Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

Grocery Shopping Blunders

October 26, 2007 at 12:37 am · Filed under Bargain Buys, Do It Yourself, Shopping Adventures, Suzanne's Postings, Trends, Uncategorized

Like most people, I like saving money without having to work too hard. But unlike most people I will work at it when required. I will wait to pounce at a sample sale, drive out of the way to get a great deal on an appliance, gadget or piece of furniture. Do what ever it takes in most cases. Where I am at my weakest is grocery shopping. Though I will look at the price and compare, I tend to buy what I like to eat. Prices be damned!

I do know enough not to shop when I am hungry and to buy in volume and pounce on store discounts, but use coupons…. No way. My husband is the king of coupon shopping, consistently saving near 50% every time he shops. That’s why he does the bulk of the grocery shopping.

However the king is out of town with a tour for a couple of weeks leaving me to blow the family budget! I promptly went out and bought items I knew I’d like: Pesto sauce, mushrooms, zucchini, wine, breads, yogurts, cottage cheese, elaborate salad ingredients and such. Yummy, healthy stuff. A grocery bill that would normally run my hubby $50 is $80 when I grocery shop.

But the “piece de resistance” was when I blindly went in to buy large round Globe grapes for a Halloween Haunt at my daughter’s school… $2.99 a pound at Ralph’s ended up being $35 for 4 bags of grapes. I was too dumb founded to object at the register and walked out of the store mumbling to myself.

I have failed grocery shopping 101. I hadn’t planned ahead, I hadn’t compared grocery ads…. I hadn’t done anything to insure I wasn’t overpaying. I just went and mindlessly bought.

The Bargain Queen’s crown is all a-twitter. I’d better come up with some spectacular bargains to return to my normal self. I’ll keep you posted.

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4 Comments »

Rochelle said,

October 31, 2007 @ 9:38 am

Even if you planned ahead, compared grocery ads, etc., you still may not have gotten a better deal on the grapes at this time of year. You may have purchased cheaper ones but they wouldn’t look as good as the grapes in your picuture. One way you could have saved money would be to buy a fruit that is in season.
Sharon Schorr said,

November 1, 2007 @ 4:55 pm

Perhaps you would be interested to learn that I save hundreds of dollars and hundreds of minutes when doing my grocery shopping.

1) Place all the new coupon circulars from each week’s Sunday paper in a file folder and write the date of the newspaper on the folder. Do not cut any coupons until you are ready to use them. To find a coupon, go to #2.

2) FREE interactive database listing all of the grocery coupons that have come out in the newspaper = http://www.couponmom.com
Click on “Virtual Coupon Organizer” then choose your state.

3) $1.00 for 4 week trial (then $5 per month)
CALIFORNIA – Vons, Pavilions, Ralphs, Safeway, Pak ‘N Save, Stater Bros.
If you have your Sunday newspaper and TERI’S LIST, you will have everything you need. Each week, TERI’S LIST matches weekly sales and specials, both advertised and un-advertised to coupons from weeks or months past, along with new coupons from this week’s Sunday paper. You log in to TERI’S LIST each week, check off the items you want to buy, print your customized list, pull the corresponding coupons and you’re off to save thousands of dollars every year.
http://www.thegrocerygame.com

I print the entire list for each store then my husband checks the items that he wants. After that I walk around the house checking supplies & mark the items that I want to buy. Then I log back in to the grocery game, check off the items we want to buy, print our customized list, cut the corresponding coupons from my file folders (she gives me the dates) and we are off to the store.

4) http://www.mygrocerydeals.com
If you don’t want someone else to do all the work for you (see #3), this is a way to research and compare one store’s weekly ad against another. While registration is required, this is a free site and covers the entire country. You can go to the site any time and you will find an accurate list of all the items on sale at the grocery stores and supermarkets where you shop.

(Note: All of these websites were discovered by me in one of my other favorite bargain resources, Debt-Proof Living, a monthly newsletter that I receive (DebtProofLiving.com).
jennifer said,

November 14, 2007 @ 4:29 pm

I have found that the best place for fruits & veggies plus many other items is COSTCO! You may end up buying more than you wanted or needed, but it will still be cheaper than 1/2 the amount at a regular grocery store. For instance…I bought a huge bag of carrots & a bag with 5 heads of lettuce for a couple bucks each. The only thing about costco is that it is seasonal, but go look…you will fimd amazing deals!
Dee Luna said,

November 21, 2007 @ 5:27 pm

This is all great information but since I shop for one (myself) I stick with the local markets and of course cut the coupons.
Keep up the good work informing everyone on how to save.

Dee Luna