Cosmic Truths of Cheap Grocery Shopping

Hey all, I thought this was very interesting and readable.  (Edit: This got caught in the auto spam filter, but it's a legit site run by two smart and sassy women who focus on financial literacy and frugality that's more focused on young women. And they have a lot of fun doing it -- they are very entertaining writers! Lots of useful articles on this site. Please un-spam me )

https://www.bitchesgetriches.com/cheap-grocery-shopping/

No time to read the whole article right now, but hint number 2 is definitely one I learned to use years ago - the items at eye height are likely more expensive than the brands on the bottom shelf. Also, many of the bottom shelf items were Canadian grown and produced, so it was a double win for me as a Canadian. By looking down and to the edges of a section, I could support my local growers, as well as spending less money.

Any hints like these have to be evaluated on a one by one basis. Gas is expensive, so driving to a "cheaper" store may only make sense if you're doing enough shopping to cover the gas. One of our "cheaper" stores, tends to push products I don't buy anyway, so going to a more expensive store that has really good quality fruit and veg, didn't make that much of a difference on my bill.

So as with any advice, evaluate the outcome, compare online sales flyers, stock up when things are on special, and plan your menu based on what's cost effective.

One tip Iv learned is to lower my standards and expectations. My budget doesn't allow me to be super picky on if Im going to buy Organic or name brand products. Iv accepted that if the budget is responsible for the lack of morally feel good products I am less guilty about it and less likely to over spend trying to do good for my family. Its out of my hands, its in the budgets hands. If I raise my budget for shopping I have to take away form my garden or livestock budget and those are more important for my family. Plus I feel like alot of Organic or All Natural labels are more of a technicality then a promise. If Im going to pay more for it I want more transparency on how they are keeping to that label!!!    

Jay, you raise a good point. To make the 30 mile (one way) I drive to a larger grocery store, I make sure I can recover the cost of the gasoline with two or     three items. Such trips are made about every two weeks.   Trips to the Big City are only made when combined with medical appointments….those are months apart.

I have frequently been heavier than I would like.  I have taken to the practice of buying higher quality items but less of it.  I enjoy my meals more. There is less waste, and there is less waist.

The cosmic truths of cheap grocery shopping is that there is no such thing.

I used to shop with the sale ads only buyinhg what is on sale.

Now days not much that I buy is on sale so I skip the ads.

I do watch them for Blue Bell Ice Cream sales.  Not many now though once in a great while.

Buy what you need, grow what you can, etc philosophy.

the companion article to this, a price ranking of grocery stores in the Northeast US, is worth a read if you enjoy random woolgathering and snark. I give it 5 stars and am glad I wasted 25 minutes reading it.
https://www.bitchesgetriches.com/grocery-stores/

(I don't live in the US, but visit every so often, during which time I am responsible for stocking my mother's pantry and cooking for the troops, while also trying not to think too much about how I'm getting killed on the exchange rate, since I work and get paid in Brazil. Most of the author's observations are spot-on: I have shopped at all of the stores on her list).

Anne Miller wrote:The cosmic truths of cheap grocery shopping is that there is no such thing.

My teenager could probably buy a week’s worth of groceries for himself with 4 hours or so of his starting wage.  It would be non-organic but would include sufficient meat and vegetables.  We may not be at the absolute bottom of food prices, but compared to the rest of human history, food is very cheap.  

Tereza Okava wrote:the companion article to this, a price ranking of grocery stores in the Northeast US, is worth a read if you enjoy random woolgathering and snark. I give it 5 stars and am glad I wasted 25 minutes reading it.
https://www.bitchesgetriches.com/grocery-stores/

Hahahaha - I love how they followed her not very discreetly around the store thinking she was stealing stuff.

It reminds me of when we first moved to Portugal, twenty plus years ago, when there were virtually no other expats here. Someone seemed to have been assigned the task of following us around (discreetly) to see what we bought and how we chose stuff. At the time I could still drink cola, and would buy it frequently as we hadn't adapted to the climate and I felt the need for a ready supply of cool drinks. We were in the biggest supermarket, being followed by someone taking note of every word we said, and my other half reached for a bottle for me off the top shelf.

"Is that the price?" I asked, attempting to sound horrified. "It's cheaper in Lidl. I tell you what, we haven't put much in the trolley yet. Let's put it all back and get it from Lidl. It will save time."

Furious note-taking from our official stalker ensued. And next time we visited the price of cola had dropped significantly.

The same store also learned the hard way that estrangeiros, unlike the locals, will not tolerate seeing one price in the store and being charged a higher one at the checkout and will perform insanely time-consuming antics to hold the line up while they stomp off back to the display and remove the price-labels from the shelves to prove a point. And we will NOT pay and then to customer services to get a refund but the whole line will have to wait until they sort the problem out.

It also happened when trying to buy a washing machine, which I needed urgently as it was when I was nursing my bedridden uncle. We went into the same store's appliance section, found the cheapest machine on offer and asked the assistant about it, knowing full well that our usual in-store-stalker was standing within earshot. The assistant explained, in Portuguese, that there were none available but that the next model up was available for immediate purchase. I pointed to the display model of the cheapest one and was told that unfortunately they couldn't sell that one. I immediately turned to my husband and said in very slow, clear English so our stalker could hear "I bet they have one that price or better in Modelos, let's go and have a look."  A bit of frantic gesturing happened behind us and the assistant suddenly decided that he could in fact sell it to us and that we could take it home right away.

