The Grocery Shopping Update

I had intended to get to this yesterday, but life got in the way, and I didn’t have time to write a whole post. If you were waiting for my shopping trip update, it’s finally here!

First, my strategy. I made a month’s worth of menus, and then made a grocery list for Winco, the cheap grocery store in my area, based on the menus. My list for this week included everything non-perishable for the month. I also started lists for the next few weeks with all the produce I’ll need to complete the meals in the coming weeks.

Then I pulled out the Grocery Game list and began making my list for Albertson’s. Albertson’s has much better sales and coupon policies than Winco, so that’s where I get the real deals. I listed things I knew I would get, like 66 cent boxes of cereal, as well as things I thought I might get, like $1 jars of salsa.

For several items, such as the salsa, I didn’t know whether the Albertson’s sale price was cheaper than the Winco regular price or not. So I wrote the Albertson’s price next to the item on my Winco shopping list.

Then I went shopping. I put a big cooler in my car, because I was going to hit two stores. I went to Winco first and did the bulk of my shopping. It really helped to have the Albertson’s prices right on my grocery list. I needed butter. Albertson’s had it on sale for $2.50. At Winco it was $1.99, so I picked it up. When I checked the price for the salsa, Winco’s cheapest price was $2.29. I knew I should stock up at Albertson’s for a dollar a jar.

When all was said and done at Winco, I spent $125.16. That’s MUCH less than I thought it would be, since I’ve been spending $100 a week, and this was the bulk of my shopping for 4 weeks.

With a skip in my step, I loaded up the car, carefully putting the cold foods in the cooler, and headed off to Albertson’s. I got some really good deals there. I picked up:

• 6 boxes of cereal
• 2 boxes of instant coffee (I use it for baking)
• 1 bottle of red wine vinegar
• 2 bags of tortilla chips
• 2 cartons of half & half
• 1 big canister of Folgers coffee
• 5 jars of salsa
• 1 deoderant
• 2 -20 oz packages of ground turkey
• 3 bags of shredded cheese

The total before preferred savings and coupons? $100.15. What I paid? 33.16. Yes, I saved over $66. The cashier was impressed.

Here’s the breakdown of the grocery budget so far this month:

• $10 for an 8 week subscription to the grocery game. That paid for itself in one shopping trip this week.
• $18.64 spent over the weekend for stuff we needed. Not a great deal, because we spent the money at our local small-town store, and it’s way more expensive than the bigger city stores. Still, we’re supporting local business, so it’s not all bad.
• $125.16 at Winco
• $33.16 at Albertson’s

That’s a total of $186.96 spent so far out of our grocery budget. I have $213.04 left to buy perishables and stock up over the next three weeks! Not bad at all!

So I hereby declare the first week of my new shopping strategy a huge success! My next step is to start the price book. I will try to get to that today or tomorrow. In time I hope I can skip the step of writing down the Albertson’s sales price on my grocery list. I will let you know when I come up with a pricebook strategy that works for me!

If you’re interested in joining the grocery game, consider using my email as a referral:  beingfrugal at gmail dot com.  Thanks!