Share Your Grocery Expense Tips

[Badger]

We buy groceries at the base commissary and Costco. Veggies and fruit that we buy are those that are fresh and on sale. Then there are the variety of beans, lentils, etc. that are inexpensive, tasty, and good for us. Very rarely we buy beef. Mainly at the commissary we buy boneless chicken thighs ($1.98/#), pork chops ($1.49/#) and at Costco frozen wild salmon, for a treat frozen shrimp and a lot of frozen organic fruit for smoothies that are half the cost and larger than what is sold at a smoothie shop.


Cheers!

 

[pacergal]

Grocery shopping for me has been the same for 40+years:
Preview weekly ads for sale items, check what I have on hand, plan menus for the week based on that. If something is on a great sale, will buy lots and place in the freezer.
Leftovers are either eaten within a day or two or packaged and placed in the freezer for another meal later.
Shop at local Costco, Safeway, or Thriftway, occasionally local Walmart neighborhood store (has food only). Rarely at Trader Joes or Whole foods. No Aldis here. Did try Grocery Outlet a few times, but not close enough to go all the time and savings were not worth the drive.

Biggest savings for me in the past has been to shop by myself and leave DH and kids at home!

 

[Montecfo]

I’m hoping more ppl will avoid Aldi so the lines don’t get too long which is the biggest drawback to shopping there for me. I’ve never seen any self checkout at Aldi.

Yes.

To respond to other comments in the thread re: Aldi, yes, Walmart will be closest competitor. And Aldi is not for everything, but then i do not use any store to buy everything, I shop the sales. They send out a flier like all the stores do.

I find the produce is often lower-priced than WMT, but not always, and not for all items.

I do not buy much on the way of canned or packaged goods, but yes, Aldi carries off-brands. And for anyone still buying mainly national brands, going to off brands would be an excellent money-saving idea.

When I go there, it is to get items which i know are on sale and a good deal. An I usually fill up my bag with items that i know to be low or competitively priced. Recently, selected meats have been a great deal.

And I am in and out quickly.

 

[lemming]

We're big fans of Lidl (they are expanding so there will be more and more opening) for their specials and great quality. .

Be careful with Lidl prices. They list the price of meat as so much per package not by weight (beef roast or steak) So it says 8.99 but is actually more like $16 per pound. And the sale prices are only if you have their phone app and give info to cashier up front-they won't credit you if you are finished .
I hate their checkout system where you bag your groceries off the belt. Aldi puts it in a cart and you go to the large bagging counter to finish up.
I do shop there at Lidl mostly for produce. I do most of my shopping at Aldi for things that I like there, thick cut bacon ,fresh salsa, interesting crackers etc. I also shop at Wegmans which is not expensive if you can bypass the cheese and olive bar.
Trying to save money by making a grocery run last a couple extra days. I am not really out of food just out of ideas. And I have started eating more eggs-just an easy meal.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We enjoy looking for bargains when shopping for food, although grocery adds up to only 6% of our living expenses. Maybe it could be 10% if we were not good shoppers.

We mainly watch for loss leaders put out by different chains in our area (no Aldi here). We do not buy that much from Costco anymore. With the kids long moved out, we cannot consume food in the big packages that they sell, even though the price and quality are good.

Maybe other posters here have always been more frugal than we were at grocery shopping, but how much we can save with a little effort is all still kind of a revelation for me. Tonight I went to Grocery Outlet and the bill came to around $60, saved $80 over supermarket prices for fairly healthy food. Sometimes I can do better but tonight I bought some staples, like bread and organic eggs, and those aren't highly discounted.

It is worth it to me to drive a little extra to save $80. $80 is enough to buy annual wine passes for two and a science museum annual pass for two from Groupon on sale. The science museum has monthly evening events we enjoy where members get in free, and if we go wine tasting once a month in places like Napa or Sonoma, between the two passes there's 24 outings for us for the coming year just on the savings from one Grocery Outlet trip. That is how I think of the savings and how to apply it instead of a percent of annual spending.

 

[Elizrogers]

I live alone now so unless buying to take to a church dinner or some event, I don't buy many good items at Sam's anymore. But I do get all my paper products, coffee and creamer there. I like pastry with my coffee in the morning be it muffin, cinnamon roll, or sometimes a cookie. So, I get those nice big banana nut muffins at Sam's and freeze them. Half of one is just right each day. But my biggest savings is getting over my loyalty to brands of cleaning supplies (except for special jobs) and getting dish/laundry detergent, cleanser, sponges, buckets, rubber gloves and the like at Dollar Store. Even Glad bags if all sizes, storage and freezer as well as aluminum sheets and baking pans. I don't mind throwing them out after use or using a lot at that price. Also, join the reward club at your favorite grocery. I like Kroger and get coupons based on my purchases sent to me. Not only for $$ off, but also free stuff about once a month. Last week it was a dozen eggs, 2 liter 7up, and a loaf of bread free, plus 10 or 12 coupons for $.40-$1 off other items I purchased regularly.

 

[Elizrogers]

That should be "food" items, not "good" items.