The Simple Wealth

I live in California. My household needs related to grocery shopping are: my husband prefers Atkins’ low carb diet and he enjoys a couple glasses of wine and liquor at night, which I do too with lesser amount, and we have a toddler and a baby. For the past few years, I spent about $700 a month in groceries.

Use Coupons

When I started to look for ways to cut down in grocery expenses several months ago, first I looked at coupons. Every Sunday morning I browsed coupons, and cut the coupons that I could use. I also searched online coupons. I tried it for a few weeks, but I didn’t find it save much money, maybe one dollar or two at a time. I still use coupons but I look for some other ways that can do a major cut.

Try Different Stores

My pattern of grocery shopping was to shop in 99 Ranch( a Chinese supermarket) and Trader Joe’s, and sometimes in Costco. And I usually had to shop at least two stores, because the Chinese supermarket doesn’t carry a few items that I need. I decided to try a new store. Since the prices of groceries in 99 Ranch are usually better than that of Albertson or Safeway’s, I didn’t need to try those two stores. I browsed the weekly sale flyers and noticed that Foods Co(Food for less) has very good sale prices. I began to shop in Foods Co. Foods Co sends out just one double-page flyer weekly, very simple, not like other stores with pages and pages of ads. I circle the items with good sale price on the flyer and bring it with me to shop there.

Know the prices

After a few weeks of attentive shopping, I began to have very good idea of the prices in Foods Co. They usually have two, three items for sale in vegetables and in meat, and their sale prices are usually very good. For example, every few weeks, they have twin pack of whole chickens for sale for about $5~$6 dollars total, so I always buy a twin pack when they are on sale. I found that knowing the prices plays the most important role in controlling grocery budget.

Does it save money to shop in Costco?

I was searching online about saving money on grocery, and I saw some people’s opinions that they don’t find shopping in costco save money. I had the same feeling before. I felt that it’s hard to control budget every time I shopped in Costco. This was until recently. Now I usually do my weekly shopping in Foods Co, and once a month I shop in Costco. It works out well having a schedule like that. There are things that I buy there: coffee beans, Splenda, extra virgin olive oil, salad greens, bacons, paper towels, cheese, eggs, etc. The list changes. I just added butter to my Costco shopping list. They sell 4 LB of butter, 4 boxes of 4 sticks of butter. I have been a Costco member for 5 years, and I had never bought butter there until recently. I used to think what did I need that much butter for. But it saves me at least $3 dollars in this case by buying in bulk. I have changed my questions to ” do I need it? do I have space for it?”

Shop in Trader Joe’s

I also shop in Trader Joe’s about once a month to stock up on wine and liquor. They have very good quality and price wine and liquor.

Always look for the best price for your must-have items

One of my must-have items is Special K’s protein plus 9 gram net carbs cereal, that’s the only cereal Michael will eat. Costco used to carry it. Then I found it in Food Max and then in Wal-Mart. Then they stopped carrying it too. I had no choice but to buy it in Safeway and it costs me about $5 a box. Then I started to look through all the weekly flyers. When I saw Safeway had Special K cereal for sale for two for $5, I went and bought as many as they had on shelf.

Another one of my must-have items is Silk soy milk, that’s the only brand of soy milk that Michael will drink. Sometimes I feel that he really gives me much more trouble in shopping. I used to buy twin pack in Foods Co for less than $6, but recently they increased price to almost $7. I noticed in Food Max they still have twin pack for less $6. Food Max and Foods Co are kind of similar stores. You will have different grocery stores where you live, but I’m sure there are some kind of food warehouse or discount store in your area. I saw on the flyers that Foods Co had Silk soy milk for sale twice recently, a few weeks apart, two half gallons for $5, and each time I bought as many as they had in the fridge. They last for two, three months in the fridge. One advantage of keeping plenty of what you need on hand is that you won’t be forced to shop because of that one thing you must have is out, and the less you shop the less you spend.

Another one of my must-have items is coffee beans. We like French roast. I have looked many places for best price, and tried once on Amazon until I found San Francisco Bay French roast for about $10 (3 LB) in Costco.

So far for the past few months since I started cutting budget, I have been able to cut down about $200 a month in grocery and not sacrificing the quality or the quantity of things we enjoy. Actually I save more than $200 a month considering that we dine out less and I stock up more stuff. It’s still a process. I’m sure I still can do better. I’m sure there are people do much better than me. I feel that paying attention to prices and to be aware of your needs and wants is a good practice of mindfulness. By paying attention to something you must do, something like grocery shopping, in turn increase your awareness in general.

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