grocery shopping

50 Ways to Save Money on Food

February 7, 2012 By Jennifer Derrick 25 Comments

Food is one of the biggest line items in a budget, usually behind only rent or a mortgage — and maybe the utilities. It’s also a necessity so you can’t just give it up and eliminate the cost. Many people make an assumption that the only way that they can cut their food budget is to start eating things like Ramen noodles and Hamburger Helper every night. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are a lot of different ways to reduce your food budget without reducing the quality of the food you purchase and the meals you make. Below is a list of fifty ways that you can save money on food which are worth considering:

Coupons

Coupons are a great way to reduce your grocery bill. Check out Saving Advice’s coupon class for tips and ideas, visit Coupon Sherpa to print grocery coupons, or explore Grocery Coupon Guide for more in depth grocery coupon information.

Shop the Sales

Plan your meals around what is on sale in a given week. If you can do this, you will immediately cut your grocery bill by a significant amount. No, you may not always be able to have your favorites, but you will pay much less.

Match Sales to Coupons

For bigger savings, match your coupons to the items that are on sale in a given week. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing this yourself. There are now coupon blogs that will do the matching for you (and tell you exactly where to find the coupons needed). Let them do all the work and enjoy the savings (to find a blog doing this, simply search “coupon matching” and the name of the grocery store you shop at)

Compare Sizes

Manufacturers have learned that shoppers assume that larger sizes mean better unit prices. This is not always the case. Sometimes the biggest size isn’t the best value, especially if you are using coupons. Check the unit prices listed on the shelf tags, or carry a calculator to figure it out for yourself.

Buy in Bulk (sometimes)

Buying in bulk can save money if you will use up all of the product before it goes bad and if the per unit price is better than buying smaller/individual products. You also have to have the restraint to use the bulk item at a reasonable pace instead of using a lot more because it happens to be there. Buying in bulk can be a great way to save money, but you have to be careful of the pitfalls.

Eat Less

Most of us eat way too much. Reducing food portions is one of the many things you can reduce to save money. Eating less is simple, but effective. And it’s good for the waistline.

Stop Wasting Food

Every bit of food you throw in the trash is like throwing money in the trash, and we throw away a good portion of the food that we buy. If you can figure out ways to reduce the amount of food you waste, this will in turn reduce the amount of food you need to buy. For ideas to cut waste, check out these two articles: The Easiest Way to Save on Food and Simple Ways to Reduce Food Waste

Plan Meals

Plan your meals ahead of time so you don’t get stuck with nothing to make or no ideas. Lack of planning leads to meals out or trips to the grocery store to buy food when it’s not on sale. The better that you can plan your meals, the more money you are likely to save on your food budget.

Use Loyalty Cards

If your store offers a loyalty card, sign up and use it. Loyalty cards often provide discounts on food and groceries which are only available if you have a loyalty card. The savings with these cards can be quite significant — often double digit percentage savings. Loyalty programs can also be an excellent way to teach kids about money.

Give up Fast Food

While fast food can sometimes appear to be inexpensive, the reality is that it’s more expensive than eating at home. There is no doubt that it’s definitely harder on your health. While it may not be quite as convenient to cook your own meals as get them at the dive-through window, it will help your food budget and your health.

Learn to Cook at Home

If you don’t know how, it isn’t hard to learn to cook, and it is well worth the time and effort learning for the savings that you will gain from it.

Get over Your Addiction to Eating Out

If you love eating out, think about the money you’re spending and whether or not it’s really worth it.

Buy Store Brands

The secret that seems to still not have gotten out is that store brands are often produced by the same manufacturers that produce some of the brand names, just with different packaging. Store brands are often cheaper (especially if you don’t use coupons) and it’s difficult to taste any difference in many cases.

Learn to Love Leftovers

Leftovers mean you get two meals for the price of one and you don’t have to cook as often. Here are two articles about the benefits of leftovers and how you can learn to like them: Think You Hate Leftovers? Think Again and Financially Secure People Eat Leftovers

Cook Ahead

If you know you’ll be pressed for time during the week, use some free weekend time to make a few meals which you can then freeze and easily reheat so you don’t hit the drive through on busy nights.

