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I GET A THRILL FROM saving money on groceries. We have customer loyalty cards for the two local grocery stores where we do most of our shopping. The sales receipts list total savings for that shopping trip. I love to see big numbers on that line.
I’m a prodigious cereal eater, and my favorite is Cheerios. The regular price for the smallest box is $4.99. Of course, I never pay that. Fairly frequently, one of the local stores runs specials on General Mills brands, and the price for small boxes of Cheerios is often two for $6. Occasionally, they’re two for $5 or even two for $4. I have on rare occasions even purchased two for $3. At $1.50 a box, that’s a savings of 70% over the regular price.
If a cereal I eat regularly is discounted significantly, I’m likely to buy it even if we have some in stock already. I’ve also sampled the various store brands of cereal, which are priced much more favorably. I’ve found that I like some as much as the name brands, while others I’d never buy again. None of the generic substitutes for Cheerios tastes good to me. On the other hand, I can’t tell the difference between generic and name-brand frosted mini-wheats.
What about other grocery store items? I generally don’t buy things like pouches of tuna, pasta sauce, certain frozen dinners and name-brand orange juice unless they’re discounted. Similarly, I usually won’t try out a new product unless it’s offered on sale.
I have an online account for one of our local stores where I can redeem points accrued on past purchases to get a discount on a future bill. Each month, I typically get a $3 or $4 reward for my efforts. Hey, every little bit helps.
I’m not a coupon clipper, but I recently downloaded a grocery store’s app to my phone, and I’ve used it a few times to get some good deals. This is a potential growth area for me. With the help of digital coupons on a recent trip, I saved $14.38 on a $50.57 bill. That’s a savings of more than 28%.
On one of my many spreadsheets, I keep track of our spending on groceries and related items. I track total spending by store, not by individual purchase. For example, everything we spend at Costco goes into the tally, even though we occasionally purchase non-food items there. Despite all the concern about food inflation, my spreadsheet indicates these expenses have remained steady over the past few years.
My efforts as the family’s secondary grocery shopper result in admittedly small overall savings, but it gives me some sense of control in the face of spiraling price increases. I have to give my wife Lisa credit for becoming an increasingly discriminating shopper. Funny thing is, she’s managed to do this without even bothering with spreadsheets. Go figure.
Now that I’m semi-retired, I can accompany Lisa to Costco more frequently. The last time I went, we purchased two extra-large boxes of Cheerios for $3.99. That’s the equivalent of less than 87 cents for a small box, a discount of more than 80% over the regular price. That’s far better than the best price I’ve ever gotten at a grocery store. I may need to update my strategy.
Like Nate Allen below, this article made me realize that I’m too lazy to fine tune my grocery shopping like this. In our town, I have a main store that I go to plus a Trader Joe’s for specific items. If something I buy regularly happens to be on sale, I might get some extra, but we live in a condo and don’t have the storage or refrigeration space to really stock up.
Where I do shop for sales, though, is for intermittent purchases. There are specific merchants I buy clothes/socks/shoes from, and I absolutely wait for sales and look for good deals. For example, I really like Peloton workout gear, which fits well and is good quality, but I never buy from them unless I get a text about a flash sale. Similarly, I wanted to get my husband some new noise-cancelling headphones for upcoming travels as a Christmas gift. I knew exactly what I wanted and watched Amazon prices for months. No markdowns for either Prime Day this year, but I scored on a Black Friday sale, stacked with an Amex offer. I got headphones that are normally $329 for $160. I was pretty pleased with myself!
Food for thought…with the money saved, you can go out to eat.
We like the selection, customer service and prices at our local Trader Joe’s.
Wish we had one nearby. Closest is over an hour away.
Never had a Cheerio in my life, but when Fred Meyer has a half-off sale on diet Pepsi (my one addiction) or Progresso soup for 99 cents a can, I come home with cases of the stuff. My wife has stopped even noticing.
