Question of the Day, Sunday, June 14th

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 14, 2015

i just did my monthly shopping yesterday, so for today's question of the day i'll stick to that general topic and related.

Do you keep track of your monthly shopping expenses?

Do you keep an eye on rising food prices? Keep track of certain food items prices?

Do you use coupons? Look at the sales circulars before shopping?

Do you shop at 'brick and mortar' stores, or online? Or a combination of both?

Do you enjoy shopping?

i'll start. i just several months ago started keeping track of my monthly food expense. for me, this is more out of curiosity about my spending patterns and i'll be interested to see what my total yearly food expense ends up being. i don't keep track of other (non-food) shopping expenses, but everything i spend is carefully noted in and deducted from my monthly budgets. i live a pretty frugal lifestyle, with my spending carefully controlled -- which helps make it much easier for me to have home improvements done, and buy nice cat toys and cat furniture for snick and jasper.

i have a good memory for food prices, and know what price food items were the last time i bought them. lately food prices in general have been rising here in northern NY State. i've noticed that the prices of cheese and milk have gone up, and the rising price of eggs is something i'm keeping a close eye on.

i do look at the coupon inserts in the sunday newspaper, but rarely find a coupon that i'll actually use. i usually buy store brand foods like canned foods, cereals (i buy malt-o-meal brand in the big bags), laundry detergent, and etc. -- which most times don't offer coupons. however, i do buy certain name brand items -- like palmolive dish soap (because it's gentle on my sensitive hands), and bounty paper towels (i've tried generic paper towels and they just don't absorb as well) -- which i occasionally find coupons for. i do look at sales circulars for stores where i'll be shopping. just yesterday i bought 8 oz cheese chunks on sale at aldi's for $1.59 each -- the best price i've seen for cheese in a long time, because i saw that on sale in their current sales circular.

i shop at both 'brick and mortar' stores and online. i compare prices on many things i buy, actual stores vs buying them online (including any shipping costs). it's surprising to me (still) that sometimes the best price is found online.

i don't particularly enjoy shopping, it's more of a necessary thing to do for me. i plan my shopping, make my list, make sure i stick within my set budget, compare prices, and shop sticking to my list. it's rare that i buy much, if anything, extra.

how about you?

sivyaleah · Jun 14, 2015

I do try and keep track, but it is a losing battle brought on mostly by the love of high quality ingredients; i.e. fresh, organic, locavore, etc. We also live in the northeast where prices are generally much higher than in other areas of the US. I do know what I spend on average weekly for 2 of us - which has a range depending on what is left in the house on any given week. Typically, however, my bill runs me about $150 plus or minus weekly which does NOT include food/supplies for the kitties. I know this sounds somewhat snobby, believe me I'm happy to eat junk food too but overall it isn't how we eat.

I haven't used coupons in years. Buying 2 for 1 is not good for me for instance with only 2 people to feed. I don't have that much room to store. Plus, more so, the items coupons are geared towards most frequently are items I don't purchase it seems; or for families with children. I do look at circulars to see if anything is on sale as far as meats, chicken, seafood and such are concerned. And since I rarely use prepackaged or convenience foods, it does me little good. Last, going to places like Costco or Bj's is pointless for food - everything is packed in giant sizes and we just can't utilize it without it going bad. I've thought about buying one of those food saver machines, but they are SO expensive - and the supplies cost a lot too.

Most of the time I shop at larger grocers. Wegmans is my go-to, I like Kings also. I've come to find the likes of Shop-Rite a huge annoyance. Whole Foods is opening soon and I'm looking forward to that. Now and then I will shop online for staples. I probably should do that more often.

Shopping can be either a chore or enjoyable depending on mood and energy level. At best, it's a couple of hours usually to myself to meal plan and have some alone time too. At worst, it's a painful experience when my knees are giving me problems (some days are better than others). I do enjoy it a lot better than any other kind of shopping, that's for sure!

