Saving Money on Groceries – the Price Book- Part III

I add items to my price book gradually. Say this week I’m thinking to buy canned pumpkin. Well I don’t buy that often so it may not be in my book. If I don’t need it right away, the next time I’m at a store I’ll just enter the price into my book and pass it up, and check out other stores as I find myself at them. I only enter a new line for an item when there is a new price to beat, but I always want to know where I can get the lowest regular price, too, in case it’s not on sale when I want it. One store might have the lowest everyday price, but another might have the lowest price when it’s in season and on sale. But typically, I’ll only have one or two entries for each item. When a regular price goes up, I erase the old price and correct it.

After I come home from a grocery shopping trip it’s a good time to spend 5 minutes writing down any new items. For some items, like fresh green beans or canned peas or chicken, your grocery tape may not say the price per pound or list the weight at all, so these in particular you want to catch after your shopping trip and before you discard the information on your food package.

I know everyone thinks they know the cheapest place to get your food, but trust me — you don’t! If you keep a price book and go to all the places in your area, you’ll start to see that you can save an awful lot! Like the white flour I used in the example that I usually purchase for $1; the two regular grocery stores in my town will occasionally have sales, usually before the holidays, but the regular price for white flour is about $2.79. That’s a high price to pay for the convenience of one-stop shopping when I can go to the dollar store once a month and get many items more cheaply there. One trip to buy flour and I save $1.79. It probably costs me less than a quarter in gas to drive there.

Using a price book doesn’t mean you have to always buy the cheapest generic item. Buy generic when it doesn’t matter to you so that you can splurge where it does matter and still have a low grocery budget. I know I can get a pound of coffee for under $3, but I really like the $6-10 a pound coffee! I’ll gladly eat generic pasta, tomato paste, beans, tuna fish, peanut butter, etc. to afford my better coffee, but luckily I can do all this, have my coffee, and still purchase all my groceries for about half the national average.

 

Saving Money on Groceries – the Price Book- Part 2

So for example, here are some entries in my price book, each entered under the appropriate page so that I can find it quickly:

lemons F 3/1.00 R
white flour D 5# 1.00 R
laundry detergent D 40 load 2.75 R

So in other words, I purchased 3 lemons at the flea market for a dollar, a 5# bag of white flour at a dollar store, and also at the dollar store a large jug of laundry detergent that will do 40 loads for $2.75. All these items I got at regular price.

So now that I have these entries, if I go to Sparks Supermarket and I see lemons on sale with a huge special sign at 1.99 for 3, I’m not fooled even though they are marketing it as if this “low” price is indeed unusual. I’ve got my handy book to tell me “the price to beat.” But if I go over to Cost-Less and I see they have laundry detergent that will do 40 loads and it’s $2.50, then I will write a new line right under the other laundry line like so:

laundry det D 40 load 2.75 R
laundry det C 40 load 2.50 R

So do I run all over creation to save a quarter? No. But it doesn’t work that way.
First start keeping your book and be sure to check out every store, stand, co-op, etc. within a comfortable drive of your home and on your way to work or any other route you regularly take for other reasons. The plan is, the place that is the best overall for fresh food prices, you will go to every week. The others stores you will rotate and visit one every week. So pretty much you only have to go to two stores a week, but you might be shopping for different items at five stores over the course of the month. Follow?

I prevent confusion when I shop by keeping separate shopping lists for the different stores. When I need to put an item on my shopping list, I look it up in my price book, and then, say it’s lemons, that would go on the flea market shopping list, while the flour and laundry soap would go on the dollar store list. Without much trouble you’ll get the knack of putting staples like flour on the shopping list before you start running low.

 

Saving Money on Groceries – the Price Book- Part 1

The most useful tool I’ve found for reducing my grocery costs is to keep a “price book.” I first heard about the idea from Amy Dacyzn (pronounced “decision”), author of the Tightwad Gazette. She went from rags to riches (she has 6 kids, too!) by being a tightwad. So no, she’s not writing her gazette anymore, she’s probably getting a professional massage or is in the hot tub (I would hope), but the newsletters were compiled and released into three books and you can probably find them at your library. They are also now in one volume called, The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

Anyway, the price book was invaluable, and it is something you make yourself and it’s FREE! I found I only need about 20 pieces of paper in a small notebook. It has to be small because I want it to fit in my purse so that I always have it with me.

You can organize yours any way that makes sense to you, but I wrote at the tops of my pages:

Notes (This is where I write the key to my shorthand abbreviations, how many cups of flour are in a 5 pound bag, etc.)

Beans
Beverages
Dairy
Fruit
Grains
Herbs & Spices
Meat & Fish
Nuts
Oils, Butter, etc.
Vegetables
Misc.
Cleaners (& shampoo, etc.)
Paper and Plastic Products (& foil, tampons, etc)

So to start, set up your book at home and pull out any grocery tapes you have. This will only take you half an hour at most. It will take you a few weeks to get your price book rolling, but then after that it will be a lot less work, and it’s really not a lot of work to begin with.