Explore Freegan-ism

It’s not for everyone and it’s not always legal, but some people get quite a bit of food by dumpster diving at restaurants and grocery stores. These places throw out unused and unexpired food on a daily basis which some people rescue from the dump and use for their own meals.

Make a Shopping List and Stick to It

One of the biggest costs when grocery shopping are impulse purchases. Studies have show that the more time the grocery store can get you to stay, the more you are likely to impulsively spend. Sticking to a shopping list eliminates impulse buys saving both money and time.

Shop Non-Traditional Stores

Bread outlets, farmers markets, butchers, ethnic stores, and ding and dent stores are all sources of less expensive food than traditional grocery stores. The same is true within the store. If you go to the ethnic section within your grocery store, you will often find the same spices for less money than they are selling in the spice section.

Buy In-Season Produce

In-season produce is cheaper than out of season produce that has to be imported. Learning to cook meals that utilize produce that is in season can greatly reduce the cost of your meals during that season.

Package Your Own Snacks

Don’t buy the individual sizes of crackers, cookies and chips unless you score a great deal. Instead, buy a big package and package it yourself in baggies or containers.

Save When You Do Eat Out

There will be times when you do eat out, but that doesn’t mean that you have to spend a lot. There are a number of ways to save money even when eating at restaurants. For the times when you must eat out, here are two articles offering ideas on how to save: 10 Ways to Save Money When Eating Out and Save Money By Asking for What You Want in a Restaurant

Use a Price Book

It’s difficult to know when a deal is really a deal if you don’t know what a good price on a particular product is. A price book allows you to easily track prices at several stores and to know when something is a great deal. Here are some tips for creating a price book.

Check Your Receipt

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the computer scanning system can’t make mistakes. The systems do and these mistakes can cost you money. Some stores will even give you the items for free if you catch a pricing error (check your store’s policy if they offer this service).

Bring Your Own Bags

Not only is it good for the environment, there are more and more grocery stores that offer a small discount for doing so.

Don’t Shop Hungry

There is a very specific reason that the bakery is at the entrance of most grocery stores. The smell of freshly baked goods helps to make the shoppers in the store hungry and studies show that hungry people purchase more than those that aren’t hungry when they shop. Eat before you shop to cut down on impulse buys.

Shop Alone

The best way to get in and out of the grocery store is to have a list and to be there alone. Don’t bring the kids or spouse, if possible. They’ll start wanting things and soon you’ll have bought more than you intended.

Pay with Cash

Learn to bring and pay cash when at the grocery store to cut down on impulse buys and the products that just “happen” to end up in your cart. With a credit card, you can pay for those extras. When you only have a set amount of cash on you, you have to stay within budget.

Know Your Store’s Policies

Knowing and understanding your grocery store’s policies can help save you quite a bit of money. Is a 10 for $10 only valid if you buy all ten, or is each item sold at a discount? What are the coupon policies? Does your store give rain checks? When you know what the policies are, you can use them in your favor to help reduce your food costs.

Brown Bag Your Lunch

This is an oldie but goodie which applies just as much today as it ever has. If you pack your own lunch instead of going out or buying from vending machines, you are going to save a lot of money throughout the year. if you never seem to have enough time to make your lunch in the morning, make it the night before.

Make Your Own Coffee

Learn to get your morning coffee fix at home rather than at the local Starbucks. If you can get yourself into the habit of making your own coffee, you can even invest in a really nice coffee maker and still come out ahead. In the same way, bring your own water and carry snacks with you when you leave home. Don’t buy from vending machines, convenience marts, or restaurants.

Start a Garden

If you have the space, growing your own food is one of the best ways to save money. As a bonus, you control the pesticide use and growing methods. Even if you have limited space, a herb garden can still cut down on your food costs.

Give up Bottled Water

The big secret about bottled water is most of it comes out of the the same system as the water that comes out of your faucet. If you happen to live in an area where the tap water isn’t good, purchase a filter to run it through. Then pour the filtered water in a reusable bottle to carry with you.

Give Up or Limit Soda

Soda is expensive, no matter how you cut it. It can cost $1000 a year. Since it’s not necessary, it’s one of those things you can give up if you need to save money.

