What are some ways you stretch your grocery dollars?

[cabinqueen]

I think I'm spending too much on (food) groceries. What are some ways you guys you stretch your grocery money? I've started buying meats and seasonal produce when it's on sale, but I still need some help with other ideas. Please help me get more or go farther with my money! Any advice would be appreciated.

[Jen in Chicago]

Few things I do, and I am no expert!

Costco for meats (fresh and frozen- and deli) and fish, and milk. We almost always have a big bag of fresh spinach on hand for cooked spinach or spinach salad (spinach, blue cheese, hearts of palm, dried cranberries and raspberry vinegarette (sp)) Our other staples from here: dried cranberries, blue cheese, turkey lunchmeat, sandwich rolls, frozen turkey burgers, and chicken broth.

Shop the flyers (Wednesday newspapers here in Chicago)- I go to the store after reading the flyer. My goal is to have less than a handful of items that are not on sale. Our grocery totals up your savings on the receipt. I love seeing I saved $20 on my bill! I often by what is on sale, rather than a specific brand. I have 2 major chains close to me. I will do all of my shopping at the store with the most items on sale that I need.

Trader Joe's- great prices (often beat the sale prices at the normal stores I have found) and great quality. Due to a lack of cooking time I have bought a number of their prepared frozen items and have not been disappointed.

Coupons- When I have time I'll clip, file and use. I am not good about this.

On occassion- I will go to our local Fruit and Vegetable market since they have the best prices on produce.

I don't send DH to the store unless I have too. He will spend more than I and is not as thrifty as I can be.

[LucyG]

I plan out our menus for the entire month, and then limit myself to two big grocery trips a month. I only go to pick up milk, produce, etc. at other times. This has helped us cut down on our expenses, as I am less likely to spend money if I don't go to the store as often!

Also, I actually looked through all of our cabinets and discovered that we had a lot of food (canned goods, staples, etc.) that I didn't know about. I had been buying green beans just on general principle, but I found that we had about 5 cans stuck up on a high shelf! So, I am making a conscious effort to use up what we have before buying more. It sounds simple, but it is saving some money.

[McQ]

A couple weeks ago I actually cooked a pork roast and I had leftovers coming out of my ears. First we ate from the roast. Then I made a couple of different kinds of BBQ out of some of it (even had so much I froze some of it). Then I made 2 dinners of pork enchiladas. All in all I think we had 7 dinners and 2 lunches.

The roast was on sale and I think I paid $8 for it. I was tired of having pork but amazed of how many ways I could serve it and it not taste the same.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03

[starrynight]

I use coupons, stock up on non perishable staples (cereal, canned goods etc) when they are on sale and I always try and use a coupon for an item that is also on sale to save more. I almost always buy meat in bulk at sam's club and I have a foodsaver and breakdown the big packs to smaller one meal packages. I also have a deep freezer which was a big cost at first but really saves me now because I can stock up on sales of frozen stuff because I have the room for it.

[missym]

If you eat a decent amount of red meat and have a box freezer, call local butchers and see if any of them sell packages of the cuts you eat most. Sometimes they only sell sides or half-sides of beef, but some also do a variety of packages. One butcher shop here even guarantees the meat against freezer burn for 10 years! It's a big chunk of money at the outset, but the cost works out to be significantly less than buying in the grocery store.

I also shop the circulars and love double coupons! Most grocery stores will price match their competitors ads, as well.

Missy, mom to Gwen 03/03

[dogmom]

I love to cook and I want to cook healthy, which can be a challange and save money. I went to several places and finally found the best prices for good produce was at a local farm stand that has morphed into a grocery store. I developed a set of recipes that have limited, fresh ingrediants that I can usually find cheap. (greens and the such) My black beans and rice recipe is under $1. Add greens, another $1.

