The Key to Grocery Budgeting

So there have been a few questions about how to keep grocery budgets low, and I will tell you that this is still a struggle for us from time to time. Let's face it, we can't all be extreme couponers! In fact, I did several months of coupon clipping and researching deals trying to figure out how to cut my grocery bill the way they do on that TV show and I just couldn't do it. After two months of arduously studying deals and clipping coupons, organizing them into little folders, I only managed to do one shopping trip that came even remotely close, and to be honest, it was stuff we didn't need!  I got 10 boxes of pasta and 5 boxes of brownies for $7! At the time I was excited, but that was the only good haul I had after two months, and the more I thought about it the worse I felt because I don't need 5 boxes of brownies. The pasta we do actually use and we still have 3 boxes left a year later.

Anyways, I want to share a few things I have learned about grocery shopping and budgeting for food.

1) Coupons aren't for me.  The more coupons I clip, the more money I spend on stuff that I would never buy normally. They don't send out coupons for the cheap stuff that I typically buy, so using a coupon just means that I have to pay more before I can get that $.50 off. The only exception I will say here is that Safeway often has coupons for $10 off if you spend $100 in a single trip or some variation of this deal. I do use these coupons because they have a cash value and they apply to my overall bill instead of being brand/item specific. If you are good at using coupons and can control yourself, unlike me, go for it, but I wouldn't sweat it if it is a hassle.


2) Club cards make up for not having coupons! As I said in response to a previous comment, having a club card to your local grocery store is a HUGE help. They do club card specials which can get you some pretty awesome deals even without coupons. The things we see the biggest deals on are soda and meat. We drink a TON of soda here, and with the club card we can usually get B2G2 deals. Recently there have even been a lot of B2G2 + a free bag of chips! Since we don't have a junk food budget for chips or sweets, this kind of fills the void. It is also notable here that most of the club cards now have online functionality or smartphone apps that allow you to load coupons directly onto your card online and then they are automatically applied at the register. I consider these different from regular coupons because I don't feel as compelled to go out searching for the items on these digital coupons. Instead I load them onto my card and forget about them, any time I get a discount from them is a bonus I wasn't expecting. Some people argue that going to Walmart or other similar big box stores is cheaper than going specifically to the grocery store. I disagree for a few reasons. Primarily, I hardly ever see any deals on groceries at Walmart that are significantly less than what I pay at the regular grocery store. Secondly, my club card gives me fuel points which save me money on putting gas in the car. Third, I pass 8 different grocery stores on my way to the closest Walmart, so the drive alone makes it not worth my time.  

3) Outside, top and bottom. Believe it or not, companies spend a lot of time analyzing shopping patterns before they place products on their shelves. There is a methodology behind product placement that will make your head spin. The best way to avoid being drawn into this marketing scheme is to stick to the outside of the store. Consider this: stores are generally organized so that dairy, fruit, breads and meat are around the outside. These are the essential parts of any diet (arguably bread could be removed, but I happen to like my carbs, thank you very much). The inside aisles of the store contain things like boxed meals, canned (and sweetened) fruits and veggies and junk foods. Now, I understand that you can't completely avoid walking down the aisles (how would I get my soda!?), but you can definitely eliminate a large part of your bill by not walking up and down every single one. You need ketchup? Only go as far down the aisle as you absolutely have to to grab that big red bottle. And when you get there keep in mind that marketers place the most expensive name brand items in the center of the shelves at eye level. Discounted and generic brands are either on the top shelf (out of reach for poor little me) or on the very bottom shelf (who looks down there anyways?). Knowing this has actually brought me to realize that there are store brand varieties of nearly everything, even things that I had only ever known by their name brand.

4) Clearance groceries! One of the best kept secrets in grocery shopping!!!!! Now, I will start off by saying that I will not buy clearance dairy products for any reason, only because we do not use them quick enough and they gross me out. However, the very FIRST thing I do when I go grocery shopping is rush to the refrigerated meat section at the back of the store. Somewhere, hidden, no matter how small is clearance meats. The variety changes weekly, and I never see ground beef in there. We have gotten 3 pounds of beef and pork ribs for $3.40. Two weeks ago I managed to snag 2 gigantic rib-eye steaks and a couple of NY strip steaks for a total of $7. 4 lbs of chicken breasts for $3? Score! So, as you can see, shopping the clearance meat has actually increased our quality of eating because we are no longer on the Hamburger Helper diet. I wish I had saved my receipt from my last shopping trip to share with you all so you could see my savings on meat alone. I will put it this way, I saved $66 alone on just meat, which was over 80% savings on those items. First my club card discount was applied, followed by the clearance coupons that are stamped on the packages, ranging from 30-50% off each. As soon as I bring this stuff home I break out the Ziploc baggies and separate everything into portions for our family. This way a single package can be split into multiple meals and stretch us through 2 weeks at a time.

A few last minute tips: Go shopping by yourself. Bringing Logan and Jason to the store with me almost always leads to excess stuff. They just can't keep their hands away from the snacks! Take a list. Stick to the list. My mom used to say that if it wasn't on the list when she walked into the store it wasn't going to end up in the cart (of course, we could always just add stuff to the list in the store, but that's cheating!).

Now For A Personal Challenge

After reviewing our grocery bills for the last month or so I have decided that we drink entirely too much soda. It really isn't good for us at all, and it is taking up a massive chunk of our budget. We buy soda whether it is on sale or not, so it fluctuates from about $12 a week upwards of $25. In a budget of only $125 every two weeks for groceries this is completely out of proportion, and can probably explain the lack of fresh fruits that I would much rather have in the house. So I have issued a personal challenge. I am going to cut down to only 1 can of soda a day. In theory 1 12-pack of soda should last me all but the last 2 days of a 2 week period. This will be about half the amount of soda that I normally go through. On the downside, Jason isn't on board with this one, so he may take up my slack and just drink the extra soda himself. :( I think I will have to hide it from him somewhere (Haha!). This will eliminate extra trips to the store just to restock on soda, and force to drink more water, which I have always been terrible about. 

Maybe someday I will be able to cut soda completely out of my diet, but today is not that day.

So, what other tips do you have for grocery shopping? Other questions about shopping for certain items? How about vices that you could cut back on to save yourself some money?!