Stockpile

If you have the space, stockpiling can be a great way to save by buying products when they are on sale. In fact, if you can learn to stockpile and plan your meals from what you have at home (and then buy only the best deals at the store each week to replenish the stockpile), you will have mastered the key to extreme couponing and can reduce your grocery bill by 50% or more even without using coupons.

Eat Less Meat

Have meatless meals a few times a week, or make meat a side dish rather than the main course. Meat is expensive and limiting its use can save you money. If you do like meat, consider making it a side dish rather the focal point of the meal so that you don’t need to purchase so much for every meal.

Shop the Perimeter of the Store

The perimeter of the store is where the basics are usually displayed including breads, fresh meats, dairy, and produce items. This is where you get the most nutritional bang for your buck.

Look for Clearance Items

Many grocery stores have ding and dent racks, day old bakery items, or a place for dairy items and produce that are about to expire usually at discounts of 50% or more (it’s better for them to get something for these items than nothing at all). If you can use them up before they go bad, these can represent great savings.

Change your Eating Habits

Your relationship with food has a lot more to do than just money. You have formed eating habits nad these habits are probably costing you more money than they should simply because they are habits. Changing the way you eat and your relationship to food can save you quite a bit of money.

Invest in an Extra Freezer

If you have the space, buying a chest freezer can be a great investment. Having extra freezer space enables you to build a stockpile of usually expensive food like meat when they are priced at their cheapest. It also gives you the space to conveniently freeze meals for future use.

Look into Community Sponsored Agriculture

You buy a “share” of the farmer’s crop before the growing season begins. What constitutes a share varies by farmer and crop; it could be a box of fruit or six watermelons. In return for your purchase, you receive your share each week throughout the growing season. Farmers use the advance payments to offset their expenses. This frees you up from having to do the work, but allows you to pick a farmer that will grow the food they way you want.

Participate in a Community Garden

Members of a community come together and use either public land, leased land, or the land of one or more members and grow a garden. In return for your labor and help in tending the garden and helping to buy seeds and supplies, you get to take home some of the harvest.

Buy a Crock Pot and Learn to Use It

Crock pots can turn out some very tasty, inexpensive meals. You can turn cheaper cuts of meat into stews, or you can throw a hodge-podge of ingredients in there and come out with a great meal. Crock pot cookbooks abound to help you out. The best thing is that you can put all the ingredients in the crock pot before you leave to work and the meal will be waiting for you when you get home.

Use Less Expensive Cuts of Meat

When you do buy meat, learn how to cook the less expensive cuts. These can still be delicious when the meat is made into stews, casseroles, and soups. The above mentioned crock pot can also do amazing things with meats.

Go for Caned or Frozen Instead of Fresh

Opt for canned or frozen fruits and vegetables, especially when these fruits and vegetables are out of season. They’re still healthy, but much cheaper than fresh. Also try canned or frozen meats like chicken, salmon, or tuna for things like casseroles or soups where the flavor and cut isn’t as important.

Practice a “Clean out the Pantry” Week

One of the main reasons that a lot of food gets thrown away is because you forget that you have it and it sits there until it goes bad or the expiration date goes by. The clean out the pantry week makes you go through all of the stuff that has been sitting in there. The concept is simple. You don’t buy anything new during this week, and use up the things you already have in your pantry and freezer. Get creative.

Consider Shopping Online

Some foods are less expensive to buy online. Non-perishables like chips, cereals, baking mixes, cookies, pasta, spices, canned foods, and dried beans can be found online sometimes for less than your local store. You also save the time and cost of going to the store. Some argue that having your groceries delivered is less expensive than going to the grocery store.

Price Match

More and more grocery stores are price matching their competitors. If you have a grocery store that will price match, you can go to a single store to get the best prices on all the food that week instead of wasting time and money going to a number of different grocery stores.

Shop When It’s Least Crowded

If you have the flexibility to shop when you want, choose times when the store will be least crowded to do your shopping. This is usually early in the morning and late in the evening. This will get you in and out of the store more quickly and lessen the likelihood of you making impulse purchases.

Be Wary of End Cap Specials

A special is not always a sale. Grocery stores have learned that customers assume that specials on the end of the aisles are good deals, but that is not always the case (and why it’s important to have a price book). If you can learn to ignore the advertising and look strictly at the price to determine if the product is a good deal, you can save a lot of money.

