What is the best way to save money ...

[Peri]

... buying groceries, household supplies, and personal supplies. I am having a hard time trying to figure out which works best.

 

Some people cupon. This works well when you don't limit yourself to products. For example: You have to be willing to use other brands besides the brands you usually use and you are usually limited to prepakaged foods. The only place this works for me is with some personal products and definately with cleaning supplies. Another problem with this is if you forget to buy the Sunday paper. That can throw your savings off track. It also takes considerable planning. I have to plan the day before.

 

Some people go to warehouses like Sams or Costco ( I personally have not found this to work for me). I am not done buying all the things I need and the bill is already $200 or more. DH insists that I should go there but I just don't see the savings there.

 

And then there are those that go to Aldi and Dollar General. I have come to love Aldi because I can now buy my kids all the things they LOVE at a very low price. My problem here is that the fresh produce is limited.

 

I need to find a way to merge all of these methods and make them work without driving myself crazy.

 

What I'm trying to say is: What should I get where? I am sooooooo confused as to what not to get at what location and what I should get at what location. Does that make sense to you guys? I hope so, cause I think I made myself dizzy trying to figure it out myself lol.

[OrganicAnn]

Only you can figure that out.

 

You have to consider too many factors. Are the grocery/discount stores nearby or far away? How much time does it take to coupon vs traveling to various stores? Do you have room to store non-perishables so you can stockpile? But only you can put these factors together in a way that works for you.

[Cindyz]

Have you looked at the grocery game? You don't have to be willing to compromise your brand when using coupons. You just wait until your brand is on sale in conjunction with a coupon and stockpile those items at that time. Using coupons with this method can take awhile to get a really great stockpile but it WILL save a LOT of $$.

[Haiku]

Don't have kids.

 

Tara

[Ravin]

I ad-match at Wal-Mart and buy a lot of generics. Generic cleaning supplies, generic canned goods, etc. With ad matching I can get the best choices of produce for the price, etc. Since I also work at Wal-Mart, anything that's not grocery (so esp. household stuff like cleaning supplies, etc.) I get a discount on (unless it's ad-matched). Only 10%, but every little bit helps.

 

I also keep to a budget--right now it's $200/mo for food and $50/mo for household items and toiletries.

 

Finally, there are a lot of things I just don't buy--like a lot of those prepackaged foods, and a lot of disposable cleaning stuff. We use no paper towels, for example. I use cloth menstrual pads, we cloth diapered, etc.

[Parrothead]

Don't live far away from a fairly large city. We do not get competitive prices because we have no competition.

[cjbeach]

I am lucky in that I live close to cheap shopping. I have a Saturday morning routine: Entenmann's outlets for our breads (dollar table bagels, breads,boboli, etc..). Then I hit the farmer's market for produce. Then I hit Aldi or Sav A lot for food. Then on to the Dollar Tree.

 

I CVS a lot too for heath/beauty products to stockpile.

 

Times have changed for us financially and we're functioning in the black but I want to keep it that way and SAVE.

[Aggie]

We only use baking soda and vinegar to clean. I use baking soda for deodorant, shampoo and toothpaste, though I buy natural stuff for the girls.

 

For groceries, I rarely, rarely buy anything that has coupons. All fresh fruit and veggies, fresh meat, dried beans, and we get our eggs from the man down the road. IF I get bread for dh, it's from the day old store.

 

Twice I've found tp on sale for 50 cents a roll. Boy, did I stockpile! :D

 

We don't use paper towels very often, I make my own soap and clothes and dish detergent. I use vinegar for the rinse cycles in both.

 

The vinegar and baking soda we get from Costco. Fruit and veggies are pretty reasonable there, too. Our local grocer has the best priced meat around, until dh processes one of our calves. I despise having to go into walmart, so I'll buy anything else we need from another grocery store in the next town over.

 

None of this helps you, though, does it? I guess it depends on what types of foods and products you buy. Once I got rid of all cleaning supplies, the grocery budget was easier to handle. Those things are very expensive, ime.

[Peri]

I am lucky in that I live close to cheap shopping. I have a Saturday morning routine: Entenmann's outlets for our breads (dollar table bagels, breads,boboli, etc..). Then I hit the farmer's market for produce. Then I hit Aldi or Sav A lot for food. Then on to the Dollar Tree.