For each item you typically buy, you want to write in pencil on a horizontal line in your book:

Item / a letter code for the store you buy it at / the weight, amount or volume / price / and then I like to add a one letter code, R for regular price, S for sale price and C for clearance price, and actually it’s also not a bad idea to put the date if you have room on your page.

 

Saving Money with Grocery Coupons

You know what is on the spotlight nowadays? Why, its grocery coupons to print? Even Oprah Winfrey can speak good things and good opportunities about free grocery coupons on her site. This is because coupons are real money savers and they have been really helpful in fighting the rising costs of grocery items. So, take this piece of advice, start checking out the printable grocery coupons that you can use next time you go shopping for your food supplies and other grocery needs.

Why Coupons for Groceries?

You probably ignore the idea first. However, you will be amazed that by doing certain strategies in collecting and availing the value of coupons you will cut the costs of your grocery bill. To get started with your ultimate guide in shopping using your free grocery coupons, learn to plan your meals and include on your shopping lists the items that are featured on your coupons. To have a good guide, you can get some fliers from the nearest grocery store that will serve as your basis in completing your grocery list.

You have to be very particular with the brands on sale, too. Try to be flexible with the items you want to purchase and this can be done by careful planning. A detailed plan is a must because if you just hit the supermarket out of whim it will totally ruin your plan and get frustrated. Take note, with grocery coupons and other fre coupons on your hands, you can also fight back impulse buying. Also try restaurant coupons e.g. Domino’s and Pizza Hut coupons to save money while you eat.

Consumers nowadays are becoming smart and you are lucky to become one of them. You have discovered that you can have as many printable grocery coupons and use it to make various purchases. The internet has a long list of sites that provide free grocery coupons apart from the ones you get from your newspapers and magazines.

Pritable Grocery Store Coupons Yield Profits

Collecting coupons to save money is not just about cutting out coupons from your newspaper. It is about being disciplined and living a frugal lifestyle during these times of economic difficulties. There are more coupons out there that you need to grab for your own benefits. Not only will you save a lot of money but you can also make it as your source of extra income. Yes, after enjoying the lower costs of your bills and flowing supplies of grocery items, it is time to become business-minded. You are aware that you don’t actually need a huge sum of capital to start a business because you already saved enough with your coupons. So be frugal and find some nice grocery coupons to print.

There is no doubt that having grocery coupons in your possession is already one way to reduce your bills and cut off your expenses whenever you do your shopping. Stores in your areas would give you more good deals by presenting to them the coupons you have gathered and enjoy as much as 30%-70% off from your bill. It is only a huge bonus to use your coupons in starting a small business that can possibly turn into a lucrative one.

Saving Money on Groceries

These days everything seems more expensive.  Add inflated prices for consumer goods to the growing unemployment rate and what you have is a lot of people trying to save money any way they can.  Certain expenses we can easily cut from our budgets, but food is not one of them.  We have to eat, but there are some ways to cut your grocery bill and save money.

You’ve probably heard this before but never go shopping on an empty stomach.  When you are hungry nearly everything looks good and you are much more likely to fill up your cart on items that are unnecessary.  If you shop after eating, you will be less tempted to add that costly junk food and snacks to your grocery purchase.

Make a list before going to the store and stick to it.  You receive flyers throughout the week.  As you find something that is on sale that you need, add it to your list.  Making a list also helps you to plan your meals.  This can save you money because you will only buy what you need for the current week’s meals and will avoid waste.

The more unprocessed the food is the less it will likely cost.  Pre packaged food is convenient but you will pay for that convenience.  Besides, it is much less healthy than food you prepare yourself.  Often bulk items cost less than individually packed ones, but be sure to compare the per unit price since this is not always true.

Local markets can often save you money on fruit and vegetables.  Local farmers prefer to sell their wares directly to the consumer rather than getting ripped off by a big food company or grocery store chain.  They pass the savings on to you and everyone wins.  Also avoid buying produce that is out of season for your area, otherwise you will be paying to offset the cost of high transportation fees.

Cut fast food totally out of your budget.  Besides slowly killing you, it is a rip off.  Though chains like Subway may claim to be healthy, that $8 sandwich can easily be made better at home for just a couple of bucks.  Plan ahead and you can save a lot of cash and help your health.

Try to buy generic whenever possible.  For most things, they are the exact same product.  If you detect a noticeable difference then you can switch back to your old brand.  If not, then you just found another way to save money.  Don’t be a name brand snob when it comes to food (or anything else).

Don’t forget to check the internet for manufacturer’s coupons.  There are thousands and these can save several hundreds of dollars over the course of the year.  As with many things, saving money on your grocery bill is a matter of planning.