Comments on: How Do You Grocery Shop? What Works For You?

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:51:40 +0000

I appreciate the post and all the comments! Since I’ve only been married 2 weeks, and back from our honeymoon for one, I’m learning about all this! We only have one vehicle, and I don’t know my way around yet, so the last two Saturdays, we’ve gone grocery shopping together on Saturday morning. I’s fun. I love being married!

By: Faith

Faith — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:38:48 +0000

I do weekly or every 10 days grocery shopping. We live about 10 miles from the nearest grocery stores. Our family only has one car. I make my weekly plan for visiting and errands and appointments. The day we go into town is a full day. We drop my husband off at work and do everything we do between 8 & 5. I do grocery shopping last, and take a cooler. The other thing I have been doing for the last 6 months or so, is ordering from a co-op. I get flour, oatmeal, dried fruits, nuts, frozen goods and various other things once a month.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:46:25 +0000

Karen, we are checking into doing some of our supplies through a store like office max or staples and having them delivered. I am going to compare prices and see. In the past the office stores have been more expensive on the items we buy on a regular basis. So, I have only bought the things there that I can’t get at Sam’s.I am hoping though that we can start doing some supplies that way.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:05:45 +0000

Can you cut out/reduce office suppliy shopping by having OfficeMax/Staples deliver? We used to get everything delivered for free or a $5 fee. Both stores also have rewards programs.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere and we shopped less than once a month. There were lots of potatoes and frozen veggies but I never felt any deprivation. I think the key is a monthly menu plan and not getting hung up on “if I just had fresh basil/mushrooms/whatever”

Keep us posted on your plans!

By: Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman

Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:05:23 +0000

I may be leaving an area with several really good stores to return to my small hometown with one Walmart Superstore and one small regional chain grocery store. The closest good shopping area is 50 miles away. I plan to try to monthly shopping, as well–hitting Sam’s and whatever store there has good sales that week, then filling in with the local store. Our small regional chain does have some good sales, I’ll take advantage of those, but it’s definitely going to be more of a challenge to stay “frugal” in a small town.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:26:41 +0000

I like to have a really well stocked pantry. Like Rebecca, I’ll buy large quantities of staples when they’re on sale. I still go grocery shopping about once a week for perishables. But, if finances are tight, or I don’t have time to shop, I can eat out of my pantry and freezer for a long time!

By: Audrey

Audrey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:24:02 +0000

I do a big trip to Costco once a month and stock up on foods in bulk. Most I get for less then at the regular stores, even when it’s on sale. I even find some months I still have plenty of food left that I can skip a trip. I did invest in a vacuum sealer, but I feel it has already paid for itself. It’s about 20 minutes away, but we make an evening of it and eat dinner from their little food court. Even that is cheap! I do go occasionally to another grocery store near by for things I can’t get at Costco. Try checking Walgreens, CVS, or Target for milk. It’s $1.99 for us at the grocery store, and also at some of the other stores as well.

By: angie

angie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:02:13 +0000

grocery shopping I agree takes a bit of time and is a chore all by itself

By: staci @ teaching money to kids

staci @ teaching money to kids — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:22:56 +0000

I think that you will find that you actually will save money, by going only once a month. Although I have heard a rumor that some markets rotate what is on sale monthly, so you would do good to not shop the same week every month (like certain brands are on sale the first week, something else the second week, etc.) So if you were able to really stock u pon things that were on sale, and then only buy what you need for things that aren’t on sale, you would still get the benefit.
We often just get our produce and things locally, for the same reason as you. It isn’t that much more, they still often have something on sale, we save a bit of gas, but we have to be careful to ONLY buy those few things.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:46:29 +0000

I have several grocery stores close to me, though I shop at the ones farther away (unless its one or two small items).

We started shopping the sales a year or so ago, so most of the time when we go to the store the collection of things we get are rather random (10 boxes of pasta, produce, 15 lbs of x meat, milk, 6 boxes of cereal). We end up buying many food every 3 or so months. For the first few months shopping that way was more expensive, but its actually less expensive because we can buy pasta when its 50 cents a pound, and meat at half price, etc. now.

We pretty much follow the idea that a well stocked pantry is ideal, and sometimes we will even go a few weeks without buying anything except milk and produce if the sales aren’t very good. (I look up all the sales flyers online before I plan shopping for the week)