Comments on: November Reduce-a-Bill Challenge – The Grocery Bill, Part 2

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:59:45 +0000

@Kathy – that’s a great idea. We don’t have a freezer yet, but I’m trying to figure out how to fit one into our house. We need to get rid of the piano first. Unfortunately we don’t have a garage to put one in. I know I could take better advantage of deals if I had more freezer space.

By: kathy

kathy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:07:30 +0000

After several years looking for a solution for our simple tastes and trying to keep the food budget under control we purchased a 7cf chest freezer (more energy efficient than the uprights) and started shopping at Sam’s Club. I buy meats that are reduced with a soon to expire “sell before” date, separate into single meal packages and freeze. I also do this with dry goods that are freezable (spices, coffee, sugar, flour, berries, etc.).

I keep a food price log for 3 stores; Sam’s, Wal-Mart and our local supermarket. I always check the sales prices at our local supermarkets to be sure Sam’s is the better price–it isn’t always.

By: Kandy

Kandy — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:05:16 +0000

I never thought about a price book…great tip Rob :)

By: Month of Menu Planning | beingfrugal.net

Month of Menu Planning | beingfrugal.net — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:38:49 +0000

[...] I posted last week, I’m taking a different strategy to reducing my grocery bill this month. I made out a menu plan for the entire month, and I will be doing the bulk of my [...]

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:14:37 +0000

Thanks, Rob. I’m going shopping tomorrow, so I will take a pen and paper with me and start writing things down!

By: Rob in Madrid

Rob in Madrid — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:52:59 +0000

Hi Lynnae

I know what you mean about price inflation, good lord, everythings gone up. Somethings like cereal by 5 or 10 cents, other like my favourite coffee took a 50% hike (from 1.06 to 1.62) than went onsale this week at the old price.

a price book at it’s simplist is a shopping list with prices. Very simple and surprisingly quite effective. Simple make a list of 30 or so most common things you buy and note the prices when you go shopping.

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:08:35 +0000

@Rob- Thanks for the info. I’m definitely going to try to get a price book started this month. Though I’m not sure I want to notice food inflation anymore than I’m already noticing it! :) I know which store around here is less expensive most of the time, but sometimes other stores have sales that beat the “cheap” store, and I’m not always sure. It would be nice to have a reference point like a pricebook.

And I do the same thing with the store brands. I buy a lot of store brands, too. Most of the time there’s not a big difference.

By: Rob in Madrid

Rob in Madrid — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:17:48 +0000

I use excel to keep track of my bills so I simply added a tab where I keep a shopping list. I shop mainly at two stores (Carrefour and Plus a German discount chain) so I’ve got a list of things I buy at each store. It takes a bit of work to write the prices down the first few times. I found that I tended to the same things each week. The hardest part is remembering to take a pen and paper to update the prices. You’d also be surprised at the price spread between stores. For example a pineapple at Carrefour runs almost 5€ where as a slightly smaller one (but just as good) is usually less than 2€. Quite a savings. One that I wouldn’t have been aware of before having a price book. I’ve been using a price book for a while now and can usually shop off the top of my head. Occationally I’ll print off my list to see how close I can come to predicting my spending, usually within a euro or two.

One other trick I learned is to take things I buy regularly (anything from toleit paper to jogurt) and by the cheapest no name product and work my way up the foodchain unitll I find one I like. About 75% of the products I buy are store brands, the rest are brandnames. There is a bit of waste, I threw out alot of yorgurt unitll I found one I like. Recently I found a store brand that I really liked, less than half the cost of the brand name one I used to buy.

The other advantage to a price book is less waste. You tend to buy things you’ll use. As well you can plan out purchases. I may leave some stocking up if it’s a large shopping week.

The only real negative to a price book is you really really notice price hikes. Food inflation really takes on a new meaning when your aware of prices.

By: Lynnae

Lynnae — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:53:09 +0000

@Rob – Thanks for your comment. I completely agree that she’s probably not able to keep her grocery bill under $200 these days. And I don’t have a freezer, so buying a side of beef is completely out for me. But I do like her strategy. I think she provides a good basis for making a shopping plan that you can customize to meet your own needs.

And thanks for bringing up the price book. I haven’t done that yet, and I’d love to. Do you have any advice? How do you maintain yours? Excel Spreadsheet?

By: Rob in Madrid

Rob in Madrid — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:45:15 +0000

I read the shopping book, some of her ideas were quite good but with food inflation heating up again I don’t think she’ll be spending under 200 amonth for much longer. Her idea of setting aside 30 a month 360 a year for meat is a good one, as you can buy a side of beef. Although we were first married we bought a side of beef but never ate it so we gave away. The biggest surprise was that she doens’t advicate using a price book. A price book is in my opinion the courner stone to furgal shopping budget. It won’t save you a ton of money (10-15% is about right) but it will make you a far more exfective shopper (even if you wince at every price increase) I find that I spend between 70 and 80 eruos a weeke on shopping while a small drop from before I find I get much better value for the money than I did before.

One thing I have noticed is that those who spend very little on food (like the forementioned lady who spends less than 200 a month on food) are very good at cutting courners on cooking. Let give me yoiu an example a recepe I picked up from a friend. Compare the ingrededanits list. the first is from someone who spends much less than me on food and feeds a family of 4 (vs just the wife and I)

The food strecher way
Chick Peas 3 jars
tomatoe frio 1 tin
2 slices bacon
half a Chirico

Mine
chick peas 3 jars
tomato frio 3 jars
diced tomatoes 1 tin
2 packs bacon
2 chirico (Spanish sausage)
Snow peas (or beans not sure what they are)

As you can see my shopping bill is higher because I love to stuff my food full. But inspite of that I’ve manage to cut down my shopping budget quite a bit.