Grocery shopping

I think I finally have my grocery/food budget under control. When I first moved into my place, I was spending far too much in this category. According to my spending report from my bank, I spent $420 on groceries/$85 at restaurants in July, $256/$24 in August, $323/$69 in September, $279/$55 in October, $292/$33 in November, and $193/$89 in December. These calculations aren’t 100% accurate, but for sure a safe estimate.

My fix? I’ve been trying to do most of my grocery shopping at Aldi. A lot of people (at least that I’m aware of, and myself once too) have a pretty poor perception of this place, but shopping there has saved me and helped me save a lot of money. Check out their website to learn more about them. Anyways, because they have such a small selection of products, it makes shopping so much easier (and safer!) for me. When I go into a store, I love love LOVE to look at EVERYTHING! I find myself scanning through isles that I do not need to be going down. I love seeing all the new products on the shelves, the fancy sale tags. All this hustle and bustle makes me space out and puts me on sensory overload (which I love) and I find myself wanting to try new things and justifying the purchases! My most recent example…

Last week I was at SuperTarget to pickup contacts. I also needed a few grocery items – bananas and dog food. As I paced around the store, trying to find the dog food, I was lured into each and every isle. Soon enough, I found all sorts of crap in my cart – cottage cheese, yogurt, frozen dinners, whip cream, pudding. I un-shopped, putting everything back but the frozen dinners (which were what I thought cheaper than the ones on sale at another store…but they were actually $.50) dog food and bananas.

Anyways, at Aldi I get my basics/necessities – Produce and dairy mostly. This weekend I discovered that their eggs are the same, if not a little more than eggs at other grocery stores, but as far as milk and yogurt go – way cheaper. Produce there is much cheaper as well and I’ve never had an issue with quality like I have at other supermarkets. This weekend I bought, apples, tangerines (both 5lb bags), 4pk of pears, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, two bags of salad mix, milk, eggs, yogurt, baby carrots and celery and spent only $16. If I were to have bought this at a regular store, I would have easily spent at least $30.

I still buy my meat elsewhere, just because they don’t have an in-house butcher and it makes me kind of leery. Aside from that fact, they lack a selection of really lean meats.

Watching sales on things like low point frozen dinners has been a big saver too. I typically only pick them up when they are on special and lately, that’s been quite often. A lot of the local stores have been running Lean Cuisines for 50% off – so most are right around $1.50 – no fuss, healthy, tasty dinner and lunch for $3? Um, yes please!

Another money saving tip... brining my own bags! My Target gives me a $.05 discount for each bag I don't use! The last time I was there I saved $.25 - not much, but over the course of time that really adds up!