Some things I really like aren't cheap generally, like risotto, so I have learned to find it on sale and buy up as much as I can. I bought a rice cooker which has greatly increased the amount of rice I make, which is cheap, cheap, cheap. I like to go shopping at the big asian grocery store in Boston 4x a year and get all my rice, soy sauce, etc. there cheap. I have yet to manage the whole plan the meal out ahead of time thing, but I do plan the weeks meal in my head when I go to the grocery store since I find stuff on sale that I wasn't expecting. Since I don't buy a lot of prepared stuff I haven't found warehouse clubs to be cost effective for me yet. Having said all that, I probably have what most people would assume is an obnoxious grocery bill because I try really hard to buy locally raised poultry, meat, produce, etc. But I know it runs cheaper than friend I have that do all their shopping at whole foods and the like.


Jeanne
Mom to Harvey
1/16/03

[lisams]

Here are some things we do:

Buy our produce at the Farmer's market

Stock up and freeze things when there's a great sale - cheese, meat, butter, strawberries, etc.

Only use a coupon if it's a product we would normally buy. Even then with the coupon, sometimes the generic brand is cheaper.

Make menus for the week from the weekly grocery ad. Then double the recipe and freeze half for a lazy day.

I have found that sales at the grocery store are sometimes better deals than at Costco, you just have to wait for the sale to come.

We never buy cleaning, paper products/diapers, and hygiene products from the grocery store - it's way overpriced there unless it's a great sale. We get these things at Target.

Use vinegar and baking soda for cleaning (it's very cheap at Costco)-it's cheaper and healthier.

Buy in bulk for seasonal sales. This is a GREAT time of year to stock up on baking needs (flour, vegetable oil, sugar, shortening, chocolate chips, etc). You'll get the best deals from now until about late December. If stored properly they can last you the year.

Look at packaging sizes and convienance items. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a block of cheese and shred it yourself than to buy the shredded cheese in a bag. Same with salads in a bag. It may be cheaper to buy a head of lettuce and a bundle of greens and then when you have time make a big salad out of it and keep it in a big ziplock bag.

Hope these help!
Lisa

[jd11365]

We buy our meats from Sams and do our grocery shopping at Walmart Supercenter. They always have the least expensive food items in comparison to large stores of the like. Some "nicer" products I buy at Publix because Walmart seems to have a lot more of the basics and less of gourmet items that I might like.


Jamie :-)
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[hez]

>I don't send DH to the store unless I have too. He will
>spend more than I and is not as thrifty as I can be.

That's my #1 way to save money. :) DH won't buy generic anything, and I grew up on generic everything.

I'm starting to get better at coupons. The local paper just ran a promo to get the full week for $1 a week for 26 weeks-- all I really wanted was the Sunday ads/coupons, so it's great. We just bought a deep freeze, so we can stock up on frozen foods & meat that's on sale. Growing up, our family would split 1/2 a cow (so we'd get a quarter of one) with another family, and that would put us in beef for a year, for not too much $$.

Good luck!

[Momof3Labs]

The biggest change we made was to stop buying at the big chains - here, Jewel and Dominicks - and start shopping at a large store about 20 minutes north of us (Wisconsinites might recognize the name - Woodman's) that doesn't advertise much, and doesn't do a lot of sales, but has a better selection and MUCH lower prices everyday on almost everything we buy.

So, in summary, shop around and think outside of the box - you may find much cheaper groceries where you least expect them!

[lizajane]

i carry my coupons in my wallet. when something goes on sale, i whip out my coupon- and get it doubled at kroger. if it isn't on sale, i don't buy it. of course, i buy milk, eggs, etc when we need it. i don't wait for staples to go on sale! but i do buy the brand of OJ on sale every week. and i rotate the "side dishes" based on what is on sale when i have a coupon- like uncle ben's rice pilaf, for example.

[August Mom]

I shop the sale flyers, cut coupons, shop with my coupons where they are doubled, shop more than one store to get the best price, buy our most used spices and staples at Sam's Club when available, don't send DH and try to stick to my list. I don't always buy meat at Sam's Club. I have found that a lot of times I can get better prices when the item is on sale at a grocery store. It just depends. Also, when meat is on sale, I tend to buy a lot of it and then freeze it for later use. I do this with chicken breasts a lot. I buy them, trim them and individually wrap them. Then, when I feel like chicken, I can just remove however many I need and defrost them. I do buy frozen fish at Sam's as well. For spices that I use a lot of (cumin, chili powder, oregano, basil and pepper come to mind) I have found that Sam's Club has great prices. Also, try to avoid snack/junk foods when you are at the grocery. Those bagged/boxed snacks really add up.

