Question of the Day, Friday, January 10

[Winchester]

Good morning!

Let's talk about buying groceries. How often do you buy groceries; are you on a set schedule (once a week, every other week) or do you run in to the market when you're out of something? Do you make a list before you go, check the flyers, or do you just go? How much do you spend on groceries; do you have a set budget?

We used to grab our groceries on Monday nights. Lately we've been going on Tuesday morning. I'm trying to go every other week instead of every week, but it's not working out that well. I always make a list from the flyer, get my coupons ready, work on menus for the following week, etc. We pretty much only go to one store (Giant); I've never been one to go from store to store. That may change now since we've retired; I keep wanting to check out Aldi's. For years we managed on about $80 for the two of us and the cats, including household supplies, cat supplies, etc. We can't do it anymore; prices have just increased too much. We've been spending about $100 a week; I think that, if I really tried, I might be able decrease the bill a bit some weeks.

How about you? What's your grocery routine?

 

[posiepurrs]

It depends on what I need as to where I shop. If it is paper goods and household stuff, I go to one place but meat, vegetables etc I go to another. Pet supplies are purchased elsewhere. I make a list - always. We could save a lot more if my husband would not make impromptu trips to the store when a craving hits him. Even though I have been retired for a year now I am still working on getting organized. I believe I could shop for basics, once a month and fresh stuff more often, maybe twice a month but like I said, if a craving hits, hubby shops! Pet food is a major purchase here - one is on prescription food. With all of our pets we spend upwards of $400 a month on food (including the prescription food and fluids he needs). I know our food bill will go down once I can get the garden going this spring. I went to Aldis once, and did not like it. It was like a glorified convivence store. I have been told that it has been remodeled and enlarged so I may try it again. My problem is the 2 major grocery stores nearby are higher end stores so I only buy the meat and vegetables from them. Yesterday I got a haul on meat. I got a tray of hamburgers, bacon, over 3 lbs of ground beef, 3 pork tenderloins, round steak, pork ribs, stew meat and cube steaks for $56. I won't need meat for awhile now. I don't get the newspaper to clip coupons but I don't miss it because most of them are for frivolous things (stuff I don't usually purchase).

 

[Elphaba09]

I go when I have to, which is about every two to three weeks. I hate grocery shopping almost as much as I hate clothes shopping. No real list, but I know what we need. I do not look at fliers, but I do have a general budget.

 

[Willowy]

Aldi is cool. But it depends what you like. If you have specific brand preferences, you might not find what you want. They have no choices, just their brand and maybe one other if they got a good deal on it (and it won't be there next time). I think their best deals are on dairy (I can't tell the difference between their brand and other brands), canned/jarred goods, and basic produce like onions or cherry tomatoes. Oh, and wine, but I don't like wine. Everybody raves about it though. And they have overstock specials that everybody enjoys, but that's not consistent. I don't think I could make Aldi my main store but the prices are great for what they do have.

I go to the city once every 2 weeks, hit Costco, Sam's Club, and Walmart, and occasionally Aldi or Hy-Vee if I need something different. I keep a detailed list on my phone and add things whenever I think of them, because if it's not on my list I WILL forget it.

Now that Chewy doesn't have the 13-oz cans of Friskies (Purina stopped making the large cans, boo), I need to find another source for canned cat food. It was nice getting it delivered but all good things come to an end I guess. At this point I think I'll order it online from TSC and do store pickup every other week. What a pain.

I haven't sat down to figure out how much I'm spending on each category. I'm kind of afraid to, lol. And it's hard to sort out what's for the pets and what's for me. But I definitely should try to work out a stricter budget.

 

[DreamerRose]

I've tried different schedules, and about every ten days works for me. I keep a running list of what I'm getting low on on the refrigerator and add anything else before I go. I have a budget, but my "food" budget includes OTC meds, cosmetics, toiletries, cat food and litter, and anything else the grocery stores carry these days, like wine and garden supplies. What I spend on food alone is probably much lower than my budget.

It seems to me, though, that prices at the grocery stores have skyrocketed in the past six months. It's always $20 more than I spent the previous trip.

 

[sivyaleah]

I can only go on weekends since I work full time, and not anywhere near home (I commute from NJ into NYC). I usually try to go Saturday mornings, not too early because it always seems the shelves aren't stocked yet, but around 10ish or so so I'm back by lunchtime.

I have no set budget. I spend approximately $170 a week give or take (remember I'm in a metropolitan area where groceries tend to be a lot more money). I buy what we want/need. But I always kind of buy the same stuff week to week since we are both watching what we eat and there's just no room for being naughty - so not splurge/impulse buying happening although I do splurge on the best quality of what I buy. I go to some specialty stores for things I dislike at supermarkets - like bagels - which I do freeze in bulk because heaven forbid we run out of bagels.

I kind of make a list in that if run out of stuff, it goes on the list (we use Google's shopping app to remind us).

Cat food (wet) is purchased about every 4-5 weeks via Chewy autoship. I p/u Orijens kibble from a local pet store every couple of months when out and about around town.

Coupons are useless for us. We don't shop in bulk, and we don't buy the brands that coupons tend to be for. I guess if we had kids, had room to stock up or ate more commercially processed/prepared/snack foods we'd make use of them, but we don't.

