8 Cheap Mama Grocery Shopping Tips

One of the first places I knew that I could work to stretch our monthly budget was in the food department.  Because I live with a "foodie" husband and a picky stepson, I had fallen victim to always trying to cook amazing meals which required amazing ingredients and which meant an out-of-control food budget.  When it was time for me to be a Cheap Mama I let my husband know that we needed to work on the food budget.  I promised him we would not be eating beanie wienies every night but that some things were gonna CHANGE 'round here.

Now there are entire books and blogs dedicated to this topic alone so I won't attempt to cover everything here but instead I will share the most important tips I use each and every time I go to the grocery store.

1. Make a List
Studies and my own experience show that if I don't make a list before I waltz into the grocery store I will buy more than we need which means I'll spend more.

2. Make a Menu Plan
Even better than simply making a list is making a menu plan first and making the list from the planned menu.  With leftovers included, I was really surprised to discover how little I actually needed from the store each week when I plan exactly what I need for each week's menu.

3. Buy the ingredients, not the packaged meal
It's always easier to go for the pre-packaged meal whether it be a Stouffer's lasagna or meal-in-a-box but it also means I'm paying for that convenience.  To combat this, I break down what I like in those packaged meals and buy the ingredients to make it myself.  The one pre-packaged meal that I do keep around the house are frozen pizzas.  For those nights when I'm too exhausted to even think about cooking, having a frozen pizza ready to go is much less expensive than ordering one for delivery.

4. Shop the perimeter of the store
If you think about how your grocery store is set up, the perimeter of the store includes staple ingredients which are always cheaper and usually also healthier.  That's not to say I can shop exclusively outside of the aisles but it's something I keep in mind when planning meals and making my shopping list.

5. Use coupons only if you already need the item
There are also entire sites and blogs dedicated to the art of couponing so I don't mean for this to be the end authority on coupons.  However, I've been there, done that and have the binder to prove it so I do speak from experience.  If I may offer one word of caution: the coupon isn't a great deal unless you need the item already.  Purely shopping from the coupons you have instead of the items you need will ultimately mean you buy things you don't really need and spend money you didn't plan on spending.  Coupons aren't a bad thing; they just have to be used the right way.

5. Always look at the price per pound or price per ounce
This sounds elementary my dear Watson but when put into practice it takes a lot of work.  This is why I usually leave the grocery store with a headache - all of that mental math trying to find the best deal.  Not to give a shout-out to any specific store but one of the reasons I like Wal-Mart is that they do this for me.  They have the price per ounce listed on the shelf next to the price of every single item in the store.  This convenience alone is enough of an incentive for me to brave the behemoth that is Wal-Mart when grocery shopping.  This is very helpful when I'm trying to decide if the bigger size of the same item is really a better deal.  (It usually is but the price/oz will verify it.)  If I compare the prize/ounce or price/pound of items when trying to decide the better deal, I'll always win; not so when just comparing the total price of the items.

6. Give the store brand / generic brand a try
Before you gag a litle bit, let me remind you that I am married to a total foodie husband and our pantry is stocked with store brands.  The way I explained it to Georgia Boy was that we would never know if the item was as good as the brand name if we didn't give it a try.  Therefore our compromise was for me to buy the store brand when it was cheaper and if we found an item that was awful, I would promise to never buy the generic again and from then on I would pony up for the brand name.  This has only happened for one product in the 1+ year that I've been buying generic products.

7. Meatless Monday
My husband and stepson love this night.  Do you detect my sarcasm?  As much as some members of your family may not love this night, it can do wonders for your grocery budget and their health (but they don't need to know that.)  Meat is by far one of the most expensive items on the grocery list so if I can do one meal each week that doesn't include meat I can stretch my food budget even more.  Here in Louisiana, Mondays are traditionally days for red beans and rice.  My husband insists that we have to have sausage or some other meat with our red beans but I remind him that beans are protein, brown rice is healthy and a nice salad rounds out a healthy meatless meal.  Come up with your own meatless meal and watch that grocery budget streeeetch.

8. Breakfast for Dinner
As opposed to my meatless meal, this meal usually brings hoorays from everyone in my house.  This has traditionally been the fall-back menu of many a busy mom but I find if I incorporate it more regularly into our week's menu I save money too.  The great thing about this meal is that if done right, it can still be healthy and the proteins in the meal are relatively expensive such as eggs and turkey bacon.  So the next time you're trying to figure out how to make an expensive meal in a hurry treat your family to breakfast for dinner and bask in the applause.  (I'm only kidding - I've never received applause.)

Hopefully these tips will help you in stretching your grocery budget.  If you'd like more in-depth information on frugal tips, check out my Cheap Mama Handbook.

I Like Wal-Mart So Sue Me

Before you judge me outright, let me explain myself.  Before I became a full-fledged Cheap Mama I used to avoid Wal-Mart like the plague.  I loathed the idea of trekking across the vast parking lot only to be met with aisle hoggers and long check out lines.  However, when I started being a vigilant price-checker and committed to find the best deal I slowly realized that Wal-Mart wasn't all that bad.  Allow me to explain what I like about Wal-Mart and then we can talk about what I don't like.  Maybe then you'll see I'm not all that crazy.

Hang with me.

Let's start with what greets me as I walk into the discount behemoth.

