I have a theme going on right now of saving money. I am honestly just trying to get my mind off the waiting game of our adoption, so what better than saving money?
I wanted to share how I shop for groceries and save money and also to see how everyone else saves money on groceries. I shop at three different stores for my groceries. I know, it sound a little nuts but it’s for good reasons. These are my three stores and why I shop there.
1. Aldi- love it! It’s cheap and I love cheap. You cannot beat the prices. I am always pleasantly surprised when I am at the register and my total is much less than I expected. They have great prices and good products. They don’t, however, have everything I need. I get my staples at Aldi and I got there once a week.
2. Walmart- this is where I get whatever they don’t have at Aldi. Walmart brand stuff comes very close to Aldi prices and is pretty good comparatively. I also get all that “other” stuff like dog food and such at Walmart. I used to get all my groceries there but I found out I really do save more at Aldi. I try to limit Walmart trips to once a month, just because it tends to suck money out of your purse when you walk in, I don’t know how that happens. 🙂
3. Harris Teeter- Yep, I am an HT snob. It is the most expensive grocery store, but it has the best sales. This is where I use my coupons. I am one of those crazy couponers. Actually I really am not a crazy couponer, I just use them to stockpile stuff I use a lot. For example, I stockpile pasta, pasta sauce and coffee because we go through those things like crazy around here. So, I find coupons in the Sunday paper and match them up to the sales they have at HT using www.southernsavers.com. Great website, by the way. It is a great resource for how to coupon. I also buy coupons off Ebay. For example, this past week HT was doing what is called super double coupons. That means they double the value of all coupons under $1.98. They also had Starbucks coffee on sale, Glenn’s favorite. So, I bought 10 coupons for $1.50 off 1 bag of Starbucks coffee on Ebay for $1.50 including shipping. Then I went to HT and bought my 10 bags and got $3.00 off each bag. For Starbucks coffee, you just can’t beat that! One time I did this with pasta and got 20 boxes of pasta for $.20 each. I still have pasta left over from that and it’s been 6 months. I did the same with pasta sauce. If you can find a great deal, Ebay is a great place to get cheap coupons. You just have to remember that HT will only let you use 20 coupons per day and sometimes they limit how many of the same coupon they will let you use. You can really save money with a little time investment.
So, that is how I shop. Overall my food budget for my family of 6 is $500 per month (just food, not toiletries or “other” stuff). I am trying to get it to $400 per month, but so far I haven’t gotten that good yet 😉 How do you save money on groceries?
Armloads of Blessings 
I am a Giant Eagle snob (which is like HT)….double coupons make it worthwhile plus they have their own gas station so I get fuel perks ($.10 for every $50) then when I buy gas I get Food Perks which you can save and then on that huge order you can cash in those which I usually wait until it’s over 10%. It’s easy to match with the flyer and I also check product websites and print from coupons.com so I can get an additional coupon that was in the newspaper. I also watch meat sales but am blessed to have a mom and step dad who own a beef farm (sorry Chick-Fil-A cow). We don’t eat a lot of meat though because like you said before Americans do eat a lot more than necessary. My grandma told me they had meat on Sunday and the rest of the week was what was left and lots of veggies and beans (with a family of 10 it makes even more sense) and they had a farm that was mainly produce. I have also discovered frozen veggies are cheaper than canned with a coupon and taste better. I buy fresh produce based on what is on sale. I also do not buy lunch meat…especially from the deli….you may as well buy a chicken breast and cook and slice it yourself because it is still cheaper by the pound. A lot is common sense. I know people say hot dogs are cheap but I am a hot dog snob and don’t like anything but beef so we don’t eat them too much. I can’t tolerate meat and potato men…they are now the two most overpriced things on the planet to buy. I could be a vegetarian and survive just fine and we love pasta! It’s fun sometimes looking at the receipts and seeing 50% savings sometimes. One more thing…always, always check your receipt and know what the shelf prices are, I have gotten free items because it rang up wrong and store policy gives it free in those cases, also watch that your coupons do ring and double. I will go on record saying people who don’t use store cards and coupons are UNINTELLIGENT! (that is putting it kindly)