Share Your Grocery Expense Tips

[daylatedollarshort]

I call this the Aldi's affect, our Aldi's is kitty corner from the Super Walmart and after a little while I noticed that Walmart matched prices on eggs, milk and a few other basic items.

I think we had something similar in our area only the opposite direction - the Whole Foods affect. Finding the Consumer Expenditure Survey and realizing how much we were overpaying for basic groceries was a real eye opener for us.

 

[DINKFIRE]

Get Amex Blue cash preferred. It does have a $95 annual fee but you get 6% back for purchases up to $6K annually in most grocery stores. 1% is for grocery purchases above $6K. They also have a no annual fee variant that returns 3% on up to $6K in annual grocery purchases. These don't work for grocery purchases in wholesale clubs and superstores.

I use the no annual fee Amex Blue Cash card with 3%. Chase Freedom and Discover it typically has 5% cash back for one quarter on groceries every year.

 

[jazz4cash]

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.

 

[mountainsoft]

+1 I know some people who throw out leftovers after a meal.... whereas we love leftovers... for another meal or snack.

We eat lots of leftovers and never throw food out until it starts to go bad. I give my wife a hard time because she will eat things I think have been in the fridge too long and should be thrown out. But, she hasn't gotten sick yet.

I also think it's funny that she'll spend $5 on additional ingredients to use up a leftover piece of cabbage or something. At least it doesn't go to waste and she makes lunch for the week.

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

Hum, when we are in Florida I always go to Publix. It is less than a mile from our country club. The store is beautiful, well laid out, clean, safe, nice clientele. Polite, well trained cashiers. I’m in and out fast!

My wife says, “why didn’t you go over to Walmart or Costco it’s so much cheaper!”
Honey, I don’t care about saving a few dollars. Not dealing with the traffic, the shady clientele, the long lines, getting mugged in the parking lot, taking forever in line. Nasty people, nasty parking lot. Ugh. No thanks. Well worth it for me.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I went to Aldi for the first time today. As others stated the produce was limited but what I did find was cheaper than Kroger and wasn’t drenched by the spray thingys. I found several packaged items on my list like raisins and oatmeal that were a good buy and we’ll see how they compare to other brands. I also made a couple of impulse buys like tortellini, cheese, and a new variety of crackers. I looked at the wine and it was all cheap labels I’d never heard of, but I think I’ll give one of those a go next time.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Besides where to shop, not wasting food and all the other good tips in this thread so far, the nutritionfacts.org site has some pointers on which foods are super food bargains. In the link below they have which foods are super bargains in terms of antioxidants. Spoiler alert: the winner was purple cabbage. Purple cabbage keeps for a long time so now I always have a head in the fridge and chuck some in whenever we eat salads and stir fries.

Superfood Bargains: Ranking food by antioxidants per dollar
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/superfood-bargains-2/

We also try to eat from their Daily Dozen List. Most of the items are pretty healthy as well as inexpensive, though I'm not a flax seed fan so I substitute chia seeds.

 

[NW-Bound]

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.

 

[pb4uski]

We enjoy looking for bargains when shopping for food, although grocery adds up to only 6% of our living expenses. ...

You made me look.... 6-7% for us.

 

[CardsFan]

As one of the Aldi's proponents here, a little clarification on how we shop.

DW is the coupon and discount finder, for the most part. We both look at the circulars (Aldi's, Fresh Thyme, and locals Schnucks and Dierbergs) and mark what we might want. Additionally, there are things that Aldi's carries (store brand) that we have found to be equal to, or superior than, name brands at much lower regular prices (35% to 50% less in most cases).

So, typical trip to Aldi's might include:
- Boneless leg of lamb (on sale)
- rack of lamb (on sale)
- avocados (on sale)
- mushrooms (on sale)
- Rainer cherries (on sale for $2-$3/lb pound less than the supermarkets)
- Other discounted produce, if it looks good
- store brand pickles, condiments, chips, crackers, fiber bars, coffee, cheese, eggs, milk

I have no illusions that we are saving a pile of money. And if we prefer a different brand, sold elsewhere, that is what we buy.