 

I CVS a lot too for heath/beauty products to stockpile.

 

Times have changed for us financially and we're functioning in the black but I want to keep it that way and SAVE.

 

See I have a Kroger's, Publix, and Walgreens right about 5 mins away. Walmart is about 15 mins away. Sams and Costco are about 25 mins away and there is also a Walmart right by them too. Aldi is the farthest. It's about 30 mins away but in the same direction as Costco and Sams and the other Walmart. I have considered going to Aldi once a month but I don't know if I can buy that much meat, cheese, and milk there. Plus it's perishable. I got a gallon of milk for $1.89. I have never bought milk that cheap before. I guess I just have to get a sort of rythm going but I'm afraid of how long its gonna take to get there.

[Dawn in OH]

Don't have kids.

 

Tara

 

Too true!

 

Honestly, it's different for everyone. I can't coupon. Why? I don't buy things (for the most part) that there are coupons for. We don't do prepackaged and processed food aside from a few items. I hear a lot of people say cooking from scratch is expensive. It's not. We started doing it for healthier food, avoiding additives, and it turned out to save us money.

 

I started making homemade baby wipes because store bought irritated #3's skin. It turned out to be cheaper.

 

I started using baking soda, white vinegar and peroxide for cleaning, worried about the fumes and #3 touching something with cleaner on it. Again, it turned out to be cheaper.

 

I switched to a Diva cup from tampons. Not because I cared about the environment, but because the other method wasn't working for me. Again, another money savings.

 

I buy local grass fed beef, because I didn't want hormones and antibiotics. Well, it turns out the guy we get our beef from is charging us less than those same cuts of beef in the grocery store.

 

So I ended up saving a lot of money, unintentionally.

 

There are steps I do take to save money. I stock up on items when they are on sale. I know a lot of people that plan a weekly menu and buy the ingredients for the weeks menu. I don't do that. I have a well stocked pantry and freezer from buying items on sale. I plan my menu around what I have in stock.

[Peri]

We only use baking soda and vinegar to clean. I use baking soda for deodorant, shampoo and toothpaste, though I buy natural stuff for the girls.

 

For groceries, I rarely, rarely buy anything that has coupons. All fresh fruit and veggies, fresh meat, dried beans, and we get our eggs from the man down the road. IF I get bread for dh, it's from the day old store.

 

Twice I've found tp on sale for 50 cents a roll. Boy, did I stockpile! :D

 

We don't use paper towels very often, I make my own soap and clothes and dish detergent. I use vinegar for the rinse cycles in both.

 

The vinegar and baking soda we get from Costco. Fruit and veggies are pretty reasonable there, too. Our local grocer has the best priced meat around, until dh processes one of our calves. I despise having to go into walmart, so I'll buy anything else we need from another grocery store in the next town over.

 

None of this helps you, though, does it? I guess it depends on what types of foods and products you buy. Once I got rid of all cleaning supplies, the grocery budget was easier to handle. Those things are very expensive, ime.

 

I can't wash my hair with baking soda. It will dry my hair out to a crisp lol. I do see what your saying. I could eliminate a majority of our cleaning products. I guess I just need to sit down and list all of what I need and the best places to get them.

[momof4boys]

I am able to do most of my shopping all at once at Sam's club and Trader Joes, and plan my meals out for one month at a time. It seemed daunting at first, but saves so much time in deciding what we will eat for each meal. I keep each weekly menu to use in planning the next month so I don't have to thin of all the meals again. Since all of the meals are planned around what I got in my mega shopping, I simply keep a list at the bottom of each weekly menu that lists what I need to buy for that week (broccoli, hamburger buns, etc.) and I buy only those items and whatever fresh produce we need. By not wandering into the local grocery store frequently, I have found I save money by not buying things I don't really need, as well as gas savings on less trips. It takes a bit to get this routine ging, but I have found it well worth it.

[Melissa in FL]

 

I make my own dish detergent.

 

 

 

How do you do this? And is it dishwasher detergent or dish soap (for the sink)?

