This year we’ve (my wife and I) that we will build a Menu which works on a two week cycle, and the shopping will be done based upon the items required on the list. On the 28th we went shopping and bought only what we needed and stayed under our budget. It makes sense that this will save us some money, because impulse shopping cost money!
Another big savings, and simple, is to eat before you go shopping. This curves the impulse to buy what you don’t need.
Comments:
Grocery Game
Have you tried coupon shopping? Shopping on a cycle like what you do is exactly what the grocery stores WANT you to do, that way you end up paying full price for most things because you have a genuine need for them. I started couponing about 4 months ago and stockpiling. The general guideline is to go with a 3 month supply, because that’s what the grocery store cycles are. I usually buy 1 paper on Sundays and look through it to see if there’s any good coupons that’s worth stockpiling. If there are, then I’ll buy another 4 papers. If the sales are REALLY good that week with the coupons, I go onto E-Bay and buy enough to get 10-20 more of the same item. At first it will seem like your spending a little more, but after you start accumilating things in a stockpile you will be bringing home 4 times as much stuff at 1/2 the price you were spending before on groceries. For example, this week I got 36 boxes of Chex at around .32 a box, 20 hand sanitizers that Wal-Mart PAID ME .03 a bottle to take out of the store, and about 30-something bottles of Pert Plus where I had coupons for $2.50 off of 2 bottles, retails for $2.76×2=$ 5.52-2.50= 1.51 per bottle.. But then I have 12 rebates for $5 back on 2 bottles, which gives me a PROFIT of I think .99 a bottle, just for taking the stuff out of the store. Also got 28 free jars of peanut butter hehehe
And yes, that is my super-duper coupon binder.
Coupons can cost
We always by the store generic, with normal coupons you can sometimes save .20 to .40 but usually the generic item is .10 to .20 below the cost. If it’s more cost effective we buy bulk. Years ago my wife worked for the local Grocery chain here in central Texas (HEB) and found that if you buy more than a certain number of an item, there is an automatic discout applied at the register. Buying in bulk has saved us a bunch also. The only down side to coupons is the cost of the newspaper (here is $2.00 for Sunday). I know that you can save in single items, but over the long term do you really save anything? Thanks for you advise.