 

[Mia6]

Weekly or twice weekly for me. Probably about $40-50 per week on food, taxables probably about $60.00 per month.
It's just me and I don't eat much meat. I like sandwiches but wasn't in the mood for meat this week. I was on a bagel
kick this and ate some Stouffer's frozen dinners. I got some Gorgonzola and crackers, Granny Smith's, green grapes,
green beans. Ate at McDonald's with Nicole on Monday night. I like to buy a large antipasto and that is like having 3 salads.
Nicole sent down a large piece of coconut cake on Sunday and I called her raving about it, asked her if she had made it. It
was from Pepperidge Farms!! Who knew? I'm in the mood for meatloaf because it was mentioned in the What's for Dinner
thread.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I go when I need to or if there are good deals at the store. I'm just now trying to put together a list, but I'm putting it off. I don't really have a budget, but I usually spend less than $60 every week or two. I worked at a grocery store for 5 years so I know how the sales usually work, so I also coupon a lot. My favorite grocery store doesn't have a location near me, so if I go to my parents' or my sister's houses, I'll stop by one because there are a few stores on my way home. There is also one located near my favorite hiking spot. My favorite grocery store has excellent gas rewards, so if I buy certain items, I get more cents off gas per gallon.

 

[susanm9006]

Really really varies. I buy meats in family packs whenever they have a sale, maybe two or three times a year. Those can be quite expensive but otherwise I probably spend an average of $40 or $50 a week and shop when I am running low on essentials like water for coffee maker, fruit or snacks.

 

[susanm9006]

Mia6 , thanks! You just reminded me that I promised my mom some meatloaf and mashed potato frozen meals. I need to get that done tomorrow!

 

[Mia6]

Mia6 , thanks! You just reminded me that I promised my mom some meatloaf and mashed potato frozen meals. I need to get that done tomorrow!

Yum!!

 

[furmonster mom]

No real routine.
I don't clip coupons
I don't plan menus

I have a basic supply that I stick to for my 'fridge and pantry. When something gets low, I put it on the list.
So, when I go to the store, I always have a list.
I do try to avoid shopping Fri-Sun. I hate crowds.

Sometimes I will splurge on something off the basic supply, or I will take another look at the pantry and decide to change up one of the basics to a new "basic". I've found that I actually skip over about 75% of the grocery aisles unless I need something very specific for a special dish/occasion (like cranberry bread for the holidays). But honestly, I really hate grocery shopping, so I try to keep it pretty simple. A typical grocery trip takes me about 20-30 mins, including check out time.

 

[NY cat man]

We shop on an as-needed basis, so there is no set schedule. If an especially good deal appears in the flyer, we might make a special trip, otherwise we shop about every week to ten days, and make a list of items. Since there are just the 2 of us, our grocery bills don't run that high as we buy at the no-frills places.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

We have a Kroger right down the road from us, so we shop there a lot for convenience. I'd say we spend between 50 and $100/week on food, depending if we need meat or not. I like Kroger's digital coupons and I use them and Ibotta when I can. They also have a decent fuel points program, which helps with the cost of gas.

We usually make big trips to the Sam's Club for bulk meat items that we portion out and put in the deep freezer (we may do that this weekend, actually). We will occasionally go to Aldi, but it's on the other side of town.

We buy cat food maybe once a month. I'm so brokenhearted that Friskies is doing away with their 13oz cans because they were so convenient and cheap. I just started a new job, so we are buying some high-quality food to put in the cats' rotations.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I do one order a week. Sometimes I need to run in for a few things to fill in. Other times I go twice.

 

[Jem]

I go once a week, but there have been times where I have been able to skip a week. I do look at flyers while I compare the sales with what I have in the house to figure out meals. I have been slaking on the meal prep lately, but that's part of my resolution this year. I also coupon when I can and I try to stay under $100. But there are times when I spend more when a good sale is on and I stock up. Like before Christmas, butter will go on sale for $2.99 (the cheapest price that you will ever see, anywhere, that only happens 3 times a year), I will buy the limit the store allows (and go back a couple of times) and freeze it, so I may end up spending close to $40 on butter alone. My store also puts 30-50% off stickers on things that are close to expire, so I tend to spend a bit extra getting multiples of those, even meat as I can always freeze it. I hate and refuse to pay full price for anything other than necessary staples that hardly ever go on sale or I can't stock up on. I always make a list but some sales (as mentioned) I only see once I get to the store.

 

[maggiedemi]

Once a week in the spring/summer/early fall. In winter it's a crapshoot, whenever we are not snowed in.
Walmart & Price Chopper are where we get most of our groceries, then go to Aldi for fun stuff like cheese and frozen foods.
Sometimes I use a list, but mostly browse around for hours.

 

[LTS3]

Hasn't this question been asked before?

My groceries don't include cat food / supplies since I don't buy those at the supermarket. I go to the supermarket every weekend, usually Saturdays. I check the store flyer online on Thursday for the upcoming sales. I buy only enough groceries that I can carry home. I do have a little personal shopping cart but I feel weird rolling it to the supermarket and back I generally spend $30 - $45 on groceries, sometimes less.

I go to the independent market once a week (day varies) for a quart of local milk and "splurge" items like fresh bread or rolls and cheese, sometimes for the local fish vendor who has the day's fresh catch available. I rarely spend more than $20.

Bulk paper goods and bulk snacks are bought at BJs whenever I can tag along with someone who has a membership, usually every other month.

If I'm at Wegmans, the budget goes out the window. I spend close to $100 on items / brands I can't get at the chain supermarket and to-go meals Fortunately a trip to Wegmans is rare.

 

[neely]

We go several times a week because I eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. During the summer months I try to go to the farmers' markets. Cat food depends on when we start to run low. I do use coupons for staples, cleaning products, toiletries and sundries.

 

[Maria Bayote]

I don't usually do groceries, my husband does.

But for cat food, I must be the one to do it, once a week or depending on my cats' appetite.