Grocery Store Savings

Kroger is an awesome grocery store where I live. I do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart and BJ’s but go to Kroger for their sale items. There sales are amazing and their produce is really fresh. About once a month they run a special with select items. It is buy 10 of the items and get $5 off. Mix and match. These deals are so amazing. Particularly because the items are also on sale on top of taking the $5 discount. Here is everything I bought.

12 – Smart Ones Microwave Meals $1.38 – $1.68 each
4 – Bumble Bee Tuna – $0.49 each
7 – Pasta Roni - $0.79 each
8 – Rozini Smart Pasta - $0.49 each
9 – Del Monte canned tomatoes - $0.69 each
3 – Bird’s Eye Microwave Bag pasta and rice $1.49 each
3 – Classico Pasta Sauce - $1.99 each

Not in the 10 for $5 deal but on sale.
3 for $10 Morning Star Corn Dogs
Strawberries

I combined my manufactures coupons with the discounts along with a coupon from my City Pass book for $5 off a $50 purchase. Total before coupons and discounts $120. Total after coupons, $48.44.

The Rozini pasta is our favorite pasta that is around $1.50 at Walmart. Two of them were free after my coupon I combined with it. I had three coupons for a $1 off two boxes of the Pasta Roni. The pasta sauce came to 99 cents each after my other coupons I combined with it. Unfortunately for me a few days later Harris Teeter came out with a great sale on Classico pasta sauce and it only would have been 29 cents a jar. It really pays to do your research when grocery shopping. I could not have seen that great deal at Harris Teeter but still ended up paying a good price.

Since January I have been really committed to keeping our grocery bill under $800 a month. The last three years our monthly average has been around $1100 a month. I did a great job keeping it down when I was unemployed but stopped paying a lot of attention to it after I found a job. The biggest thing for me to save money is to plan out the grocery list for two weeks. Put down items for this week’s grocery list I need now and which coupons will expire that week and the following week for items I can wait a bit longer on. This helps so much! I am not over buying on items I do not need. Of course I stocked up at Kroger because the prices were too good not to but in the long run it saves me money. I am happy to report I have been able to stay under the $800 mark so far this year and that even includes going all natural and/or organic meat and eggs and having fresh fruit and vegetables. It pays to map out my grocery shopping. Lately I’ve been stopping at four different stores each week for the best deals just like I did when I was unemployed. The stores are a mix of Walmart, BJ’s, Lowes, Food Lion, Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Earth Fare.

Now for those of you going how in the world do you spend $800 or even more than that at the grocery store? My cost also includes toiletries, pet supplies, and cleaning supplies. Tony and I also take our lunch to work every day. Save your receipts for a month and add it up. I think you will be surprised at how much you actually spend.