What’s Your Grocery Store Routine?
June 21, 2009 by Cherie Burbach
Filed under Home & Living
In the quest to be (one of the most) frugal families on the planet (out of necessary and desire) my family and I have a routine that sometimes takes us to more than one store. It’s not that we run around from store to store (because that would definitely not be very frugal), but we do buy certain things at one store but not another.
For example, we buy things like toilet paper and meat in bulk. So Sam’s takes up one spot every couple of weeks. But we also shop weekly at Aldi and Walmart. Every once in a blue moon, we’ll go to an artesian type of store, but this is generally only around holiday time when we need certain specialty items.
I wondered how you guys shopped for groceries? Do you do it all at one store? Or go to one or more? What’s your routine?
Image: sxc.hu.
I do 100% of my grocery shopping online via Amazon Fresh. Then I can plan my meals exactly, they pick the perfect produce out for me, and it’s delivered right to my kitchen door for free. Zero temptations, zero time wasted.
Before Amazon Fresh I ordered from Safeway, which is generally also free (tons of coupons on RetailMeNot) and would actually put my groceries *away* for me. That was the best.
We usually alternate each week what store to hit. I take the flyer and look at each one to see which one has the best deals and that I have coupons for. It also depends on how much time I have and if I have to lug my kids along. One store has babysitting so that helps.
Okay, now first of all, Aldi has waaaaaaay too much salt (yes, potassium is salt too) in everything they sell – buyer beware…
Wallmart is much to much of a disruptive force on both Mom and Pop stores that we all love and the regional chains that employee our neighbors at a livable pay scale are also forced out of business by them. No matter how bad both the country’s and my own personal economic lookout is, I will not stoop that low spending my hard earned “Budget Coincidence” dollars at Wallmart!
To save $$$ – Buy raw and Fresh and do your own cooking, you will be very surprised at how much you will save.
P.S.
Sam’sClub is a “Wallmart” too…
Every Saturday I shop at the local Farmer’s Market for all my plants, veggies and fruits. Next up is Hy-Vee which tends to be once a week, we’ll hit up Wal-Mart about every other week.
I am a light eater. I don’t really buy a lot of groceries. I go to Aldi’s once a week. If I need something special I shop WalMart or my local grocery store down the street from me. WalMart & my grocery store I might shop at them two times in a three month period.
I have a excel spreadsheet of all the groceries I ever buy, I print it out, stick it on the wall and check things off as I need them. Then we take it with us when we go shopping once every two weeks. It has a few blank spots for items that don’t happen to be on the list. Our first stop is Walmart, second is Costco and third is Fred Meyer or Cost Cutter. We try and leave the house by 11 and get back by 3. It’s a big day, but it’s so nice to have a well stocked pantry!
The nice thing about a spreadsheet is that you can continually update it, taking out what you find you are no longer buying, and adding what you start buying on a regular basis.