But back to the original point of the thread, I often check out prices of different supermarkets online. Lidl usually have some type of bean on a very good offer (starting on the 19th of the month they have 1kg bags of chick peas for €1,29) and I take a note of anything that would be good for the store cupboard. One supermarket started to offer a 'new' rice bred to grow well in the Portuguese climate and soil conditions and be resistant to local diseases. When the introduced it, it was as cheap as the 'normal' rice, and packed in a paper bag instead of plastic, so it became our go-to rice. But in the last few weeks the price has skyrocketed so we voted with our wallets and stopped buying it. I guess they're trying to find the sweet spot where people will buy it in preference to the cheaper varieties, but in my opinion if it's bred to cope better than other varieties of rice, it should be easier and cheaper to grow.

We normally shop in the nearest town. Sometimes the boys have to travel up to the next city and when they do, there are a few places they frequent because they know the offers. One place does incredibly good value meat scraps. For customers they will give bones and general scraps but they will also sell pork scraps for 25 cents a kilo which are usually just slightly fatty trimmings of posh bits of meat. So they bring me home as much as they think they can get away with, along with some chicken liver so I can make paté to use up the fatty offcuts after I've rendered the lard out of them.

My son often finds himself outside a completely different supermarket when he's dropping his workmates off after work. Sometimes they want to go and pick up some groceries so he tries to take them to the one that gives him free meat scraps then pops in and gives them to me when he's home. The quality is all over the place with them but anything fatty gets rendered down, any actual meat is cooked up and frozen so I can quickly throw a handful in meals, and bones are boiled up for bone broth then given to the dog.

For us it's all about learning to take advantage of where you are at the time, knowing which places have the best deals, and stocking up with the basics so you don't have to make special journeys.

Burra, your son is a champ!!!

Burra Maluca wrote:
The same store also learned the hard way that estrangeiros, unlike the locals, will not tolerate seeing one price in the store and being charged a higher one at the checkout and will perform insanely time-consuming antics to hold the line up while they stomp off back to the display and remove the price-labels from the shelves to prove a point. And we will NOT pay and then to customer services to get a refund but the whole line will have to wait until they sort the problem out.

A person after my own heart!!! I have also been known to do the same thing, to the horror of my family. But now that purses are less full, it isn't just me doing it, and thank goodness it happens less often (although now we have the horrible "club" schemes where you need to have the phone app and often there is fine print that those of us who may not be wearing our reading glasses may not have noticed-- a few months ago I flounced out of a store where it was a clear bait-and-switch and the price difference was something preposterous, we got caught up on idiotic fine print ["valid in only one store in this city-wide chain, on one day"] and the guy behind us had the same items and decided to flounce along too).

Still, I am glad for these apps and the online flyers, they save me a lot (just came back from a big flash sale at our local fruit/veg place with the beets I've been wanting).

Gray Henon wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:The cosmic truths of cheap grocery shopping is that there is no such thing.

My teenager could probably buy a week’s worth of groceries for himself with 4 hours or so of his starting wage.  It would be non-organic but would include sufficient meat and vegetables.  We may not be at the absolute bottom of food prices, but compared to the rest of human history, food is very cheap.  

Many of us do not make $17.99 an hour flipping burgers.

Not knowing how much your son makes though using the $17.99 figure that comes to over $70.00 .  I am glad to hear that your son buys his own groceries.

For folks growing most of there own food maybe grocery store are cheap to them.

And for that article, if I understand what others said, I don't have the luxury of being able to shop different stores to compare prices.

Here's how to "shop" for groceries on the cheap.  Go around back and hit the dumpster.  I have much of the time eaten like a king this way, ever since being introduced to this art in 1995.  I have never gotten sick, and have fed myself, my friends, and my animals this way.  Smaller and discount groceries are more likely to have open dumpsters, as contrasted to compactors, which are often impossible.  The food processing skills that I've mastered as a homesteader and gardener have done me well at this as well....discerning when food, including meat, is spoiled.  Dumpsters tend to produce in gluts and famines, just like gardens and wild foraging, and so the arts of food preservation are key to making the most of it.   Oh yeah, and cheap food tip #2: roadkill.  Right now I have over 100 pints of venison on my shelves thanks to two deer that presented themselves in fresh condition last winter.  Over the years I've enjoyed not only deer but wild pig (still have a few jars of lard somewhere from the last one, six years ago or so; and turkey.

Interesting, but food preservation is sort of a different topic.

For those of us who use grocery stores, I think one of the big takeaways from the "bitchesgetriches" blogs is how retailers use applied psychology to make us spend more and get less for our money. It's all very carefully engineered.

Dumpster diving for the win! Id argue that food preservation is key for being able to shop the sales and keeping the budget low. If I buy a bunch of peppers I need a way to keep them from spoiling. otherwise why did I buy them.

I wonder if dumpster diving behind grocery stores is still a "thing" these days?

I don't object of course, but around here there is a concerted effort by grocers and charities to divert all usable food that was once thrown away. It may go to food banks. Or it may go to a "flash food" initiative in which people have an app showing small lots of "use right away" food products you can reserve, pay for, and pick up today. And there is always a 30% off rack in the vegetable/fruit department and the meat department.

Much better than it once was, I think. (The big grocers are motivated to make it work, because they need all the "charm offensive" points they can get, being in the crosshairs of crusaders of all sorts.) My 2c.

I bet it depends on the area. We are a small town rural place so the pickings are thin on where you shop. They donate some but ALOT ends up in the dumpster. I mostly dive in the cooler months and supply our friends and family with fresh produce, baked goods and meat. But its touch and go on availability when theres 5 households hoping to get a share. The price of everything has gone up but minimum wage is still at $7.25 here. Iv taught a few how to dive. But teaching my group of humans how to cook and shop frugally has been more useful I think. There wasn't much interest in my redneck hippy way of cooking with rice, beans and weeds around here until beef prices rose so much!