-_aj_- · Jun 14, 2015

I try and watch what I'm spending it's easier going on my own rather with the other half he will just spend!
I do tend to check leaflets see what's coming in where and see what's on sale that week like the super six At aldi.
Don't tend to use coupons don't really get many

And I hate shopping I do some online to ease the burden of going out to the shops haha

denice · Jun 14, 2015

I do 99 percent of my shopping for food and essentials like cleaning and laundry supplies at a store that has the card and gives cents off of gas depending on how much I have spent. I get my new total for that month on my receipt.

I don't do a lot of shopping online. I generally get things online that I can't get at a store here. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I could count my online purchases for 6 months on one hand and that includes occasionally buying a cat food that I can't find at a store here.

I don't use coupons. I have found them to be more trouble than they are worth. Most of what I see coupons for are things that I don't normally buy. Using coupons would actually end up costing me money because I would be buying things I wouldn't have bought if I didn't have the coupon.

muffy · Jun 14, 2015

No, I don't keep track of my monthly expenses and I don't use coupons or use sales circulars.I just buy what I need and try not to worry about the cost. I rarely shop online for food. I almost always shop at a grocery store and since I enjoy eating I also enjoy shopping.

stewball · Jun 14, 2015

Ifdon't keep track of what I spend or prices.
We don't get many coupons here but iuuse the ones for materna baby food and nappies for my youngest granddaughter to help out.
What's a brick and mortar store

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 14, 2015

sivyaleah said:
I do try and keep track, but it is a losing battle brought on mostly by the love of high quality ingredients; i.e. fresh, organic, locavore, etc. We also live in the northeast where prices are generally much higher than in other areas of the US. I do know what I spend on average weekly for 2 of us - which has a range depending on what is left in the house on any given week. Typically, however, my bill runs me about $150 plus or minus weekly which does NOT include food/supplies for the kitties. I know this sounds somewhat snobby, believe me I'm happy to eat junk food too but overall it isn't how we eat.

I haven't used coupons in years. Buying 2 for 1 is not good for me for instance with only 2 people to feed. I don't have that much room to store. Plus, more so, the items coupons are geared towards most frequently are items I don't purchase it seems; or for families with children. I do look at circulars to see if anything is on sale as far as meats, chicken, seafood and such are concerned. And since I rarely use prepackaged or convenience foods, it does me little good. Last, going to places like Costco or Bj's is pointless for food - everything is packed in giant sizes and we just can't utilize it without it going bad. I've thought about buying one of those food saver machines, but they are SO expensive - and the supplies cost a lot too.

Most of the time I shop at larger grocers. Wegmans is my go-to, I like Kings also. I've come to find the likes of Shop-Rite a huge annoyance. Whole Foods is opening soon and I'm looking forward to that. Now and then I will shop online for staples. I probably should do that more often.

Shopping can be either a chore or enjoyable depending on mood and energy level. At best, it's a couple of hours usually to myself to meal plan and have some alone time too. At worst, it's a painful experience when my knees are giving me problems (some days are better than others). I do enjoy it a lot better than any other kind of shopping, that's for sure!

it doesn't sound 'somewhat snobby' to me, it just sounds like you're eating well and making good home-cooked meals.

i do buy some food items in bulk, even though mine is a household of one human (and two cats). i've got a whole lot of freezer space, partly because i shop once a month (and used to shop once every two months, for several years) and so i must freeze perishables of various kinds. i buy my bread flours in 50 lb bags as well as vital wheat gluten in #10 cans, and i buy my spices in bulk (in my choice of sizes from 1 oz to 16 oz, depending on how often i use each spice) -- i buy all those items online, for the best price and quality.

Winchester · Jun 15, 2015

Judy, a brick and mortar store is a regular store that you walk into versus an online store.