I appreciate that Wal-Mart has a recycle bin for their plastic bags.  If you (like me) are going to use those white plastic baggies, the least we can do is to recycle them and The Mart makes it easy to do this.  The bonus is you get to say hello to the little elderly greeter.

For those of us who are trying to stretch that grocery dollar as far as it will go, generic items are an enormous help.  Wal-Mart's store brands, Great Value and Parent's Choice, are great options for the comparable branded items.  I have used a Great Value or Parent's Choice substitute on almost every item available that I purchase and I have yet to be truly disappointed.  In all honesty, if they weren't in the tell-tale white box with blue lettering, I wouldn't recognize the difference.  In the other stores that I shop, there are store brands also but not nearly to the extent that Wal-Mart provides.  I realize this is a strategic marketing move that Wal-Mart has made to entice frugal shoppers but at least I know that I took the bait.

My favorite thing about Wal-Mart, however, is the fact that they include the price per ounce on every single one of their shelf labels.  I learned early on in my study to become a Cheap Mama that price per ounce means everything.  It's the easiest way to compare prices between two objects especially if they are of differing sizes or if you're trying to figure out if the larger size is truly the more economical choice.  In the other local stores that I shop the price is only listed for the whole item.  This means I have to pull out my phone calculator and do the math myself.  This isn't always easy with two kids in tow so I love that Wal-Mart does the work for me.  If you see me shopping and peering at the price labels, 9 times out of 10 I'm looking at the small number to the left first to see what the cheapest option is, and then checking the total cost of the item to make sure it won't bust the weekly grocery budget.

I took this picture for a previous post so forgive the picture.  The total price is in yellow but the price/ounce is included in the orange box to the left. 

Another fabulous feature of Wal-Mart is that they will match any competitor's  prices as long as you show the circular at check-out.  I don't know if they will honor the price pulled up on your smartphone so if anyone knows, please leave a comment.  I really love this feature because let's say for argument's sake that I am addicted to diet coke.  I know the best value for diet coke and this week Target happens to have it on sale for the lowest available price.  Unfortunately, I cannot enter Target without completely losing my mind and buying unneeded clothes for my children so I really don't need to go to Target this week unless I want to blow this month's budget.  Never fear!  I can take the circular with me to Wal-Mart, show the price at checkout and get the item for the Target sale price no matter what the actual price is at Wal-Mart on that given day.  It's a win-win.  I get the crack cocaine diet coke and don't lose my financial mind at Target.

The last reason I love Wal-Mart is because they carry the zip-up hoodies that I can't seem to quit.  I don't know why I love them.  I only know I do.

For those of you who have stuck with me throughout this post (you deserve a medal!) let me list quickly the reasons I don't like Wal-Mart.  Hopefully this will be enough to keep me on your good side if you're a Wal-Mart hater.

Wal-Mart will never put their meat on sale.  Ever.  However, my local grocery stores run specials on meat almost every week so I purchase those items from the local stores.

The rough parking lots mean that I will darn near give the baby Shaken Baby Syndrome on the way into the store and on my way out of the store will inevitably bounce the cases of diet coke so much that they fall off the bottom shelf of the cart leaving me to load them back on in the middle of the parking lot.  Good times, good times.

The fact that there are always 900 check-out lanes but only 3 checkers available is something I will never understand.  However, this allows me time to catch up on the gossip rags so that I never have to pay for them.

Hopefully you now understand my love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart and maybe you'll be encouraged to give The Mart another try if you've avoided it as I used to do. 

Happy shopping, Cheap Mama!

Cut the Cheese

My husband and I received our tax refund this week and the extra money in the bank has me planning all kinds of wonderful ways I could burn through that cash.  New rug in the dining room? New sofa in the playroom? No more skimping on the monthly food budget? I have about a million different ways to spend that money floating around in my head.  But when I come back to reality I realize that the money needs to be put into the savings account and used for a rainy day.  Ah, well, a Cheap Mama can dream, can't she?

In all of my new-money-dreaminess I had to remind myself that the way we have kept our heads above water, financially speaking, is by my implementing all of my Cheap Mama tricks and sticking with them month in and month out. It's not always easy or fun but it does help me sleep at night knowing that I'm doing all I can to be responsible with what God has given us.

The grocery budget is always the easiest place for me to save money but it is also the easiest place for me to blow money.  The way I keep my head on straight in the grocery store and not give in to those impulse purchases is to continually say to myself the phrase that keeps me focused.  It's my grocery store mantra.  Cut the Cheese.

In my experience as a Cheap Mama I've come to realize that if any of the work is done for me when it comes to food items, I'm paying for the extra convenience.  Is it a pre-made meal? I'm paying extra for that.  Is the product pre-cooked?  I'm paying extra for that.  Is the cheese already in convenient little plastic-wrapped slices for me?  I'm paying extra for that.  Cut the Cheese means to look for the food products that are in their whole, natural state; the actual ingredients themselves because they will always cost less than the pre-packaged, done-for-you food items.  They are also usually the healthier item as well.

So when I am in the grocery store and can feel myself losing it because my head hurts from making the 817th food decision, the kids won't stop talking at me,  and the old lady in front of me has parked her shopping cart in the dang middle of the aisle with no way to get around her, I take a deep breath.  I put the impulse purchase back on the shelf.  I center myself.  And I remind myself to Cut the Cheese.  It reminds me to get back on track in my effort to stretch my grocery dollars and the bonus is, it always makes me laugh.  Because let's face it, farts are funny.  Always.  Funny.