The holiday season is a time for entertaining. Whether you’re having folks over to your house, or making a dish to take to someone else’s, this time of year your grocery bill can be eye popping. Here are a few tips to help you save some money at the grocery store.
Change Where You Shop
There can be a large disparity in the prices that grocery stores charge. There are the high-end stores like Whole Foods, there are discount grocers, and several in between. Our local news outlet here in Portland did a comparison of seven chains in the metro area on a list of five common grocery items. There was a difference of 30 percent between the highest-priced store and the lowest-priced store.
The prospect of saving almost a third on your grocery bill is an incentive to at least check out your alternatives. Even if you are shopping organic or have other specialty food requirements, you may be surprised at the selection offered by the lower-cost grocery stores.
Avoid Paying for Packaging
Another grocery store savings trick is to avoid paying for packaging. The more that goes into making food portable and presentable, the more it costs. If you can slice it, divide it, or put it in your own container, you will save. In many cases, just a few extra minutes of your time can give you all the advantages offered by the packaged products and save you lots of money. The following table compares a few packaged food items to their unpackaged alternatives.
| Prepackaged | Unpackaged | ||
| Bottled ice tea (6 pack) | $9.89 | Home-brewed ice tea (same volume) | $1.00 |
| Steel-cut oatmeal (24 oz package) | $3.00 | Bulk steel-cut oats (24 oz) | $0.60 |
| GoGo squeeZ applesauce (12 pack) | $8.79 | Applesauce (Same volume) | $3.84 |
| McCormick ground cinnamon (2.4 oz) | $2.37 | Bulk cinnamon (2.4 oz) | $0.58 |
| Sliced apples (multipack, 10 oz total) | $4.49 | Apples (10 oz) | $2.18 |
Shopping the Sales
The final tool for squeezing every last penny out of your grocery store visit is couponing and shopping the sales. Carrie Rocha manages a website, www.pocketyourdollars.com, with a coupon database and currently running deals at a variety of national chain stores. She also wrote the book Pocket YourDollars: 5 Attitude Changes That Will Help You Pay Down Debt, Avoid FinancialStress, and Keep More of What You Make. She advocates shopping the sales and claims that you can shave 30 to 40 percent off your grocery bill if you buy what you use when it is on sale instead of when you need it.
This time of year, it’s easy for your grocery bill to get out of hand. But with a little planning and a rethink of how and where you buy your food, there are big savings to be had.
Julie Grandstaff 