So far, I have been doing great with the no sound grocery budget. Last night I had a dinner meeting and the rest of the family ate out-- comes out of the entertainment budget. That doesn't happen often,
We generally eat at home.
I have been watching a lot of educational food hauls and couponing videos. A lot of coupon videos are obsolete; after the extreme couponing show, stores have tightened their coupon policies. I don't remember ever getting double or triple coupons in Washington state. A few years ago, Albertsons had coupons in the later for a double coupon-- like about three.
I did learn that thirteen percent of the average grocery haul is bottled drinks and snacks. Right off the top, eliminating the bottled drinks and snacks will save a lot. Besides being better for you,( most bottled drinks are full of sugar ) you can save a lot to replace them with iced herbal teas or water. Snacks are better if they are fruit, or vegetables with lean it butter or some hummus. Air
popped pop corn is a great snack. You have no oil and can control the salt and butter. An air popper is about 15.00 and will pay for itself in savings over microwave popcorn,
My 2015 grocery expense averaged 76.00 a week. That was during the Haggens failed attemp to take over the grocery market in the PNW. Options were lost, two companies dominated the grocery chains and there was not a lot of competition. Prices at Albertsons and Safeways were higher in my observation. It was ten miles to Winco. Looking at my records, my shopping switched from Safeways to Fred Meyers, Winco, and grocery outlet and sometimes QFC. Since the first of this year, I am spending 69 dollars a week most of the time. That is ten percent. If you add thirteen percent for not buying snacks and drinks on a regular basis, that's 23 percent, That's an easy turnaround for 1/4 savings.
We are averaging 1/2 of the USDA stats for thrifty cooking, ( USDA cost of food at home ) . The rest of the savings comes from couponing and not paying full price for your food. When something is a tremendous buy and it is not perishable, buy as many as you will use for a three month period or replenish what you have used in recent months. This is not about extreme couponing or hoarding. You need a self imposed stockpile level.
I generally keep six months. That is based on the fact that about September or so, I reach what is called the donut hole on my meds. That is when Medicare no longer pays for meds because I have reached their limit; the expense is on us. One of my meds is 530.00 a month. I can do better than putting the money on the bank by paying 1/2 for food. No bank is going to give me 50 percent interest on my money, This would also work for people that have seasonal work, or know there is a strike looming or a layoff. It is also just good to have a stockpile in case of an emergency-- anything from not feeling good, or having a sick child and not being able to get to the store, or something as dramatic as when we had the main road that truckers used to get product to the grocery stores flood and the grocery stores weren't getting product. Most stores these days do not carry a big inventory in the back. It is not cost effective for them. That makes it more valuable for you to carry yours.
Grocery shopping for a weeks groceries at a time is playing with fire. You have to go to the store for anything you forgot. The more times you go for one thing, the more you are going to spend. Grocery stores have studied the 'normal ' spending habits of shoppers. They have ways to trick you into buying more than you intend, Going to the store with a definite mindset to get what's on your list and get out is your best defense. Going to more than one store and buying the specials, preferable with a coupon and buying in bulk is you best way to lower your food bill dramatically. Impulse buys account for 70 percent of the stores profit. The glitch is that you have to know your family's eating habits and not overbuy.
No food is a bargain if you feed it to the garbage disposal.
One of the tricks the retailers use is to put a whole lot of garbage ( sugar, snacks etc ) right as you walk in the door. This is to get you started putting things in your cart. Another thing they do is put the high priced thing up front so you remember that you need it and put it on your cart right away. After you put the high-priced product on your cart, you are not likely to replace it with the cheaper alternative when you find it. That is when knowing your prices and who has the lowest prices on certain staple items really pays off.
Grocery shopping on the cheap is not going to the store and buying anything that looks good to you when you're hungry: rather, it is an educated planned, grocery trip. The reward is saving 1/2 on your groceries. You can eat healthier and spend less.
My next journey is to eliminate as much salt, sugar, and fat- especially hydrogenated oils in our diet . I already do some, I want to do more. And find ways to scratch cook a little more to make things cheaper and also healthier. But, I want to do efficiently. I am not about standing in front of a stove all day. lol.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the Put Dinner On The Table meal train from a different
perspective . The emphasis is on purchasing good food( shelf- stabll/ freezer staples )at the lowest possible cost and purchasing enough to last you until it goes on sale again -- Keeping a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a regular basis. It means that when you shop, rather than purchasing just what you need for a day or a week, you buy a loss leader protein, produce you will
need on sale, a stock item if it's a RBP, and dairy instead. This allows you to put well balanced meals
on the table consistently for a four dollar a day budget per person. You spend more time on the
planning and shopping end of the meal train and less on the cooking end by cooking efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on four dollars a day, spending more isn't hard. You still get more bang for your buck.
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