I know what you all are thinking, Grocery shopping doesn't count as shopping. I mean it is technically shopping but not like enjoyable shopaholic shopping. Let me just tell you ladies, when you love to cook or your lifelong dream is to win some kind of domestic diva award, grocery shopping is like the Olympics for a shopaholic who has had her clothing budget reduced to zero.
So yes, taming my grocery shopping habits has taken some work just like my clothing shopping did. It is easy to over spend on groceries, especially if you like to cook just like I do. So I am going to share with you how I get the maximum amount of groceries for the minimal amount of dinero. My trick? Make a day out of your grocery shopping. Now, if you don't have a full day because like me, you have more than one child to tote around, that's okay. Simply break it up.
Now by making a day of shopping, I do not mean wander around one store for 8 hours. What I do suggest, is going to more than one store. In fact, I go to 4. For me, the stores are Food4Less, Costco, Fresh and Easy and Albertson's. Depending on your location and what foods you prefer, your specific stores and how many of them you go to might change. Here, is what I get at each store and why.
Costco:
Now Costco is often mistaken as being inexpensive for everything but let me tell you, they are EXPENSIVE! That is, unless you are actually buying bulk. I go to Costco and buy my items that I will be using a lot of. I do not even come close to filling my cart. I only purchase items like Boneless chicken breasts and bread. Never buy their premade meals, way over priced. Also be careful of brands. If you always buy name brand, yes they will be cheaper for you. Any item that I buy name brand, I get at Costco. However, in my house it is mostly all store brand. Kirkland, Costco's store brand, is not cheaper than other stores brands. For this reason, our canned foods do not come from Costco.
Food4Less:
Most of our groceries come from Food4Less. The reason is simple. They are the cheapest place around. Canned foods, baby food, cheeses (except italian cheeses), sodas, you name it, it is probably going to be the least expensive. Be warned, if you go to the butcher area you may be a little grossed out by cow tongue and similar items, unless you speak spanish you will not understand the announcements and you may be approached to buy something out of a mans trunk in the parking lot but all in all, it is worth it.
Albertsons:
Now I am a little picky about my meat.The only place I have found that I always feel safe eating the meat but it is still reasonably priced, is Albertsons. The meat is always good and often on sale. Hunt out the sale items and base your meals off of that type of meat. Again, we typically buy store brand. Albertson's store brands will often offer "Family Packs". A large, price reduced, pack that will feed my family 4 times. Sooo I buy the reduced price pack, go home and separate. I have one of those little machines that seal bags but freezer bags work just fine.
Fresh and Easy:
We get most of our fruits and veggies at Fresh and Easy. They are a little cheaper at Food4Less but often look a little sketchy to me. At Fresh and Easy they are always fresh. Now to make it cost effective. Fresh and Easy ALWAYS has coupons. They send them in the mail and also have them at the front of the store. It is just one coupon so it's not a huge problem (we'll get into that more next week). Also there is a section of the store of clearance items. These are items that will go bad soon. The veggies there usually last a couple days, so get what you will be using soon from there and the rest from the normal produce aisle. As for fruits, the apples last weeks! So go ahead and stock up, straight from the clearance section.
So that is how a grocery shopaholic gets her quality groceries at quantity prices.
Like how I tied in yesterday's post there?