Rick has us on a budget and we stick to that budget as much as we can. We know how much we can spend on groceries and I really try to stay within that amount. Most of the time, I do fairly well, but sometimes when there are really good sales going on or if I'm planning a large family dinner or picnic, well, I go over. I don't shop online for groceries at all. We do use coupons, both from online sources and from the newspaper; I'm pretty careful with coupons, too.

On Sunday mornings, I get our local grocery circular in my email and I sit down with pen and paper and work on my list. Throughout the week, as I use things, I note them on my list as I go. I figure out what I have coupons for, check the circular, then work with cookbooks to figure out what our menus will be. Rick may suggest a couple meals, particularly if we haven't eaten something in a while that he really likes. I check my "What's in the Freezer?" list to see what we might be getting low on....for example, I have six pounds of butter in the basement freezer right now. Butter is on sale this week at 2/6, so I'm buying a few pounds to add to my stash. I just opened my last bag of sugar to fill my sugar jar, so now I need sugar. As soon as I open something, it goes on my list; that way I rarely run out of anything.

We have two large freezers in the basement. One is for meats and poultry, casseroles, quarts of pasta sauce, soups, etc. The other one is for garden produce, baked goods, quarts of applesauce, quarts of pureed pumpkin, blueberries, etc.

I think it helps that we cook mostly from scratch; in some ways, it's cheaper than buying a lot of convenience packages at the store.

We do a lot of local shopping. We buy from a local butcher. We hit the local farmers market during the summer. We have a local cheesemaker (right up the road a couple miles from us) and we buy cheese from there. They used to make mainly baby Swiss, but they've recently started to branch out a bit. Rick was in there the other day and came with a really nice Gouda cheese (and it was only $4 a pound, much cheaper than at the grocery store), some baby Swiss, and some farmers cheese.

I don't mind shopping, but I don't like grocery shopping in a really crowded store. There are way too many people who have no idea what they're doing and they're running around like chickens, trying to figure out what they need, what is located in which aisle, what they forgot. Too many people not paying attention, too many people on cell phones, while trying to handle a cart. Makes me crazy.

The price of chocolate is getting ridiculous; I can no longer find it in 8-ounce packages, now it's only sold in 4-ounce packages, but for the same price. The price of eggs (and chickens, too) will be going through the roof; it's starting already . The price of beef is terrible. Butter is ridiculous. I took notice that P & G must have changed their formula in Tide detergent again. It seems to be more liquidy or something; it's not nearly as thick as it used to be. A can of tuna seems to have more "juice" than it used to have. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. But it seems like prices are just skyrocketing.

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 15, 2015

-_aj_- said:
I try and watch what I'm spending it's easier going on my own rather with the other half he will just spend!
I do tend to check leaflets see what's coming in where and see what's on sale that week like the super six At aldi.
Don't tend to use coupons don't really get many

And I hate shopping I do some online to ease the burden of going out to the shops haha

i've taught myself to look while not buying when i'm shopping -- at all the interesting, cool, or tasty looking items i see.

i check the aldi circular before i go shopping, but am not familiar with 'the super six'. what are the super six? my local aldi's had 8 oz chunks of assorted cheeses on sale for $1.59 when i went shopping this time. i bought 11 chunks -- best price i've seen for 8 oz cheese chunks in a very long time. i also bought canned condensed soups at aldi's, and my meal plan has soup with cheese/crackers in it for this month -- so i'll easily use up those 11 cheese chunks.

i'm not particular about whether i buy things online or in physical stores. it's where i find the better price, quality (for some items, like bread flour), and availability. i always enjoy browsing the internet looking at things for my cats though.

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 15, 2015

Denice said:
I do 99 percent of my shopping for food and essentials like cleaning and laundry supplies at a store that has the card and gives cents off of gas depending on how much I have spent. I get my new total for that month on my receipt.

I don't do a lot of shopping online. I generally get things online that I can't get at a store here. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I could count my online purchases for 6 months on one hand and that includes occasionally buying a cat food that I can't find at a store here.

