I have definitely changed the way I do my grocery shopping. The rise in food and gas prices and the frequent changes of the prices of everything has made the old grocery shopping habits to save money just not work anymore.
In the previous article I shared some of my new strategies. Here are the rest. (If you missed the first part of this article, click here: New Grocery Shopping Techniques.
I skip the coupons. The newspaper recently raised their cost to $1.75 for the Sunday edition, and the coupons in it have been pretty skimpy. Because I am not going to the store as frequently, I seldom can use more than a few coupons (to combine them with sales). Most of the products can no longer be found for free or a few pennies even using the coupons. There are exceptions, and I usually find these online.
I stick more to the basics. There is probably less variety in our meals now, since I rely mostly on the basics for meal preparation instead of cooking what is on sale that week. I will adjust recipes as new prices become available, but for the most part, most of the meals are combinations of chicken, turkey, pasta, brown rice, vegetarian dishes, soup and homemade baked goods, with an occasional ham or potatoes thrown in. If something is a great bargain, I by all means include it in meals, but the basics win out for the budget.
We consume new food. Being open to what is inexpensive has helped the food bill. We never usually consume margarine, for example, but when a good brand was being discontinued we purchased two tubs in order to save on the expense of butter. Microwavable pasta kits were on clearance for $1.41 for a box of four meals. The box also had a coupon on it for 55 cents that could be doubled. For 7.75 cents a meal, we’ll deal with some of the preservatives, especially since we usually avoid them.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
Related Articles:
Same Store, Different Neighborhood
10 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill
10 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill 2
Adjusting Your Price Book with Escalating Grocery Costs