FYI, I like lamb, DW does not. Local groceries rarely carry it. Aldi's, and Sam's are the only ones that have it regularly (Probably Costco too, but that is much further away, so we are not members).

 

[ivinsfan]

As one of the Aldi's proponents here, a little clarification on how we shop.

DW is the coupon and discount finder, for the most part. We both look at the circulars (Aldi's, Fresh Thyme, and locals Schnucks and Dierbergs) and mark what we might want. Additionally, there are things that Aldi's carries (store brand) that we have found to be equal to, or superior than, name brands at much lower regular prices (35% to 50% less in most cases).

So, typical trip to Aldi's might include:
- Boneless leg of lamb (on sale)
- rack of lamb (on sale)
- avocados (on sale)
- mushrooms (on sale)
- Rainer cherries (on sale for $2-$3/lb pound less than the supermarkets)
- Other discounted produce, if it looks good
- store brand pickles, condiments, chips, crackers, fiber bars, coffee, cheese, eggs, milk

I have no illusions that we are saving a pile of money. And if we prefer a different brand, sold elsewhere, that is what we buy.

FYI, I like lamb, DW does not. Local groceries rarely carry it. Aldi's, and Sam's are the only ones that have it regularly (Probably Costco too, but that is much further away, so we are not members).

I agree but doesn't everyone kind of shop this way. Yes we need the fresh staples but I've never been one to go and grab stuff off the shelf. It's quality, price and value.

 

[CardsFan]

I agree but doesn't everyone kind of shop this way. Yes we need the fresh staples but I've never been one to go and grab stuff off the shelf. It's quality, price and value.

Uuhhmm, no. They SHOULD, but I would guess the majority of folks just go to the closest store and buy what they need/want. Circulars are not for people like us, they are to get someone in the store for a few sale items, and have them spend another $100 on the rest of the groceries at full price.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Uuhhmm, no. They SHOULD, but I would guess the majority of folks just go to the closest store and buy what they need/want. Circulars are not for people like us, they are to get someone in the store for a few sale items, and have them spend another $100 on the rest of the groceries at full price.

I get all sorts of free food each month just for signing up for our local stores rewards programs. Last week one store had freebies of a package of bagels, a package of English muffins and three pounds of bananas. I did buy a couple of other items like yogurt and a splurge chocolate bar on clearance, too. But they really would only make any real money giving away free stuff like that if shoppers did spend another $100 or so on additional purchases at full price, as you noted.

 

[mountainsoft]

I was near a Walmart today while running errands, so I decided to pick up a few grocery items I needed there and see how it compares to Safeway where I normally shop.

As I remembered, the produce is terrible. What they have looks old, and you have to buy most items in bulk shrink wrap bundles. I had to pick through a large box to find one decent tomato.

Meats were surprisingly expensive. Considerably more than I pay at Safeway and the quality looked questionable.

Bread, bottled juices, wine, beer, milk, cheese, and toilet paper all cost the same or more than than I pay at Safeway. The few canned goods I looked at cost about the same too.

The only things I saw that were really any cheaper were packaged convenience foods like cookies, crackers, chips, candy, pastries, and frozen dinners. Garbage food we shouldn't be eating anyway. We don't buy enough of those items to make it worth a trip to Walmart, especially since most of the items we do buy cost more.

Safeway is still our closest store, but I would like to try shopping at Fred Meyer (Kroger) a few times. I take my mom shopping at her Fred Meyer and some costs seem lower, but it may just be the items she buys (again, lots of junk food).

Any other grocery stores are too far away to consider for weekly shopping trips.

