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How to survive 2008 in the world’s richest country - How to Save a Fortune on Groceries (7)
Friday, March 21st, 2008...3:27 am
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How to Save a Fortune on Groceries
Groceries. They are probably the only household cost that is so variable and so prone to waste. Once we step into the grocery store, we’re susceptible to the marketing trickery and grocery-store psychology that seeks to entice us to buy.
Cindy and I went grocery shopping last night. It was the first time since we’ve made our new budget that we walked in there with a conscious decision to spend half of what we always have. Before, our grocery bill was always about $150. That just won’t work anymore, and our goal is to cut it in half without starving ourselves. Personally I thought it was impossible. However we both spent the night before researching online for hours. What we discovered was that it’s not impossible – but it takes a lot of planning and hard work.
#1 – We Love Coupons
Coupons do save money. However, they target specific products that might normally be overpriced, so you have to make sure that the final price isn’t higher than the store brand anyway. If it is higher – don’t bother. Buy the store brand. However, many supermarkets will double or triple coupons – and this is where the enormous savings come in.
Best places to find coupons include the newspaper, www.coolsavings.com, print.coupons.com, www.dealpass.com.
#2 – Discount Cards are NOT a Scam
Additionally, many stores offer discount shopping cards. While a lot of people consider these to be scams – they aren’t, when used wisely. They are only considered scams because while you save a tremendous amount on some products, you overpay for necessities like bread, milk, cheese and meat.
Used intelligently, discount cards can cut down tremendously on your grocery bill. The way to do this is to only buy the items from the store that are discounted with “buy one get one free” deals, or steeply discounted products. Then, drive down the road to the grocery store that doesn’t use discount cards and finish your shopping. Just remember to write down what you bought so that you don’t buy the same thing twice.
#3 – Organize, Plan, and Shop
Print out all of your coupons, and use the store flyer to determine what items have deep discounts when shopping with the shopping card. Write all of these discounted items or coupon items on a list.
Then create your household menu around this list. This focuses your food purchases for real meals on those items that are currently very inexpensive, instead of impulse shopping, and then planning your menu around the items you bought.
This will insure that you only buy the discounted items, and nothing else.
Using these techniques, Cindy and I strolled the kids around the store, looking for those items that we knew were discounted. We had put together the list and our weekly menu the night before. After buying all of the shopping card discounts, we checked out, and then drove down the street to the other shopping market. There, we bought up the rest of the items using all of our coupons printed online and from our weekend paper.
Our results? They were unbelievable.
Grocery bill last week: $156.84
Grocery bill this week: $72.56
That amounts to a monthly savings of $337.12! That is practically the amount some people earn working at a part-time job.
If Cindy and I can do this….anyone can. And these savings will help us to bring our finances back…in time. At least it leaves us with some hope that we’ll be successful, and that it is possible to dig our way out of this dark hole that we’re in.
And it’s exciting – because this means that anyone can make this first step, regardless of their financial situation.
The saga of Jack’s family ( to be continued)
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