Comparison Shop

[vishenda]

It takes time, but I ALWAYS comparison shop for groceries. When the circulars for the two big chains near me come out, I sit down with them, a calculator and a pen and decide what to get where. Also, don't assume that the bulk warehouse places are always cheaper; sometimes they're not. We have a Costco and a Smart and Final (restaurant supply) near us, and Smart and Final is almost always cheaper than Costco (except for meat). I've managed to get my grocery bill down to about $70 every two or three weeks, which is about half of what I spent when we first got married and had two incomes!

[motherof1child]

It's hard to beat walmart though

[St. Theresa]

Grocery shopping used to take an entire day for me. There were 3 major grocery stores at the time. I would sit down with the flyers and make my lists based on the different sales. I'd go through all of my coupons to try to match them up with store sales. In warm months, I would use a cooler to store my perishables in the car while I went to all of the stores.

Then something really bad happened. One chain bought out the other and the third store disappeared. One company had a literal monopoly going. Because of our geographical location, it's not like we can just drive into the next town, city or county. We're a virtual island.

The company was ordered to sell some of their stores to another grocery store chain but by the time that happened, the damage was done. The prices had skyrocketed during the monopoly days and never went down.

And now I find that if I have coupons for certain items, they won't usually go on sale until after the coupon expires. So now I'm pretty much stuck shopping at one store.

[Coleroo]

i use to try to comparison shop but i always found that for the stuff we buy, nothing could beat walmart for general grocery trips.... food lion (a southern grocery chain) was the best for chicken and meat on sale...and aldies was the best for bread and dry milk. so i basically stick to that schedule and it avoides lots of headache.


oh..and we dont have a warehouse near enough to make it worthwhile - no costcos around here and sam's club is about 15 miles away on the interstate...so i rarely to never bulk shop. when i do, i've found that snack cracker packs (which my husband eats alllll the time) are cheapest there as well as swanson broth (which i use a lot). so i get those when i happen to be in that area and with someone who has a membership!

[St. Theresa]

Our closest Walmart is about 40 minutes away. It's not worth the time and gas, unfortunately.