I am going to the grocery store today and I have decided to rebuild my grocery store price-book. I have recently begun to lose weight and I now enjoy eating healthy foods. My old grocery store price-book is outdated and filled with food prices for unhealthy junk food. Here’s my method for buying groceries.
Update – I’ve created a free grocery store price book for you to download and print.
1. I shop at two grocery stores and a local “dollar” store.
2. I keep a grocery price-book. I list the items that I buy on a regular basis, and I write down the price of those items EVERY time I go shopping.
3. Whenever I find an item at its “rock-bottom” price, I buy it in bulk.
4. I buy generic foods.
5. I use coupons, but only for items that I would “buy anyway”.
6. Kroger, our local grocery store, and my favorite, doubles coupons up to .50. So, if I have a coupon below .50, I use it at Kroger.
7. If I have to make a choice between a healthy food and a “good price”, I NOW choose the healthy food. In other words, I eat apples EVERY DAY. So, I am going to buy apples, no matter what their cost. Still, I try to shop around and buy the lowest-cost apples, but I am going to buy apples, period.
8. Healthier foods are more expensive (generally speaking) than unhealthy foods, but I have found that I can still eat well and live on a grocery budget.
9. I do not make a grocery list. I keep my grocer price-book and I stock-up or avoid, depending on the data in front of me.
10. Inflation is real. I don’t care what anyone says, or what the fed does, or does not do, my old grocery price-book clearly shows that food prices have gone up, in some cases dramatically, over the past 2 years.
11. Water is free. I have no need for sodas. Still, I am a soda-addict. So, I just avoid that aisle.
12. I shop on Tuesdays. Why? I like Tuesdays. Tuesday is my favorite day of the week. I don’t know why, but it always has been, and I assume, it always will be.
13. I prefer to shop alone and I wear my iPod and catchup on my favorite podcasts. (May I suggest one of my favorites, The Overnightscape?)
14. I use the calculator feature on my cellphone. I like to know the per ounce or per item price of a good.
15. I can spend about 3 hours in a grocery store. Seriously, I actually enjoy shopping for groceries. My wife, on the other hand, HATES the grocery store. Since I’m an awesome 21st century husband, I do the grocery shopping.
16. I pay cash for my groceries.
17. I keep my receipts and I glance over them after I get to my car. I’m not a jerk or a psycho. I’ll let a few pennies slide. As much as I like to save money, life is too short to kill myself over a couple of pennies. Plus, for all you frugal shoppers our there, it is NEVER a good idea to ‘burn bridges’ between yourself and a local store manager. Trust me, there will come a day when a good relationship trumps that 32 cents you feel you’re owed. Breathe in, breathe out.
18. I hate rebates.
19. I love rebates.
It does cost more to eat healthy. We are into a lot of organic foods, vitamins, fish oil, propamgante juice for me. We have decided that healthy and fit is the way to go, so we are willing (and thank God able) to spend more for healthy type foods. But that has not detered us from our plan to save, save, save and stay out of debt.
Check your Kroger this week. Ours is doubling coupons up to $1 (and anything over $1 goes up to $2). This is for Thursday-Sunday, I believe.
Your blog is great! Funny and informative.
I also have a favorite day of the week (Thursday) for no reason other than it’s Thursday.
Thanks for all the good tips!
loved this post 🙂 a man who loves to grocery shop? wow! 🙂
Could you do a post sometime about your set up for your price book? Or link me up if you already covered that. Thanks so much.
I’m not a huge fan of healthy/organic/etc., but this is definitely the way to do it. I hate to see when people go throw their money away at overpriced specialty stores (I’m looking at you, Wild Oats) in the name of “health”. It is possible to be frugal and buy good foods.
DB
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