In lieu of my new get-out-of-debt endeavor, I am now attempting to be a thrifty grocery shopper. I'm a Hy-Vee addict, so this is where my endeavor takes place.
My basic strategy is to check out the Hy-Vee weekly ad online before I write my grocery list, then make a menu (with cookbooks and www.kraftfoods.com to inspire me). Finally I make my grocery list.
I take my grocery list in, along with the calculator on my phone, and bargain hunt like I was never raised to do.
The main thing I do is get Hy-Vee brand for a lot of things. Basic products, like dairy and pasta really don't seem to have that much, if any, of a taste difference. And they are almost always cheaper.
Also, for produce and cheese, I buy the things that haven't been prepared for me. Anytime I buy carrots, celery, lettuce, cauliflower, I buy the kind that still needed to be peeled and chopped (very rarely is it cheaper to buy the pre-chopped sort). I often buy cheese by the block as opposed to the shredded/sliced. It's almost always much cheaper. But sometimes not - today the shredded was the exact same price per ounce as the blocks of cheese, so I got shredded for the kinds of cheese that I needed shredded ultimately anyway.
The tricky thing is that I have to do a lot of math. I'm constantly figuring out how much products cost per ounce, because sometimes the bigger thing is a better deal, but sometimes the smaller thing is the better deal, ounce-wise. For instance, this week the smaller block of cheese was cheaper per ounce than the bigger block, but last week the reverse was true. Sometimes I wonder if people think I'm weird standing there with my phone out, staring at prices. But, hey, I'm saving money.
Another thing that helps out is remembering the prices and paying attention when I'm ringing up. Hy-Vee has an amazing thing called a scan guarantee - if something rings up at the wrong price, it is free. But you have to notice it and point it out, of course. A while back, Clint and I got 4 free frozen pizzas because of the scan guarantee and today I got a bag of shredded cheese for free.
I would like to get better at coupon clipping, but every time I try it, I don't find a lot and even when I try to use some, the off-brand is usually still cheaper than the brand-name with the coupon.
I will say, though, that there are a few things that I have found that are, in my opinion, not worth skimping on. Toilet paper, cereal and deodorant are the main ones so far.
If you have anything else I could do to save money on groceries, let me know.