Another favorite stop is a West Coast chain called Grocery Outlet. Once in a while you find a solid gold deal there on a frozen food item, and the big packages of sliced turkey breast are a steal — 28 ounces for about six bucks.
I hope that’s Original Cheerios, because otherwise it looks like you’re getting a lot of added sugar.
It is original Cheerios, a little over 1 gram of sugar per cup. I agree, the other variants of Cheerios are not that good for you.
Ken..enjoy your articles as you seem to take much delight in your thriftiness and your spreadsheets. You make it seem like fun. Remember the old Macys slogan…”It’s smart to be thrifty.”
Thanks Marjorie! When it stops being fun, I’ll stop doing it.
Oh Ken, you engineers and your spreadsheets. I got used to engineers using them to figure out a health plan, but Cheerios? OMG.
I’ve had three store apps for years. Got a free turkey for points at one, but my favorite is the one I use where I check out as I’m shopping, bag as I take off the shelf, scan my app at the self checkout and I’m out of there.
Give me a break, Dick lol. I don’t need a spreadsheet to figure out when Cheerios is a good deal. But without one, I wouldn’t have determined that our food costs were lower in 2022 than they were in 2017…and that’s a satisfying discovery.
Quicken reveals all…
And with that valuable knowledge you …. 🤓
Wow, even with 5 years of inflation built in. Impressive!
Love this! My husband and I rarely eat out–I enjoy cooking and I’m almost always disappointed by the quality of food at restaurants. My frugal side also hates paying for the ‘experience’ of eating out.
We have three grocery stores in our small retirement community. I stalk them all for discounts. Last night we went to the Safeway to buy almost a week’s worth of food. Everything was either on sale or was part of a digital coupon offer. The best deal was a prime rib roast for $5.97 a pound (with coupon). It will easily provide us with at least two dinners. I also got fresh and frozen vegetables, multiple varieties of cheese and a few other meats. The final bill came to $93 and our total savings was nearly $70.
Kristine-I’m impressed! Especially if your trip last night is a “typical” example.
Last night’s trip was a particularly good savings event for us. We did have one trip a few months ago where we saved more than what we spent.
We eat (mostly) a ‘no sugar, no grains’ diet. That means consuming meat, veggies and dairy. Unfortunately the most heavily discounted items in grocery stores are typically highly-processed foods and/or high-starch items. Finding good deals on wholesome foods can make saving money more difficult.
That said, it’s nice knowing that income-limited folks in our community can still eat reasonably well without spending a fortune. I noticed that during the week of Thanksgiving, two of our grocery stores were offering whole turkeys for less than 90 cents a pound and one store was selling a ten-pound bag of potatoes for 99 cents.
i assume neither of the two grocery stores mentioned are Aldi, Costco, Sams’s Club, or Walmart? (I say this because I don’t believe any of these have loyalty programs or regularly run these types of discount specials.)
In grocery, there is the traditional High-Low (HL) pricing model and the Every Day Low Price (EDLP) model. It sounds like Ken is frequenting the former, while I personally prefer the latter, if only because I am lazy and don’t like hunting for the deals.
The two local stores are Giant and Weis. They are both a mile or two away. Costco is a 20- 25 minute trip one way. We spend about as much at Costco as the other two combined.
Nice! I love Costco. Unfortunately there is not one local to where our family moved so we switched to Sam’s Club which is still pretty good.
Love Costco.
Rotisserie chicken $5 regular store $10
Bottled water $3.99/40 store $4.50/24
Pumpkin pie huge $6.99 store $10.99 1/2 the size
I appreciate the savings at Costco, however being single puts the savings under a different light. If membership costs $60.00 and I purchase 60 items over the year, I would add $1.00 to the cost of that huge pie! Not to mention my added tailor bill due to my increasing waistline by not allowing that extra pie go to waste! LOL!😂
Consider a Pur or Brita pitcher to replace some of your bottled water purchases