Shopping...Day 4 of 31 Days of Creating with Meaning

One of my reasons for planning out my menus is to get the best bang out of our buck.  Even though food costs are really at a high right now, I still think that the food budget is a place where money can be saved.

When I sit down to make my menu and list, I have the store ads, my coupons, a calculator, a pencil, a stapler and the calendar.  The reason I have the calendar is to see what nights we might be out with sports or church and school activities and I can plan dinner accordingly.  No 3 course gourmet meals on PTS night!  Or ever!

Then while I'm looking through the ads and coupons I can match the coupons to sale prices.  For example, Safeway had Healthy Request Select Harvest soup on sale for $1.29 last week in their Mix and Match sale.  I matched that with a $1.00/3 coupon and paid 96 cents each.  By spending a little bit of time, usually less than an hour, (even with interruptions!)  I can have my menu planned, list made by store, and coupons sorted by store.

The reason I say by store is because that's the way I shop, and the way my brain works.  We are lucky to live near a city that has all of these stores within a couple of miles of each other so I don't burn a lot of gas going from store to store and I can usually get all of my grocery shopping done in one day.  This wasn't always the case.  When we lived in Missouri I did most of my grocery shopping at the Wal-Mart SuperCenter because it was the most convenient and usually the cheapest.  I'd supplement with Aldi and the local market for certain things, and bought all of my bread at the Sara Lee breadstore for $1.00 a loaf, cheaper than what I could make it for.  List making was super easy with fewer stores.

In my web-surfing moments I have come across TONS of cute, organized, grocery lists, printed them out, then never used them.  They might be functional for the person who made them, but with the way my mind processes things they don't work for me and end up being scratch paper, or I use the back for my list.

I have to keep things simple or I get overwhelmed and the system doesn't do any good, anyway.  So I've kept it SUPER simple for my one-page list.  I just listed the stores with space below.  I can list what I'm buying, add a price if I want, and I circle the item if I have a coupon in hand for it.  Then I group the coupons for that store together and staple it to the back in of the page in the same order the stores are in.   I know it is almost too basic, but it works for me!
Grocery List by Store

Raley's: Grocery shopping...

...no matter how much I hate doing it, it still must be done!  I don't really hate it, but if it was something I never had to do again, I don't think I would be mourning the loss.  That being said, my strategy for grocery shopping is pretty simple.  I shop the ads, which come out on Wednesday, and try to pair my purchases with an in-store or manufacturer coupon when I can.  I also compare prices, and I'm pretty good at remembering what store has a cheaper "regular" price of an item I usually buy.  I'm not sure why that is since I can't remember numbers to save my life, but I'll just count that blessing and move on.

I'm lucky that I live in an area where I have quite a few choices of where I can do my grocery shopping, and the stores are in very close vicinity to each other.  It saves on gas and allows me to shop at all of the stores in a very short time.

The bulk of my grocery shopping is done at Winco, but unfortunately they do not have weekly ads and I have to play it by ear.  They have excellent markdown sales and a huge selection of bulk foods.  I buy dried cranberry/almond granola in an 8.5 lb. box for $13.97.  So much cheaper than making it.

My Friday grocery shopping is done at Raley's, which is definitely NOT the cheapest grocery store, but I always find some good sales on things we use.  Here is a look at my list for this week:

Bulk - Fruit/Nuts/Seeds  
Dry Roasted Sunflower Seeds With Sea Salt Bin #531   $1.99 LB. (valid until 08/16)

Frozen 
Tombstone Pizza Selected varieties 20.5 oz. to 22.85 oz.   4 FOR $10 (valid until 08/02)
I’ll pair this sale with a coupon for $1.50/3 pizzas with a final price of $2.13 per pizza.

Weight Watchers Smart Ones Selected varieties 4.58 oz. to 11.5 oz.   5 FOR $10 (valid until 08/02) paired with a $1.00/5 will make them $1.80 each.  

Produce 
Fresh Limes  SAVE UP TO $2.04 on 6   6 FOR 96¢ (valid until 08/02)

Green Onions, Cilantro or Radishes  SAVE UP TO $1.68 on 3   3 FOR 99¢ (valid until 08/02)

Juicy Mangoes  SAVE UP TO 60¢ EA.   39¢ EA. (valid until 08/02)

Roma Tomatoes  SAVE UP TO $1.10 LB.   69¢ LB. (valid until 08/02)

Snacks 
Keebler Sandies, Grahams, Club Crackers or 100 Calorie Packs 11 oz. to 16 oz., 4.24 oz. to 4.62 oz. Buy 4 or more single item 2.49 BUY MORE SAVE MORE   $1.99 EA. (valid until 08/02)   I‘m pairing this with a manufacturers coupon for $1 off any 3 Keebler products, so my final price on 4 is $1.74 each.  (I don't usually keep these on hand, but we have a camping trip coming up and these are handy) 

Lärabar Selected varieties 1.6 oz. to 1.8 oz. In our Natural Foods Dept.   99¢ (valid until 08/02) I‘m pairing this sale with a coupon for $1.10 off of a purchase of 4.  Final price for 4 bars is $2.86, or 72 cents per bar.

Raley’s also has e-coupons, which are available if you register on their website.  They send a weekly e-mail with a link to the e-coupons and  Freebie.  This week if I spend $20 (and looking at the list above that’s taken care of!) then I will get one Oroweat Sandwich Thins free with the coupon.

I’m also using two of the other e-coupons, one for Jennie-O Turkey store Turkey Bacon 12 oz for 1.99, and I can purchase up to 2 at this price.   The other is $1.00 off 1lb. Bulk Banana Chips.

So, there's a peek into my Raley's grocery shopping experience.