Fewer trips to the grocery store lead to greater savings

A few weeks ago I overheard a family member lamenting the fact that she found she was spending a lot more money lately on groceries. It wasn’t only the increasing costs of food she found upsetting, though that was bad enough for a couple on a fixed income.

We did a little digging into what was causing the spike in a grocery bill for two retired people, and we found some interesting new developments.

For one thing, there were more trips to the grocery store—quite a few, in fact. Over the past six months she has found herself chauffeuring another family member to the store on an almost-daily basis to pick up this and that. Turns out that the passenger was wanting to get out just for the fun of it and that was costing both of the women quite a lot more than they were used to paying.

The odd thing is, they thought they were being “frugal” because they took advertisements with them to the store that would match prices. But once inside, they both were tempted by other items they thought they needed and before long, they noticed that they were writing a lot more checks and their bank balances were dropping at a steady clip.

We checked out the ads that they most often used and found out that some were good for three days, while most were good for an entire week. We also got into the spirit of savings and realized that the two of them could come up with a week’s worth of menus (each woman has one other person in the home) quite easily.

With those ideas in mind, we went to work on menus, and before long we had matched the special ads with planned meals, coordinated the dates on the ads themselves and the women picked out one day to go grocery shopping.

Everything has gone very well for both couples, and they have shared their new-found wisdom with others who have found themselves in similar circumstances.

Now, with the money and time they have saved in shopping trips over the past few weeks, the women and some friends have found they have more time to spend with one another and it’s not costing them a thing. In fact, they’ve gained something precious: Peace of mind.

Lessons learned: Don’t shop every day; you’ll spend far less on groceries if you make a list for at least a week’s worth of menus, and stick to it. Scour the newspaper food ads, and plan your menus based on what’s on sale. And don’t use grocery shopping as your form of entertainment

For many more ways to save money on food, buy our eBook, Real Food, Real Cheap: How to Save Money on Your Food Bill and Still Eat Well, http://frugallivingpress.com/browse.php?sid=1256235293-752739&sort=2&pg=2

~Margi L. Washburn