Look Up and Down

The products that the store earns the most money from will usually be at eye level while less expensive similar products will be on the upper or lower shelves. Stores know than many customers reach for the first product they see that fits their needs and thus place higher priced items where the customer is most likely to see it. By looking around a bit you can save quite a bit while still getting what you need.

There are a lot of ways to save on food. Some require a little creativity on your part or a new way of thinking about your shopping habits. Some, like gardening and coupon clipping, require some labor and time. But it’s worth it when you get that food budget down and you have more money for other important parts of your budget.

(Photo courtesy of lachshand)

Coupon Hostility

April 4, 2011 By Jennifer Derrick 8 Comments

Lately I’ve noticed two things: First, there is an increase in coupon use thanks to the Great Recession. Second, thanks to the increased coupon use there is a more vocal judgement of coupon users on Internet forums and at my local coupon swaps. People are not shy about criticizing others for “eating nothing but junk” or accusing them of inflating the savings they claim to be getting when using coupons. What is this anger toward couponers all about?

I’m not a extreme couponer, but I do manage to rack up a decent amount in savings every week by using coupons on everything from groceries to restaurants to online shopping. If you give me a chance to save money on something that I’m going to buy anyway, I’ll take it. It disturbs me when I see other couponers post their savings, only to get jumped on by other forum or swap members.

Exact quote from my local coupon swap: “Sure, you saved fifty bucks on your grocery bill, but I’ll bet you’re nutritionally deficient.” Further aggravating the situation, this person rarely brings any coupons to the swap because, “I refuse to help people buy junk food.” (Why she’s a member is a mystery to me.) She’ll only bring coupons for toiletries and paper goods. She can’t be bothered to just bring coupons because other people might want them. She turns every swap into a personal statement against what she considers unhealthy food.

This person is assuming that there is no other way to use coupons than to buy over-processed junk food. While there are plenty of coupons for junk, there are also lots of coupons for things like eggs, frozen/canned veggies and fruit, meat, toiletries, paper products and pet items. Unless you take someone’s receipt and examine everything they bought, you have no way of knowing how healthy they are. Maybe they saved that $50 on toiletries and paper goods. Maybe their store offers lots of coupons on fresh items. To judge a persons eating habits based on the fact that they use coupons is mean and unfounded. And even if they’re eating junk, so what? It’s not your health that they’re ruining so there no need to comment.

If someone isn’t sniping over the quality of the food being bought, they’re contesting the savings themselves. “I really doubt you saved $75 last week. You just can’t do that around here,” was another comment I heard at the swap. The person was referring to the fact that few stores around here double coupons. But stores don’t have to double to rack up big savings. If you have multiples of high value coupons, you can save big money. Some stores let you combine manufacturer coupons with store coupons. Even without doubling, you can save significantly just by using lots of coupons on an order. I have no doubt that someone saved $75 in one week because I’ve done it. But even if I thought they’re stretching things a bit, I wouldn’t get snarky about it. It’s not worth starting an argument over.

These are not isolated incidents. I’ve heard similar comments over and over. What is the point of being mean to others over their coupon use? Is it jealousy over the amount saved? Is it just to take someone who is successful at something down a peg? Is it to prove that you are somehow superior because you eat and live so healthfully you couldn’t possibly use a coupon on a single store bought item? I don’t know where this hostility over coupon use is coming from. Why can’t people just be supportive of other’s efforts to save money on the things they buy, whether you approve of the purchase or not? I may not buy a certain cereal, but if it’s someone else’s favorite, I can be happy for them if they save $1.00 off the purchase and I can take the time to clip a coupon for it and take it to the swap to give away.

The bottom line is that there are many ways to use coupons (just as there are thousands of ways to save money in general). What works for one person doesn’t always work for another. Just because some people choose to use coupons on certain items does not make them any better or worse than you. Just because someone can rack up hundreds of dollars in savings doesn’t mean they’re lying or cheating somehow. Maybe you should listen to them. They might be able to teach you something.

There’s no need to hammer other people who are just trying to save money. Everyone has different ways of living and saving. Just because you don’t approve doesn’t mean you have to make rude comments. You can choose to say nothing, or simply say, “Hey, good for you.” Support people who are trying to save. At least they’re trying.