HTH

[flagger]

We make a menu weekly and shop for items as needed for the menu. We post these along with a couple of other members at our own website. (Hint Hint small plug) ;)

We buy our ground meat at Sam's Club. As well as shredded cheese, velveeta and a few other things.

We shop mostly at the Super Wal-mart and at Bi-Lo. A woman I mall walk with told me about a place called Aldi. Going to go check it out one day soon.

As for going on the list, we are pretty good, however I saw something we have been looking for each time we shop that was not on the list, but I know we will cook it, so I bought it.

I mostly do all the shopping on Friday mornings as the weekends are a madhouse around here.

When we do a steak, I buy a good cut at a place called the Fresh Market.

[hwin708]

We have a place here called Suda Salvage, where they sell the things that grocery stores can't for much cheaper. By this I don't mean expired milk, but rather things with dented cans or bent boxes. You may want to look around for somethings like that near you.
Also, you might want to look over at these message boards:
http://www.dealideal.com/DealsHome.asp
You have to create a user name and password to look at the forums. They have one devoted to couponing, and I swear, these people are pros. We're talking the $200 worth of groceries for $20. Pros.
They offer up some great tips (though, I must warn you, one of their big things (coupon decoding) is not entirely on the up and up - just ignore this and focus on their other great tips).
HTH!

[Bethann31]

My dad worked for Kroger when I was growing up, and I love most all of their Kroger brand products. That said, I don't have one around me right now, but I keep hearing rumors that they are building one fairly close.

I also live in the Poultry Processing Capital of the World. Yes, it really is that corny, but.. one of the local Chicken processing plants, Fieldale Farms, which provides chicken to many of the restaurant chains, holds a dock sale about once every 3 months, with proceeds going to the United Way, usually. Prices are great, and we really stocked up the last time. We bought 110 lbs. of chicken for $125. This is all boneless white meat, some cooked, some uncooked, some breaded, some not breaded, some marinated, some plain. It is so nice to be able to just come home and throw together a very tasty chicken dinner.

If you are near NE GA, let me know and I will let you in on the next big sale.

Beth
mom to 3 (13, 11 and 8) and then 1 more (06/04/03)

[cilantromapuche]

what is your black beans and rice recipe?
TIA

[dogmom]

If you like spices you may want to check out Penzey's. They're a "gourmet" place I guess, but you can buy any of the spices they have in volume and they are really excellent quality. If you buy in bulk the prices are very reasonable for great spices. 4 oz of whole cumin (which is a big bag) runs $3 and is about twice what you get in a jar for more money in most stores. I get all my whole spices there is bulk. I am also addicted to the different salad dressings mixes they have. You take a tablespoon of the dressing spice mix, add some water, let it sit for a minute then add vinegar, oil, yogurt whatever depending on the mix. You can buy that in bulk also. They also have recipes on their web site if for no other reason go visit it.

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html

This is the recipe for a double batch of black beans and rice that someone asked for (sorry hit the reply without looking at the name)

2 cans of black beans, undrained
1 chopped medium onion
1/2 chopped green pepper, chopped fairly small
4 cloves garlic
2 Tbl white vinegar
2 Tbl of oregano (mexican if you can get it)
1-2 tsp of ground cumin (depends how much you like cumin)
2 tsp of anchero pepper (optional)
1 cup of water
olive oil

Saute onions and peppers in olive oil. Add the black beans, vinegar, water and seasoning. Bring to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes on low. Add water if needed. Serve on white rice. Sometimes I add some meat, like chicken sausage or such. It is my no brainer meal. I always make sure I have two cans of black beans in the pantry. While I'm cooking the black beans I have the rice maker going on the rice, so I can do the whole thing in under 25 minutes.


Jeanne
Mom to Harvey
1/16/03