Grocery Shopping

I usually go grocery shopping once a week, and usually it is at one of our local WinCo stores. I can get everything we need at a price we can afford. This is not to say that they are the cheapest in town on everything, but the total bill reflects the savings. However, I almost always go either Wednesday or Thursday morning because it is slower, and that is when our free paper is delivered in the mail, with ads for two other grocers here in town, Safeway and Albertson’s. It is probably a snafu to name-drop, but whatever.

Just so we are certain on this, I am not a loyalist. If we got the regular paper, filled with coupons galore, my shopping habits may be different, but doubtful, because when we did get the paper, I usually found on average one coupon a week I could actually use, and it wasn’t worth the price of the paper. So as far as coupons go, CostCo gets the prize for best coupons, even though there is a membership fee associated with it. And my twice-monthly trips to CostCo are usually quite sad for the average CostCo shopper, as my five item average dwarfs in comparison to most peoples fully loaded cart or two. But really, when I need a half-gallon of heavy cream or a 3lb bag of fair trade coffee, their prices cannot be beat, with or without coupons.

Club and Preferred cards are free and easy to obtain, and yes, you can save quite a bit of money using them. I check our weekly free paper for savings from Safeway and Albertson’s, with Safeway almost always being the better deal of the two, for their respective Club and Preferred card savings. And when they have deals on items like cereal, I stock up, checking the expiration date on each box before loading it into the cart. One trip to Safeway I bought $28.74 worth of cereal for $10, and right before Christmas spent $42.33 on $87.55 worth of groceries, all with just my Club Card. The deals are there, and usually don’t require much digging to find them.

When I am looking for a good deal on specialty cheeses or wine, my first stop is Trader Joe’s, which is also where I go when I need nuts and dried fruits. If they were closer and not in the swirling vortex of terror, aka, Chkalov and Mill Plain, I’d do more of my shopping there. And when I want to actually talk to a cheese monger, my first place is our newest Fred Meyer, or if I am on the east side of town for some reason or another, Whole Foods.

I’ve been told of another store in the area that starts with a “W” but will never shop there again as they are evil made of evil parts by an evil corporation for the sole purpose of committing evil. Yes, this is the same company which unceremoniously dug up the remains from an ancient Native American graveyard so they could put in another store. And yes, I am still bitter they chose to fire me for voicing my opinions when they were committing unethical acts that not only violated company policy, but federal law.

Anyway, back to WinCo. A typical trip there consists of pretty much the same things each week. Let me demonstrate with my list I made yesterday, which, by the way, I make my list in the order I will find these items while walking through the store, which is a huge time saver, and prevents a majority of the, “Oops! I missed that item on the list!”

 

Grocery List for February 4th, 2010

• Tortilla Chips
• Apples
• Lettuce
• Coleslaw
• Kiwis
• Lemons
• Limes
• Garlic
• Avocados
• Onions
• Green Onions
• Jalepeños
• Mushrooms
• Green beans
• Hominy
• Rice
• Beans
• Spaghetti sauce
• Spaghetti noodles
• Flour
• Turkey lunch meat
• Chicken thighs
• Pork (whatever is cheapest for pulled pork)
• Ground turkey
• Butter
• Milk
• Sour cream 
• Frozen corn
• Sandwich thins

Total bill was higher this week than usual, due to the few extras I put on the list like chips, pork, coleslaw and sandwich thins for pulled pork, as well as a few items not on my list for upcoming cake orders, like walnuts, raisins and imitation banana flavor (blech!), and a spur-of-the-moment-grab-a 12-pack-of-Diet Coke-because-it’s-on-sale, putting my bill at a grand total of $71.18, which is about $25 higher than my typical weekly trip.

The bottom line is to shop smarter. If you’re a coupon clipper, buy what you will actually use, not just what you have a coupon for, which goes for Club and Preferred savings cards too. Stock up on non-perishable (canned and boxed foods) or freezable items (like meats) when they are on sale or clearance as a way to make your food dollars stretch more. And most importantly, don’t forget to factor in gas money into the equation. It may seem like a good deal to drive all over town to get the deals at five different stores, but think about how much gas you used and if you actually spent more money driving than you saved.