Saving Money tip #1

 Going to a discount grocery store

My husband and I have decided we wanted to try to be debt free, besides our mortgage, within one year. But to do that we have had to take a big look at our spending habits and make cuts. One of the cuts that we decided to make, was to try to trim down our grocery bill, from about $110 to $50 a week. All of my friends are fascinated with how my family of 3 spends less than $50 a week at the grocery store. We are not one of those families that if we go over the $50 we start putting things back at the register, we will just try to make up the difference somewhere else in our budget for the week.

We also had to learn, that going to discount  stores can save us more money, rather than going to the bigger  name brand chains. The discount stores offer the same type of foods with just a different off brand name on them and sometimes I find the big brand names there also. Going to the big brand  name chain stores you are having to pay for the shelf stocking,  credit card fees, coupon discounts, cart clean up and the grocery bags that are being used. All of this is added into the cost of your groceries. I am not a brand snob. I will buy the store brand first and if we don’t like it I just won’t buy it again. I have yet to find a off brand that my family does not like.

One thing that I have discovered by not going to the  big brand name stores is that I am not persuaded to buy anything other than what is on my list. There is usually not  seasonal decorations, shoes, clothes, cleaning products that I want to try, toys my child is crying for, clearance items and etc…in a discount grocery store.  I know we all can relate to this. We only go in for a few items and walk out spending a fortune on other items we did not even intend on buying.  I only go to a big name chain store when I can not get the item at the discount store and I try to avoid going to these stores weekly. I try to only go into these stores when I have to and that is usually about once a month.

When I first started going to a grocery discount store I was skeptical that my family would not like it. My husband was kind of put back that you had to pay 25 cents to rent the cart, we had to supply our own bags or place the items in box’s and all the items were just stacked in open box’s. The first time we went I had went thru the sales ads that day and wrote down the prices of the big chain stores on the items I knew I wanted and I compared them with the items we were placing in the cart. I found out that the price was a big difference. Once my husband saw the price at the check out lane, he was totally won over. He did not even say a word when we had to bag the groceries up after checking out.

If you never have checked out a discount grocery store. I would highly recommend it. I have been going to  a discount store  for over 3 months now and I truly like going there. I disliked going to the grocery store, I disliked the crowds and especially what my bill was going to be at the end of the trip. I could never get out of the grocery store under thirty minutes either, it always took me over an hour to get out. The discount store that I go to  offers a double the money back guarantee and replacement of the food item if your not satisfied with their product. You can not go wrong with that.





1 comment:

  1. That's a great plan, in my working life I was a financial councilor, dealing with people on the brink of bankruptcy - It's not pretty!

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