I comparison shopped for groceries!

[kayveetee]

It took me about five hours over the weekend, but I sucked it up, made a spreadsheet, grabbed a clipboard, and strode determinedly through Costco (not a member yet) and then my local grocery store comparing prices on the forty or so non-perishable foods and miscellaneous household items I use most. When the dust from the number-crunching settled - holy shit, is Costco cheaper! I figure my household of two will save about $70/month by making quarterly Costco runs for non-perishables and supplementing with weekly grocery store trips rather than buying everything at the local grocery.

I'm still a beginner Mustachian, but I'm pleased with this foray into optimization!

[CowboyAndIndian]

Congratulations.

I always love the saying "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow"

That was your acorn in growing a mighty stache.

[Beric01]

Congrats!

I wasn't quite as intentional about it, but after riding with my parents a couple times a year and saving an incredible amount of money versus even Target/Trader Joe's, I realized Costco was worth it even as a single person. Just last weekend I bought a bike trailer and a membership and now plan to go at least once a month. It's a particularly good deal for items like nuts, or sandwich-making materials. I can buy more than a month's worth of lunch materials for $30!

[fireferrets]

Nice job, kayveetee! Like Beric01, I buy pecans, almonds, walnuts, pistachios super cheap (comparatively) at Sams' Club since the big bags take a while to run out.

Also, I like the deals on honey (which has skyrocketed at grocery stores :( ) and grade A maple syrup (my roomies are maple-picky, go figure).

[Dan_at_Home]

Thanks kayveetee for sharing the important info, any chance you may share a copy of the spreadsheet here on the MMM forum? 

I would love to see the side-by-side comparison of prices and see where the greatest savings are found using costco.

[Beric01]

Thanks kayveetee for sharing the important info, any chance you may share a copy of the spreadsheet here on the MMM forum? 

I would love to see the side-by-side comparison of prices and see where the greatest savings are found using costco.

Not sure if you've seen MMM's spreadsheet yet, which originally got me interested in Costco. Yes, it's 3 years old, but you get the point.

[Elderwood17]

Nice job!  We haven't gotten so sophisticated as to create a spreadsheet yet, and I think that is needed to develop the discipline (for us) to stick to the staples where we save money. 

[Bob W]

We shoot for very low grocery prices and avoid any thing premade or packaged.   Walmart will match competitors prices on most items.    So when the loss leaders come out on the flyers that is a good deal.

My best loss leader deals are on meats and eggs.   Stores around here put eggs down to $1 on a relatively frequent basis.  I stock up with 10 dozen.   Recent meat purchases included -- $2 80/20 ground beef lb.,  49 cent chicken quarters,   $2 bacon,  $2 lb real butter.

I think you'll find that stocking up increases your use of items by 20-30% thus negating the savings on many items.   I know I eat more meat I bought cheap.   

So the magical number you want to shoot for is $2 per person per day,  fail and end up around $3.   Once you do it for awhile it becomes second nature.

Cook all your dinners and some lunches on Sunday.   If your into it make 10 or 20 egg, bacon, cheese burritos on Sunday and freeze.

Some good and cheap meals -

chicken and noodles,  Chicken noodle soup,  chicken and dumplings,  chicken stir fry,  chicken and rice,  chicken and rice soup.   Use the dark meat -- it is cheaper and contains more healthy nutrients.

If you really get into it start looking at price per calorie comparisons ---  You can buy 6000 calories of olive oil for 3 bucks.   Flour and sugar are practically free when they are seasonally marked down to $1.

You can make a pound of egg noodles for 25 cents.   Eggs at $1 per dozen = about 1200 calories per dollar and that is healthy protein and healthy fat. 

[benjenn]

Walmart has a savings catcher app (free) that lets you scan a Walmart receipt.  It then searchs all the surrounding stores' advertised prices on the things you bought and in a couple of days it will tell you how much you could have saved at other places and it gives you a store credit for that amount.  You can let it accumulate or cash it in at any time.  So far, in 6 receipts scanned, we've got $13.56 in credit.  I'm going to let it accumulate until there's $25 and then cash it in.  It saves me the time of having to run to a bunch of places to get a few things cheaper.  I still go to Sprouts and Whole Foods for a few things I can't get at Walmart (we follow a plant-based diet) but it's still pretty cool.

[mm1970]

We shoot for very low grocery prices and avoid any thing premade or packaged.   Walmart will match competitors prices on most items.    So when the loss leaders come out on the flyers that is a good deal.

My best loss leader deals are on meats and eggs.   Stores around here put eggs down to $1 on a relatively frequent basis.  I stock up with 10 dozen.   Recent meat purchases included -- $2 80/20 ground beef lb.,  49 cent chicken quarters,   $2 bacon,  $2 lb real butter.

I think you'll find that stocking up increases your use of items by 20-30% thus negating the savings on many items.   I know I eat more meat I bought cheap.   

So the magical number you want to shoot for is $2 per person per day,  fail and end up around $3.   Once you do it for awhile it becomes second nature.

Cook all your dinners and some lunches on Sunday.   If your into it make 10 or 20 egg, bacon, cheese burritos on Sunday and freeze.

Some good and cheap meals -

chicken and noodles,  Chicken noodle soup,  chicken and dumplings,  chicken stir fry,  chicken and rice,  chicken and rice soup.   Use the dark meat -- it is cheaper and contains more healthy nutrients.

If you really get into it start looking at price per calorie comparisons ---  You can buy 6000 calories of olive oil for 3 bucks.   Flour and sugar are practically free when they are seasonally marked down to $1.

You can make a pound of egg noodles for 25 cents.   Eggs at $1 per dozen = about 1200 calories per dollar and that is healthy protein and healthy fat.

These are some awesome prices!  Just goes to show how location matters.  Our best sales prices around here are approximately 1.5x that.

[Pooperman]

Best I've seen for chicken here is $0.75 per pound for drumsticks. Anything under $2 a pound is good enough for me, though I will stick the freezer on occasion when prices get a bit nutty. $1.50 for 1lb butter anyone? At this point I've got 25lb of meat in the freezer and 10lb of rice. I should only need eggs, milk, flour, veggies, cereal for th next month haha.

[MashedBanana]

I wish there was a costco in new Zealand

[NeuroPlastic]

Congrats on the big step, Kayveetee!
We've been working our food spending downward for several years now, and comparison shopping between many alternate sources.  We buy most of our food directly from several local farmers.  Some we grow ourselves (the herb garden and berry patch give us the greatest savings for our effort). We use a few on-line suppliers for most non-perishables.  The little that remains comes from Costco and Market Basket, our local low-cost chain.
But learning how to prepare food well from basic, low-cost ingredients has given us the greatest savings, and it seems better health as well.