Voting with your dollars at the grocery store

[Illillis]

Hello all,

So...we just spent $95 on a Stop&Shop run in NJ. Yikes (!) (...?). Veggies and food for the week, sure...but I realized that I had no basis of comparison when estimating whether or not .99oz/lb for an onion was overpriced/underpriced, etc. Are there any national (updated) "How much produce should cost/unit price" lists out there that the Mustachian community has found useful?

Rock on,
P&K

[free to do what i want]

I feel it would be difficult to make a national price list due to the variables involved. 

Organic or conventional?
Local or imported?  Imported how far?
In season for your location? 

Buying organic is a priority for my family, and I vote with my dollars by buying it as often as possible.  It's usually not the  least expensive option, but we make trade offs in other areas. Another family may value locally produced items and "vote" for that, etc.

I think it works best to make a price list of what you usually buy and check prices at a number of stores in your area.  I believe there are some threads in the forum about them.

[Kyle Schuant]

Just visit all the local places, one will be cheap for this thing, the other cheap for that thing, another overall cheap and another still overall expensive.

Any stores part of a chain will have a website with prices. There'll be some small variation but it'll be a guide.

[redbird]

Prices are different all around the US for groceries, for the same exact thing. I've lived in 4 different US states now, and the food prices vary pretty drastically. Hawaii was the most extreme, for obvious reasons. But even in the "lower 48" you'll see variations. Bread cost me more in the MD/DC area than it costs here in the US south. As in I usually paid $1-$1.50 more per loaf. This would've been true no matter which grocery chain I went to. It's just a little more costly there.

The best thing to do is visit several different grocery store chains in your area and physically take notes on some of the things you buy most often. You may want to buy some things from some store and some things from a different store, depending on the circumstances. 

When I lived in MD, I tried to go to an Aldi since some people say it's super cheap. The Aldi was about a 30 minute drive one-way from my house and, yes, some things were cheaper. But it was so close in price to my regular grocery store that the pennies savings would be used up by the gas spent driving there.

Also, another comparison - in the south, two of the major grocery store chains are Kroger and Publix. I don't shop at Publix, even though there's one that's technically a bit closer than Kroger is to me, because food in general costs more there. Not all of it, obviously, just enough that it would make my grocery bill go up. It's actually worth going the bit farther to go to Kroger because the savings are actually worthwhile.

[ixtap]

I have a spreadsheet, but I balance convenience with price, so there are only two stores I frequent regularly. Nonetheless, when we had unexpected company near the end of a pantry clear out, I knew that I could get two frozen pizzas at a nearby store for $7. Not too bad for a meal for four.

[stashgrower]

I take note of local prices. Re the subject line, I vote with my dollars based on principle (e.g. organic food) not price.

[coolistdude]

If you want to nerd out, you may want to find your favorite inexpensive ingredients per season and construct a chart. Something I've found helpful is to learn what a good price per ounce is. You should start to get a sense of that when dividing the price by the ounces. There are even apps for tracking this.
Food budget is often completely ignored, or over-managed. For example, you may have 3 people and spend $800 on food, or you take 5 extra hours per week and spend $300/month. Or, you spend 10-15 hours a week and spend $150-200/month. I'd get down to $300 a month, focus on other areas and maybe come back to food later. The numbers are just examples for where I live.

[APowers]

Hello all,

So...we just spent $95 on a Stop&Shop run in NJ. Yikes (!) (...?). Veggies and food for the week, sure...but I realized that I had no basis of comparison when estimating whether or not .99oz/lb for an onion was overpriced/underpriced, etc. Are there any national (updated) "How much produce should cost/unit price" lists out there that the Mustachian community has found useful?

Rock on,
P&K

As others have pointed out, prices vary depending on location. That being said, my rule of thumb is <$1/lb (non-organic). The specific fruit or veggie will vary, depending on local availability-- for example, apples (in season) were cheap in WA, but not as much in CO, while peaches (in season) are cheap in CO, but rarely ever cheap in WA-- so we just vary our menu to take local staples into account. Meats, I also look for <$1/lb, which puts pork and chicken as our staples; beef is often on sale for ~$3/lb, and when it's significantly lower than that, I'll stock up and freeze it in meal-sized portions.

You will want to make your own list for your own area. Browse your grocery ads every week, and see what your loss leader prices tend to be. Those are the price points you'll want to look for.

Another rule of thumb I have is "Is it cheaper than at Costco?" Generally, Costco prices their food cheaper than regular grocery store prices, but not as low as grocery store loss-leaders. Costco pricing is my "is it a reasonable price?" baseline.

[fuzzy math]

I have lived all over the country and $1 / lb for onions is a bad deal. A reasonable price is $0.70 / lb, and frequently the 2-3 lb bags of onions work out to that. As for everything else, it may vary a bit.. Ask about specific items and you'll get a consensus

[jc4]

I use $2/lb as a baseline. In my area it works for both meats, and produce.