Why I Use Coupons

September 10, 2010 By David G. Mitchell 5 Comments

Yesterday I went grocery shopping. When the woman in line behind me noticed my stack of coupons, she jokingly suggested to her husband that they might want to move to a different line. I laughed and exchanged pleasantries with the couple while the cashier rang up my purchases. When everything had been rung up, my coupons had been scanned, my UPromise card scanned and my credit card scanned, the cashier told me that I had saved over $100.

The woman in line behind me was astounded. She asked me whether I saved that much money every time I shopped. I replied that I probably save more than that each week because I shop multiple times in order to take advantage of the savings at various stores and to exploit various coupons. Indeed, I also pointed out that I get a three percent credit from my credit card company for grocery purchases so my savings were actually greater even for that one purchase than the hundred dollars that the cashier had announced.

In looking back over my receipts for the past few months, it does appear that I save between twenty and fifty percent on average when I go grocery shopping. I know some people enjoy greater savings but I am not nearly as fanatical as some couponers and I know I am not nearly as organized as I could be. Nevertheless, think about the savings that I enjoyed with my one trip to the grocery store yesterday.

One Hundred Dollars.

If I do that every week, I will save $5,200 in a year. In ten years, I will save $52,000. In thirty years, I will save $156,000. Now think about what you could do with that money. How much of your mortgage or rent could you pay with $5,200 per year? What about your car? Do you think you could buy a new car with $5,200 per year? You could but a very nice car with that much! Retirement. Vacations. College funds. Just by changing your grocery habits, you will find that you can enjoy much more that life has to offer by not paying more than you need to pay for the necessaries that you purchase.

Of course, most regular readers of tis blog know these things. I wonder, however, how many of us actually do take the time to maximize savings. I know I do not. When I returned to the grocery store today to stock up on more bulk items (bottled water, in particular, was on sale for a very attractive price), I found myself purchasing a few more sale items for which I knew I had coupons at home. When I got home, I found that I had left about ten dollars in savings in my kitchen drawer but I still bought the items in the interest of convenience. If I make that same mistake each week, I waste $520 in a year and $5,200 in ten years. $15,600 in thirty years.

These small decisions about whether to be organized and to maximize our savings power add up. The long term savings are huge if we are organized. The long term waste is also huge if we are not organized. How do you approach savings? Are you wasting money by not planning out your weekly spending?

Reasons Not To Coupon?

August 26, 2010 By Wixx 6 Comments

I recently read an article where the author gave 8 Reasons Not To Coupon. I understand that it was probably an assignment given to a “journalist,” but overall the article kind of annoyed me. I do not coupon directly, but I do save a ton of money using the coupons that my wife prepares for me. Using coupons with sales at drug stores I am able to get several items each week where I can buy products for free or even make money. My wife puts the coupons into groups with the corresponding savings card and I do the shopping. Here is a brief rundown of the articles complaints:

You have to buy a newspaper each week to get the coupons: My thought is that plenty of people already buy the paper and it would not cost them extra to use the coupons. I also know plenty of people who ask others who do get the paper to save the coupons for them. I am not sure where this person lives, but the Sunday paper where I live costs $2. That was not a typo. I did not forget a 0. It really only costs $2. I know this because when there are a lot of good coupons in the paper I buy more than one. That is right, not only do I buy a paper, just for the coupons, but I may buy another as well. There is a resource called the Internet that tells my wife about the good coupons in the paper. The Internet also has plenty of printable coupons that I can print on my printer, in black only, with a refilled ink cartridge.

The act of couponing takes time: She refers to doing coupons as she watches TV as a distraction from many other things that she could be doing as she watches TV. I view the watching TV as the distraction. My wife and I cut and sort while we talk to each other. We do this instead of watching TV. Sometimes I can do another chore while she works on coupons and we can talk about our day.

People will spend more money because they are using coupons: This is the basic claim for her next three points. She claims that people will go to a store that they normally do not go to in order to get one thing with a coupon. While they are there they will obviously fill their cart with other things that they do not have coupons for, thus making any coupons savings moot. She also claims that they may only need to buy one 50 cent tub of yogurt, but be forced to buy four for a dollar and a half because of a coupon. Another is that they will buy a national brand item with a coupon instead of buying the store brand next to it that would have been cheaper.

