Learning to Go Kroger-ing: Actual Trip

Carrying groceries to your third floor apartment alone sure is a work out! It is getting me in shape for carrying a car seat with a newborn though, right?

After meal planning, coupon searching, and making my list, I went to Kroger today.  My original plan was to hit Aldi first (thanks to Erin's suggestion), but I don't have a debit card and did not plan ahead well enough to remember to get cash.  Hopefully next time!

I only spent a little over a third of our grocery budget and I should only have to make one more shopping trip this month.  If I am able to save $50, I can take a sewing class with Jess, so here is to hoping I stay disciplined!   

Total Savings: 25% 

# of Coupons: 2

Biggest Problem: That darn "Buy 10, Save 5" sale.  Seriously, we have a love/hate relationship.  I love it because you can save a lot of money and it allows me to get brands I like more above the generic.  I hate it because even with careful planning on which items and how many of each to get, I either mess it up or see items I buy regularly that qualify.  It always makes me obsessively count how many items I have that apply because we all know the worst feeling is having either 9 or 11 items when you need 10.

Today my problem was the obsessive counting and how many items I love were on the sale.  I could have been seen pushing my cart into an empty aisle and counting every couple aisles, phew.  I quickly changed from the original plan of 10 items to 20.  All of them were on my list though!  

Most Exciting Sale: I needed to get deodorant so I clipped 6 different coupons and planned on comparing prices when I got there since I did not know the original prices.  One brand had a particular scent that was a close out sale item and I had a coupon for it!  Yay for cheap deodorant! 

I also got a huge pork loin roast for $7.55 and saved $5.87! Third, I bought a whole chicken to roast and use for multiple meals (thank Abby)!

Learning to Go Kroger-ing... Again

When we first got married I posted about the frustrations of grocery shopping (Learning to Go Kroger-ing).

Between not knowing where items were, no knowledge of couponing, and little understanding of meal planning, I was overwhelmed.  I eventually learned where the items I buy on a regular basis are located and the concept of meal planning.

The problem we found is that our grocery bill was actually higher when I meal planned.  This is hilarious to me because when you read anything about cutting your grocery bill the advice universally is to meal plan.  Since I then got pregnant and felt like crap, I gave up on meal planning, couponing, and looking at ads.  My attitude became, "Well, if I am doing what everyone says to do to save our family money, and it is doing the opposite, then I give up."

Seriously, I followed all the rules.  I bought generics, looked at the price per ounce, used coupons on things I would buy anyway, looked at the ads, compared stores, blah, blah, blah.

Since going on a "doing grocery shopping smart" hiatus, I am back to try it again!  I realized this is a way I can help to give our family more financial freedom, and if I don't learn some of this now, it is DEFINITELY not going to happen anytime soon after this baby comes!

On February 1, I will embark on my first meal planned and coupons clipped grocery adventure since the growing of another human commenced.

Here is my game plan and if you are a grocery bill cutting guru, tell me your tricks or amendments to my undertaking.

1. Check out Kroger's ad and make note of sales
2. Meal plan from those items on sale to get us through 2 weeks
3. Find coupons online and from Red Plum, SmartSource, etc. for those items
4. Make my grocery list and note which items I have coupons for
5. While in the store compare the generic prices to prices of those items I have coupons for
6. Stick to my list 
7. Buy groceries and do not go back to Kroger for 2 weeks :)

We will see how it goes!

Learning to Go Kroger-ing

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!