I don't use coupons. I have found them to be more trouble than they are worth. Most of what I see coupons for are things that I don't normally buy. Using coupons would actually end up costing me money because I would be buying things I wouldn't have bought if I didn't have the coupon.

oh, that's smart! i get cash back rewards from purchases made with my credit card, which i love. i also pay off my monthly credit card bill in full every month -- so i never pay interest.

that makes sense. there are items i order online because i can't get them at a store here too.

i agree. my dad used to say, 'it's not a deal if you don't need it'. i keep that in mind when shopping.

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 15, 2015

Muffy said:
No, I don't keep track of my monthly expenses and I don't use coupons or use sales circulars.I just buy what I need and try not to worry about the cost. I rarely shop online for food. I almost always shop at a grocery store and since I enjoy eating I also enjoy shopping.

it's interesting what different people do and don't do!

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 15, 2015

Stewball said:
Ifdon't keep track of what I spend or prices.
We don't get many coupons here but iuuse the ones for materna baby food and nappies for my youngest granddaughter to help out.
What's a brick and mortar store

as @Winchester posted, a brick and mortar store is a store with an actual physical presence and not just a virtual/online store. the term 'brick and mortar' is sometimes the easiest way to make it clear that we're referring to a 'regular store that you walk into'.

if i'm not mistaken (i don't have children, so am not particularly familiar with baby/child care items), baby care items can be expensive. or at least with items like baby food and 'nappies', so many of them are used that over time they become a big expense. i'm sure it helps your granddaughter's parents, that you use those coupons for the baby food and nappies.

stewball · Jun 15, 2015

I try to buy food and nappies every week for them. They are expensive especially nappies. In my days we had the material ones that got washed and gave nappy rash.

kntrygrl256 · Jun 15, 2015

Mine will be easy.... LOL

Great questions!!!!!!

Do you keep track of your monthly shopping expenses?

        NOT NEAR AS MUCH AS I SHOULD

Do you keep an eye on rising food prices? Keep track of certain food items prices?

          YES BUT ONLY THE MAIN FOODS I BUY MOST OFTEN

Do you use coupons? Look at the sales circulars before shopping?

         NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD, ONLY WHEN THEY ARE ON THE ITEMS I PURCHASE

Do you shop at 'brick and mortar' stores, or online? Or a combination of both?

         BRICK AND MORTER, I LIKE KNOWING I CAN TOUCH ITEMS BEFORE PURCHASING THEM

Do you enjoy shopping?

        NO!!!!!     I HATE SHOPPING WITH A PASSION!!!!!!!

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 15, 2015

Winchester said:
Judy, a brick and mortar store is a regular store that you walk into versus an online store.

Rick has us on a budget and we stick to that budget as much as we can. We know how much we can spend on groceries and I really try to stay within that amount. Most of the time, I do fairly well, but sometimes when there are really good sales going on or if I'm planning a large family dinner or picnic, well, I go over. I don't shop online for groceries at all. We do use coupons, both from online sources and from the newspaper; I'm pretty careful with coupons, too.

On Sunday mornings, I get our local grocery circular in my email and I sit down with pen and paper and work on my list. Throughout the week, as I use things, I note them on my list as I go. I figure out what I have coupons for, check the circular, then work with cookbooks to figure out what our menus will be. Rick may suggest a couple meals, particularly if we haven't eaten something in a while that he really likes. I check my "What's in the Freezer?" list to see what we might be getting low on....for example, I have six pounds of butter in the basement freezer right now. Butter is on sale this week at 2/6, so I'm buying a few pounds to add to my stash. I just opened my last bag of sugar to fill my sugar jar, so now I need sugar. As soon as I open something, it goes on my list; that way I rarely run out of anything.

We have two large freezers in the basement. One is for meats and poultry, casseroles, quarts of pasta sauce, soups, etc. The other one is for garden produce, baked goods, quarts of applesauce, quarts of pureed pumpkin, blueberries, etc.