If you do not have the willpower to go into a store and only buy what you need, you are going to overspend. But if you have coupons, you may not overspend by as much. If I go to a store that I normally do not go to for one item that I have a coupon for, I walk out with my item and then go to the next store. I will also note that I will not use more gas than the savings. Maybe I am smarter than the author of the article that I read, but I imagine that I am not alone.

On that same note, I can do simple math in my head to determine that the store brand for $1.79 is cheaper than the national brand for $2.35, even if I have a coupon for 50 cents off, but the national brand is cheaper if I have a coupon for $2 off if I buy three. That covers the buying more than I need of an item as well. You see, I have an object in my kitchen called a refrigerator. It allows me to store those other three containers of yogurt in an environment similar to where I found them in the store, until I am ready to consume them.

There are so many repeat coupons: It seems like every week while she is shirking some other chore while she watches TV, the author is cutting out the same coupons from the paper that she did not want to buy. When I see the same coupons, I usually say

12 Ways to Save on Groceries If You Don’t Plan Ahead

April 19, 2010 By Jennifer Derrick 2 Comments

You’ve arrived at the grocery store with no plan. You didn’t review the sales flyer and you don’t have any coupons. Maybe you’re on vacation in a strange place, or maybe you’re just in a hurry and you didn’t have time to prepare. You may not even have a well thought out list. Is this financial suicide? Some savvy grocery shoppers would say yes; that arriving in any grocery store without a plan is wasting money. However, even if you arrive at the grocery store without a battle plan you can still take some steps to reduce your bill.

Buy store brands: While name brands can sometimes be cheaper if you have a coupon, if you come to the store without coupons, store brands are probably going to be your best bet unless there’s a great sale going on. Wherever you can stand it, go for the store brands.

Pay attention to the sale prices: Most stores keep copies of their sale flyer at the front door or at customer service. If you didn’t check it out beforehand, take a look at it now. Also look for sale prices as you scan the shelves. Most stores mark their sale items on the shelf as well as in the flyer.

Use your loyalty card for discounts or rebates: If you don’t have a loyalty card, sign up for one at customer service before you shop. They become active immediately and can save you money on your first trip. Some stores only offer sale prices to card holders, so if you want any savings you’ll need the card.

Look for coupons along the aisles or on products: You can sometimes find useful coupons in dispensers on the aisles, or on the product you’re purchasing. Don’t buy a product just because of the coupon but if you’re buying it anyway, use whatever savings you can get.

Buy in bulk, or at least price compare the various sizes: Sometimes buying the largest size (bulk) is the cheapest alternative. However, sometimes the smaller sizes are the better value. Take a minute to figure out the cost per ounce/pound of each size so that you get the one that costs the least.

Look for BOGO offers: Many stores put staples like milk, bread, cheese and other items on a buy one get one free or half off promotion. These can save you a lot of money, particularly if you know you can use all of the product before it goes bad.

Stick to the outside aisles of the store: Do most of your shopping along the outer edges of the store where the meats, produce, and dairy are shelved. These offer the best nutritional bang for your dollar. The inner aisles of the store are filled with processed convenience foods that are expensive and lacking in nutrition.

Don’t buy more than you need for this trip: Save the big buying trip for a time when you’ve made a good list, you have your coupons, and you know you’re getting good deals. Just buy what you need to get you through and get out.

Don’t assume that, “special” means sale: Sometimes end caps and other displays are labeled “special buy” or “special price.” But these items may not be the best price or value. Check the prices in the other areas of the store to make sure there aren’t other products that are a better value.

Look for displays selling damaged or about to expire foods: Many stores have a ding and dent rack, a shelf for day old bakery items, or an area where meat and produce that is about to expire is kept. These items are usually marked down and, if you can eat them before they expire, they are a great value.

Watch for pricing mistakes: Keep an eye on the screen as the cashier rings up your order. Sometimes things don’t ring up correctly which can cost you money. For example, if the BOGO doesn’t ring up right, you’ve paid full price for the items. Some stores will even give you the items free if you catch an error.

