberries thrown in. These shakes are actually more expensive than the dinners we make on average. But to answer your question, with everything included, it's between 425-500 and up to 550(rare). Before we moved to the beans/rice and morning shakes we were spending 700, easy, b/c it was all organic. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really don't miss the meat anymore. I still have it two, maybe three times a week. Included in the amount above is foil, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.

We don't drink coffee, so that helps. We buy bulk green tea, which is dirt cheap.

We really try to get in good with local farmers and take whatever deals they have on fruit/veggies at the farmers market. A couple months back we were getting a bushel of oranges a WEEK for twenty bucks and also 60-70 persimmons (the small kind). Right now, there is a small farm from which we buy their rejected tomatoes. They'll have some dark spot or be a little rotten in a little section. Just cut off the bad part and it's fine. I'm not lying, we get about 15-20 POUNDS a week for 5 bucks. 5 bucks! This has been for the past month and will last another three weeks. So, we eat a ton of tomatoes. I'll make huge pots of marinara and then jar in the Mason jars. We grow our own herbs, so really the only cost outside of the five dollar tomatoes is olive oil, onions, garlic, etc. You can pull out a can of that and cut up some tempeh or beef or chicken and pour it all over rice. Or pasta, but we don't eat a lot that. My wife also makes mango/tomato/ basil blended in a food processor and we'll just put that over a big salad with some garbanzo beans and that's our meal.

I actually just got back from our farmers market about twenty minutes ago. Just bought two entire flats of strawberries for fifteen dollars. They are normally between 18-20 dollars a flat. These berries are not as pretty as the 18-20 dollar ones but they are pesticide/fungicide/herbicide and chemical fertilizer free (although not officially organic). If you have a farmers market and don't mind bruised food, you can find unbelievable deals.

I think we spend a lot of money on food, but we eat really healthy food and for what we get I think we do a great job on the price. We eat three meals a day at home b/c we both telecommute, which means no lunches out at work or picking up a pizza on the way home or anything like that. We could substantially cut our bill if we replaced the green shakes with oatmeal or something, but the shakes are so healthy that I don't really want to do it. Pick and choose your battles I guess.

Hope some of this info is helpful.
 
OK, back with more. Other things we get at Costco that are pretty good deals are:

Organic, cage-free eggs: 4.79 for 18
Organic peanut butter (Kirkland brand, it's great): 2 28-oz jars for about $5 (and the peanuts are U.S. grown peanuts)
15 lbs organic brown basmati rice for about $8
12 7-oz cans chunk light tuna (I think Chicken of the Sea) for $5.50
8 14-oz cans chopped organic tomatoes for $6
10 lbs pinto beans, dried, for $4
8 pk of canned black, garbanzo, and kidney beans (S&W brand) are $5 or so.
Tillamook cheddar cheese, 2.5 lb block, is $7.95
Bread is 2 large loaves for $3.55 (this is whole-wheat sliced sandwich bread, like Milton's -- and we freeze one of the loaves when we get it home).
Non-organic, regular ol' eggs are $4.50 for 4 dozen.

These are regular prices at Costco, not specials or sale prices.

And yes, we buy the big packages and then freeze them in dinner-sized portions. A couple of days ago I bought chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on, then split them into smaller portions in plastic baggies and froze them in the freezer. Works great for us. We just have the top freezer on our fridge. If we had a garage or mud room you can bet we'd have a big deep-freeze and we'd be buying a lot more at a time, to save on shopping trips.

When we bought our membership eight years ago we figured that our savings on peanut butter alone would more than pay for the membership. That's been true for every year since then. And we don't eat THAT much peanut butter -- it was just an easy way to quantify the savings.
 
Gator,
Wow. Your diet is so much healthier than anything I've ever heard of. For a few years, we had a nice vegetable garden going in the summer, until the deer destroyed it. We ate our fill of tomatoes, peppers, string beans, canteloupes, and the health benefits were very noticeable for that 2 month period. We'd like to do the farmer's market thing, but the closest one is 15-20 miles away.
Urchina, our purchases at BJs are much like yours at Costco. Through work, I get a discount on the BJs membership fee, which quickly pays for itself. Without big-box stores, we'd either be spending a lot more, or not eating nearly as well.
 
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