I think it helps that we cook mostly from scratch; in some ways, it's cheaper than buying a lot of convenience packages at the store.

We do a lot of local shopping. We buy from a local butcher. We hit the local farmers market during the summer. We have a local cheesemaker (right up the road a couple miles from us) and we buy cheese from there. They used to make mainly baby Swiss, but they've recently started to branch out a bit. Rick was in there the other day and came with a really nice Gouda cheese (and it was only $4 a pound, much cheaper than at the grocery store), some baby Swiss, and some farmers cheese.

I don't mind shopping, but I don't like grocery shopping in a really crowded store. There are way too many people who have no idea what they're doing and they're running around like chickens, trying to figure out what they need, what is located in which aisle, what they forgot. Too many people not paying attention, too many people on cell phones, while trying to handle a cart. Makes me crazy.

The price of chocolate is getting ridiculous; I can no longer find it in 8-ounce packages, now it's only sold in 4-ounce packages, but for the same price. The price of eggs (and chickens, too) will be going through the roof; it's starting already . The price of beef is terrible. Butter is ridiculous. I took notice that P & G must have changed their formula in Tide detergent again. It seems to be more liquidy or something; it's not nearly as thick as it used to be. A can of tuna seems to have more "juice" than it used to have. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. But it seems like prices are just skyrocketing.

i have a budget too, but i'm thinking the way i work mine may be different than the standard way -- like you may be doing your budget. i start with my income, then deduct mortgage and bills. then i look at what's left each month and either deduct planned purchases of non-food supplies (including cat related, like food or litter or etc) or set aside money for upcoming planned non-food purchases. the rest is then available for food purchases, but i always decide the maximum i want to spend for food based on how much i want to set aside for the next home improvement(s). i have two emergency funds, one for cat medical needs and the other a gen'l emergency fund -- i generally don't need to dip into these for unexpected cat medical needs or for unexpected expenses of mine.

i do that too, buy extra when items i use on a regular basis are on sale. i freeze my butter too. i buy certain food items online -- all my spices, bread flours, vital wheat gluten, oatmeal (both quick and old fashioned) are some. all except the bread flours cost me much (much) less buying them online (including shipping).

i do meal planning based on what i have on hand, buying what i need to complete the recipe too. and i keep what i call a 'running list' of items i've gotten low on or have run out of too! then use those two to make my shopping list, and add any sale items of things i use on a regular basis. i always end up trimming down my shopping list, so i'm within the set amount i've decided to spend for shopping that month.

i've got two freezers too! i need a lot of freezer space for freezing gallons of milk, as well as bread flours. then there's local fruits, freezer jams and fruit butters, and meats/veggies/assorted. and i cook mostly from scratch too. i feel it costs less too, and i'm able to eat better.

oh, i wish there were a local cheesemaker near me! well, i've never looked into that, so maybe there is one. i'll have to do some internet searching to see what might be in my area. i do have a heluva good (brand) outlet store very close to where i live.

yes, that's part of why i don't particularly enjoy shopping. and also part of the reason i go into the store with a shopping list and just get everything into my shopping cart, pay, then get out of the store - pretty much as quickly as possible.

i don't think it's just you. prices are skyrocketing, and companies are reducing sizes of their items or adding more water/fillers while charging the same prices. this is one of my pet peeves, companies charging the same price for less. many times this action by a company is what motivates me to find a different/better solution. for example, cake mixes. it must have been several years ago that the cake mix boxes shrunk (while the price stayed the same). my reaction to that was, 'oh, heck no'. so i did some research online and found a recipe for homemade cake mix base, which you add additional ingredient(s) in order to make into yellow, white, or spice cake mixes. i make my own cake mixes now, and the result for the cake mix companies is that they lost my business completely. i have another base recipe for muffin mix, which lists add-ins to make something like 15 or twenty different kinds of muffins.

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 15, 2015

kntrygrl256 said:
Mine will be easy.... LOL

Great questions!!!!!!

