 |
| Yes, that is the exact pleasantly relaxed smile I express when deciding which bagels are the best value. |
The original title for this post was, "Learning to Grocery Shop", but because of my amateur status in buying groceries, I figured there would be plenty of posts in the future as I learn this art.
Since my husband and I are on a strict budget (or attempting it), cutting on groceries is HUGE. Luckily, the family I work for is an amazing model for how to be modest and smart with food shopping without eating rice and beans every night. Still... this is a struggle for me.
I am not sure I understand how people save monumental amounts with coupons because most of them are either for things I don't buy or are for name brands in which the generic is still cheaper. Though my determination for figuring out this money saving trick has not yet faltered!
My other issue is the amount of time it takes me to grocery shop. I am often the annoying customer asking employees where very obviously placed food items are located because I cannot find them. This is followed up by me jogging through the store with my big, loaded-down cart apologizing to everyone because I need to get home soon. I also like to examine the price per ounce for everything... it is kind of embarrassing how long it takes me to make it around the store (alright, about 3 times around the store).
One win in grocery shopping I experienced this past week occurred at Kroger with their "Buy 10, Save 5" sale. In my first shopping rendezvous, I carefully planned which items from this sale were a good deal and how many of each to get. I felt successful, but once arriving home realized how big of a deal this was! Pasta seriously was $0.47 for a box and the Kroger brand is normally $1.00. At this, I jumped back in my car the next day and bought 10 boxes of varieties of pasta and saved us a lot of money on pasta for probably the next 6 months or longer. I picked up a couple other things I forgot, but saved 61%!
For us, we want to have the flexibility to be generous and a blessing to people. At the same time, I very much value eating well and taking care of our bodies. By learning how to save money on groceries while not sacrificing our health, I hope to allow our family to give more freely.
This is definitely an adventure and a whole new territory for me. And please, by all means, if you have any insight into this, tell me what you know :)
More to come!
Let's go krogering together!!
ReplyDeleteYes please! I would be better behaved in the store if you were with me :) plus it would feel like we were hanging out and not a chore!
Deletecheck out this website http://savingslifestyle.com/
Deleteit will tell you the specific deals each store is having and how to match coupons up to the deals to save the most money. good luck! and we need to hang out!! :)
Yay! Awesome! I will check it out! That is the exact kind of thing that I need. And yes, we do need to hang out! Double date!
DeleteI love that you're taking this seriously so soon! It took me a couple of years before I started meal planning. Something that has always helped me is to make a "map" of Kroger. Take a piece of paper once to the store you use most often and go down the aisles writing down where the items you use most often are. Then just make a copy of this (or type it up into columns with the corresponding aisle #) and use it as a shopping list for the week, highlighting or circling the items you use. It takes a while to make it a habit, but eventually you visually learn the store!
ReplyDeleteI told Shook yesterday that we need to take a field trip to Kroger so I can do this! A map would make my life significantly easier!
ReplyDelete