 

[charais]

We're big fans of Lidl (they are expanding so there will be more and more opening) for their specials and great quality. Also love Costco but do tend to overspend when I shop here. We've had many new stores come into our area (Publix, Wegmans) and I've read the competition is driving down prices. We'll see I guess.

 

[Elizrogers]

Winter is great for buying sale items and stocking up, especially canned veggies for soup, spaghetti, stews, casseroles, etc. But summer in Texas is mostly fresh produce for salads or cold cut sandwiches. Too hot to cook or even want soup. So, it's difficult to stock up when things are on sale, as produce must be eaten fairly quickly. You can't keep long or freeze. I spend more in summer.

 

[FREE866]

Vitacost.com is great site that does free delivery on orders over $50.




You can get Simple Truth organic beans, lentils, chicpeas, etc for $1 a can

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

Uuhhmm, no. They SHOULD, but I would guess the majority of folks just go to the closest store and buy what they need/want. Circulars are not for people like us, they are to get someone in the store for a few sale items, and have them spend another $100 on the rest of the groceries at full price.

They should? Why?

 

[daylatedollarshort]

They should? Why?

Context is everything. He is posting advice in a thread on how to save money on groceries, not where to buy the best caviar.

 

[papaof2]

Learn the BOGO schedule at any store you shop regularly. Example: the local Publix does BOGO on bagels every other month. They freeze well, so we buy enough to last until the next sale. Same for other BOGO products. Remember that your freezer runs more efficiently if full ;-)

 

[Bamaman]

We watch the newspaper ads and buy what's on sale this week. We notice Publix has a big 2 for 1 sale about every 4 weeks, and that's the only time we shop that relatively expensive store. We shop at Aldi's about every 2 weeks, and I like their chicken and pork that comes from the upper Midwest. We have started buying our meat at Sam's Club, as their 90% ground beef is in a class of it's own--without water in it. My "drive in market" is a Walmart 2 minutes away with their 98 cent gallons of milk and 88 cent bread and buns. We buy no produce or meat at Walmart, however as it's too expensive there.

 

[brett]

If a red wine comes on sale at a fabulous discount I will buy a bottle. Try it immediately. If I like it, we buy a case, sometimes more.

We have a local grocery store that brings in Argentine and Chilean reds by the box car load and then blows it out. Especially good value now given the economic challenges in Argentina....and I like a good Malbec!

We never by meat. poultry, or fish at Walmart. Don't like it.

 

[CardsFan]

Context is everything. He is posting advice in a thread on how to save money on groceries, not where to buy the best caviar.

 

[jazz4cash]

We watch the newspaper ads and buy what's on sale this week. We notice Publix has a big 2 for 1 sale about every 4 weeks, and that's the only time we shop that relatively expensive store. We shop at Aldi's about every 2 weeks, and I like their chicken and pork that comes from the upper Midwest. We have started buying our meat at Sam's Club, as their 90% ground beef is in a class of it's own--without water in it. My "drive in market" is a Walmart 2 minutes away with their 98 cent gallons of milk and 88 cent bread and buns. We buy no produce or meat at Walmart, however as it's too expensive there.

98 cents, seriously? I avoid Walmart if at all possible but would reconsider at that price. Pretty sure it’s a lot more at our local Walmart and we use lactose-free anyway. Aldi charges 2.7 for half gallon of lactose-free vs 3.99 for Giant store brand.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Learn the BOGO schedule at any store you shop regularly. Example: the local Publix does BOGO on bagels every other month. They freeze well, so we buy enough to last until the next sale. Same for other BOGO products. Remember that your freezer runs more efficiently if full ;-)

The laundry detergent I buy has a different price almost every week with sales and store coupons, even at the same store. Usually the regular price is $7, even at Walmart. But I have learned from watching the prices it goes down to $2 a bottle with a store coupon occasionally. So now I wait until I see the $2 price and then stock up as much as I can.


I don't order from Instacart, but the site is useful for comparing prices. I use Google shopping for price comparison, too.