Basically,
If it costs $2/lb I'm ok buying it.
If it's <$2/lb, I stock up. If it
If it's >$2/lb, I don't buy it unless I need a small amount for a particular recipe.

In practice, say asparegus is on sale at $4/lb from $6/lb. That's great, but is it worth $4 vs the $2 I could spend on brocoli? So I eat brocoli this week.

Over time, you'll know what's typically more or less, because you'll know what you eat often, and what you never eat. The day you show up, and see the asparegus is finally at $2/lb, that's the week / month, you eat asparegus to your heart's content.

I apply the same to meat. I look for $2/lb boneless. Doesn't matter if it's chicken, ground beef, sausage, bacon, whatever.

As a side note, onions, green beans, and squash crush my $2 threshold all summer long. I tend to buy all 3 on every trip to the store.

[RMD]

Tightwad Gazette introduced me to the concept of a price book back in 2003. I've kept one on and off since then. Generally, just because I keep the idea fresh in my mind, I have a pretty good idea if I'm over paying or not.  That said, it's helpful when looking at "sales" that may or may not be as excellent as advertised!

[asauer]

I don't know about national price comparisons but I have a price book I made for myself.  I have 3 grocery stores and the farmer's market in their for price comparison.  That way if there's a "sale", I'll know if it's really a sale or not.  I also look at the trend each year and if it seems to be getting higher, then that's what I plant in the garden that season.  Both have definitely reduced my spending over time.

[Illillis]

I don't know about national price comparisons but I have a price book I made for myself.  I have 3 grocery stores and the farmer's market in their for price comparison.  That way if there's a "sale", I'll know if it's really a sale or not.  I also look at the trend each year and if it seems to be getting higher, then that's what I plant in the garden that season.  Both have definitely reduced my spending over time.

Can you take a photo of your price book/ledger?

Pete

[DangleStash]

You can pull prices from the Wegmans website once you select a store.  Typically the small packages are overpriced, and "Family Packs" can be a steal.  Chicken breast normal price around us is $1.88/lb if you buy the 6lb family pack, vs. ~$4/lb if you buy the 2-3lb regular pack.  Twice the chicken for the same price...

[cats]

I agree that it's worthwhile to spend some initial time comparison shopping and get a sense of what the going rate on your most commonly purchased items is.  Having a price list will also let you evaluate whether or not "sales" are really that great.  e.g. last week one grocery store near us was advertising onions on special for 99 cents/lb...but another store sells them at 49c/lb as its basic price. Another place often has produce "on special" displayed prominently, but in reality it's only sometimes actually a low price for that item.

I typically use $1/lb as my produce cutoff as to whether or not something is a "good" price...if it's over $1/lb it's more of a special occasion or seasoning type of produce (e.g., garlic is $3-4/lb around here, but I'm not eating a pound of it every week, so I don't worry too much about that...but I would never pay $2/lb for onions or carrots).

For us, I know we have one store that we typically go to for produce because it is consistently cheaper than any other store in our area.  However, the meat, egg, and dairy prices there are quite high.  So we go to Trader Joe's for eggs and dairy (we'll typically buy enough to last for 2 weeks to limit the number of trips), and then keep an eye on flyers for meat sales, and will stock up when a good price appears. 

For produce in the US, some items I have found to be fairly consistently cheap include:

-Onions (though should be less than $1/lb!)
-Cabbage
-Carrots
-Apples
-Oranges
-Canned tomatoes

If produce prices in general are running high, our weekly menu tends to feature a lot of roast cabbage, tomato soup, caramelized onions, etc.

[With This Herring]

I don't know about national price comparisons but I have a price book I made for myself.  I have 3 grocery stores and the farmer's market in their for price comparison.  That way if there's a "sale", I'll know if it's really a sale or not.  I also look at the trend each year and if it seems to be getting higher, then that's what I plant in the garden that season.  Both have definitely reduced my spending over time.

Can you take a photo of your price book/ledger?

Pete

Not a photo, and I'm not the original poster, but here is a good one from the internet:
http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/image-files/grocery-price-book-printable-2.jpg
It shows the basic layout that is the same that Amy Dacyczyn (Tightwad Gazette) uses.  This is the format I use as well (except I skip the "notes" part and I have a column to show whether it is a normal or sale price).  You will have one page for every item you buy on a semi-regular basis.  So, "milk" would have its own page, and "rice" would have another.  My price book is a stack of index cards (small handwriting) in a little plastic envelope.

If I ever had to buy a single onion for some strange reason, I doubt I could find it for under $1/lb, but buying in bags of 3 to 5 lbs or so 50¢/lb is a decent price and 33¢/lb is a good price in my area.