Don’t buy more than you have to: If something is “Ten for $10,” you probably don’t have to buy ten to get the special price. Some stores will make you buy all ten, but many price each item at $1. Buy the one you’ll use and leave the other nine.

Having a plan is still the best way to cut your grocery bill but if you should find yourself in the store without a plan or without your coupon book, you don’t have to pay a fortune for your food. Shop wisely and use some of these strategies and you’ll still come out okay.

Convenience Food Grocery Shopping

September 12, 2009 By David G. Mitchell 14 Comments

I was perusing the Saving Advice forums the other day and I noticed that Marla was aghast at having discovered pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in her grocery stores freezer section. Marla commented “Have we really become a nation that is so lazy we can no longer even make a peanut and jelly sandwich?!” Well, Marla, I don’t think we can attribute such grocery conveniences solely to a collective laziness, but we can certainly attribute a lot of it to a collective foolishness.

It is not a surprise that over the course of the past few decades, grocery stores have offered an increasingly large number of products that appeal to the home cook’s desire to be more efficient. TV dinners, for example, were hugely successful when Swanson introduced them in 1954 and today the average American eats seventy-two frozen meals each year. As most grocery shoppers know, however, very often there is a price to be paid for convenience, but how much is that cost?

I checked out the price of PB&J Jamz at a local discount retailer. The cost for a package of 18 sandwiches (and truth be told, they look more like pastries) was approximately $12. That amounts to sixty-seven cents per serving — a rather small serving in my opinion. By comparison, at my local grocery store, I can purchase one jar of jelly, one jar of peanut butter and two loaves of bread for about $9, and that will make at least 25 sandwiches for my household. Given the ease by which even younger children can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I can’t see myself purchasing a frozen PB&J convenience food, can you?

Although I did not find frozen sandwiches to be such a good deal, I was surprised to discover that my long-held scorn for pre-blended peanut butter and jelly was entirely misplaced. Over the years, I have always chucked when I saw jars of combined peanut butter and jelly, assuming that the producer charged a premium for the convenience of having to scoop from only one jar. My assumptions were completely wrong, as I discovered that the pre-blended BB&J was no more expensive than purchasing peanut butter and jelly separately.

Here are a couple of other things that I discovered about conveniences in the grocery aisles:

Sometimes Single Serving Packages Are a Good Deal: As with so many assumptions, not all are correct. I have always believed that single serving packaging usually means a higher unit cost, but until this week I had never actually put that to the test. My results were mixed. At my local grocery store, I discovered that it is actually less expensive to purchase a package of twelve single-serving bags of Lays potato chips (about 33 cents per serving) than to purchase a fourteen serving bag that is not pre-portioned (about 36 cents per serving). By comparison, however, the Kellogg’s cereal variety pack ($4.29 for ten single serving packs) was priced much more expensively than a regular box of cereal ($4.39 for sixteen servings and a more extreme sale price of $3.99 for twenty-six servings). I found even more extreme price disparities in powdered drink mixes and cookies, both of which were frighteningly more expensive in single serving packages.

Products that Save You Time Will Cost You More Money: Not surprisingly, in the grocery store time is money. The more time you are willing to spend in your kitchen, the more inexpensively you can shop. The more time saving purchases you want to make, the more you will have to spend. For example, three heads of Romaine lettuce will serve seven people and cost $2.99, but a bag of chopped Romaine which will serve three people costs twenty cents more.

In the meat department, there are a range of prices on chicken. A whole chicken is less expensive per pound than chicken that is already cut up, boned or skinned. At one extreme, a skinless boneless fillet costs $5.19 per pound, while a package of chicken breasts, thighs or drumsticks (still with skin and bone is only $1.69 per pound. Unless you have arthritis or other problems that affect your dexterity, it is not difficult to skin and de-bone a bird so the less expensive options should always be chosen.

Of course, sale prices and geography can make pricing vary in your grocery store. My point is not that there is never a time to purchase a time saving product or a pre-portioned product. Rather, what you need to understand is the importance of checking the unit cost on everything you buy. Whatever pricing assumptions you may bring to your shopping experience, you may find that some of them are disproved by the shelf tag information on the products that you are buying.

What do you think? What deals have you been able to find on grocery products that actually save you time in the kitchen? Are you willing to pay more just to avoid time working over a hot stove?