Do you keep track of your monthly shopping expenses?

        NOT NEAR AS MUCH AS I SHOULD

Do you keep an eye on rising food prices? Keep track of certain food items prices?

          YES BUT ONLY THE MAIN FOODS I BUY MOST OFTEN

Do you use coupons? Look at the sales circulars before shopping?

         NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD, ONLY WHEN THEY ARE ON THE ITEMS I PURCHASE

Do you shop at 'brick and mortar' stores, or online? Or a combination of both?

         BRICK AND MORTER, I LIKE KNOWING I CAN TOUCH ITEMS BEFORE PURCHASING THEM

Do you enjoy shopping?

        NO!!!!!     I HATE SHOPPING WITH A PASSION!!!!!!!

i'm glad you enjoyed the questions!

i shop online quite often. because i can't touch the items i buy online before i purchase them, i read reviews of the items and many times look into them further -- like contacting the company or going to the product/company's website. but then, living in a rural area there isn't such a wide variety or choices of stores within a reasonable distance from my home.

Norachan · Jun 15, 2015

mickNsnicks2mom said:
i just did my monthly shopping yesterday, so for today's question of the day i'll stick to that general topic and related.

Do you keep track of your monthly shopping expenses?

Not that closely. My salary varies from month to month, so I take out what I need for rent and bills, save the same amount every month in case of emergencies and spend whatever's left.

Do you keep an eye on rising food prices? Keep track of certain food items prices?

Cat food yes, human food not so much.

Do you use coupons? Look at the sales circulars before shopping?

Japan's not big on coupons, unfortunately, but most stores issue a point card that gives you around $20 discount a month if you shop there regularly. (I have a lot of point cards.)

Do you shop at 'brick and mortar' stores, or online? Or a combination of both?

I buy huge boxes of dry cat food online because it works out cheaper and delivery is free. I get soap, shampoo, face creams, detergent etc online too, because I only use the cruelty free stuff and the nearest bricks and mortar stores are in Tokyo. Every thing else I get from the local supermarkets.

Do you enjoy shopping?

No, I hate it. I get panic attacks in big department stores. I only buy what I absolutely need and often convince myself that I don't really need it because I can't face going shopping.

jcat · Jun 16, 2015

I absolutely hate shopping, so my husband does just about all the grocery shopping and watching for sales, etc.. He keeps track of prices and so on. I'll stop and pick up a few items like milk or bread when we're running low.

Just about all our cat supplies are bought online (by me), and I watch for specials and take advantage of bulk discounts.

Kat0121 · Jun 16, 2015

Do you keep track of your monthly shopping expenses? Yes. I have to unfortunately

Do you keep an eye on rising food prices? Keep track of certain food items prices? Yes. I know how much pretty much everything I need costs

Do you use coupons? Look at the sales circulars before shopping? I do use coupons if they are for something I was going to buy anyway. Yes. Walmart does price matching so I will have them match a cheaper price at the register and then go online and use the savings catcher so they can catch lower prices I may have missed by entering my receipt number. If they find a better price locally, they give you the difference back and you can have them put it on a gift card or an AMEX Bluebird card. I let that build up and then use it for future shopping trips. Every penny counts

Do you shop at 'brick and mortar' stores, or online? Or a combination of both? Yes. I shop at B&M stores and online. Most of my online purchases for staples are through the Amazon subscribe and save program.

Do you enjoy shopping? Sometimes. I hate shopping when the store is crowded or when there's only 1 or 2 checkouts open or both

micknsnicks2mom · Jun 16, 2015

Norachan said:
I take out what I need for rent and bills, save the same amount every month in case of emergencies and spend whatever's left.

i like that way, it's simple and easy!

i also like the point cards concept. much easier than coupons -- hunting for them, clipping, then trying to remember to present them when paying for purchases.

it surprises me many times how shopping online for many items can be less expensive (including shipping, or with free shipping).

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