Thanks

Melissa

[ConnieB]

Grocery prices vary so much town to town (and for that matter the same company in two locations!).....so no one is going to be able to give you an accurate answer except someone who lives in your own town...or you.

 

I would suggest checking to see if your library has a series of books called Tightwad Gazette. I can't say I agree with all her methods....I'll never wash zip lock bags with soap and water and air dry them, lol.....but there are many things she does that definitely helped me understand how and where to save money. The single biggest.....the price book. She goes into much better detail, but basically you will need to a bit of leg work to get it started...shopping all the grocery stores in your driving area and literally writing down the prices on a long list of the things you regularly purchase. This becomes your base price list.....it will also help you see where the MOST low prices are in your area. No one store will be the lowest in everything, but you're looking for the most low prices on the stuff you use the most. In other words, it's not worth driving to another store to save .20 but it might be worth a weekly drive to the other side of town if the majority of the items you buy are each .20 less.

 

Some other ideas off the top of my head:

 

Plan! Plan your menus for a week in advance so that you know what you need at the store and aren't just buying whatever you see that looks cheap or yummy and then trying to make it all work into a menu. We go through our store ads to see what is on sale (and that price book helps us know if it's REALLY a sale or not)....and make up our menu on what's on sale, or what's in the freezer already (which we bought multiple of when it was on a real sale).

 

Do your shopping once a week. Period. And always with a list. Milk, fresh fruit, etc will all last a week, so no need to shop every couple of days. In fact, if you can go every other week, even better. The more often you go in the store, the more you will spend on things you "think" you need, or you want....or that you think are a good deal but maybe aren't, etc.

 

If your children are distracting when you shop, see if you can swap an hour or two of child care with a friend so you each can do your shopping alone. I was blessed with my first two kids being wonderful in the shopping cart.....the third kid would scream from produce to check out, lol. Distractions cost you money because you get to the point where you just grab off the shelf and run to check out.

 

Cook at home almost exclusively! This must be the absolute biggest money saver for my family. In fact, tonight's dinner was a knock off of Chipotle restaurant's chicken bowls. I fed all of us for less than I could have bought my husband and I each a bowl....and we have leftovers enough for everyone for tomorrow's lunch. There are literally millions of recipes availble online to "copycat" nearly every favorite restaurant. If you don't know how to cook, see about cooking lessons at your community college, or ask a friend to teach you. It's truly not hard once you start to understand the hows and whys.

 

My husband takes a lunch to work every day....I can feed him all week for what one or two lunches out would cost....not to mention the healthier foods I pack. And it's more food so he's not coming home starving and snacking while I finish fixing dinner. Sometimes he gets sandwiches, sometimes he gets leftovers. Always fruit or a salad (or both)....and we bake cookies or brownies or some treat for a dessert. Sodas out of the vending machine are $1....we buy the generic brand for about .20....so I spend less on his soda in a week than he would one day out of the machine. He has cut down to just one soda a day by taking along a water bottle and flavor packets so even that has become healthier (and cheaper). He has a box of flavors in his desk if he gets thirstier than I packed, etc. We invested in a high quality water bottle (no BPA, etc) and an insulated lunch bag.

 

Plan your meals with more veggies and less meat if possible. Most people "hate" veggies because they over cook them, or just boil them or something else unappetizing. It's amazing how many of our friends' children will eat veggies at my house but not at home, lol. Yes, we experimented (and still do) with new cooking methods, recipes, spices, even new-to-us veggies and some were flops....but the winners more than make up for the flops, in both health and financial ways.

 

Saving money isn't always the fastest method....but it's healthier, cheaper, and more satisfying than the alternative. When was the last time your family finished a take out meal and exclaimed it to be delicious and were putting dibs on leftovers before they were even packed in the fridge? I get that several times a week. And I don't consider myself a great cook....just a fearless one, lol.

[Peela]

Our supermarket bill has dropped dramatically- our fruit and veg bill has tripled. That's due to a change in diet for us.

For fruit and veg...I go to farmer's markets, Italian delis that sell B grade stuff from local farms, and our local markets.

Cleaning products - we don't get many at all. I use vinegar in the toilet bowl once a week. I wipe the bathroom sink daily, and only use spray once a week. I tend to spray the kitchen sink daily. We just dont go through many cleaning products.

 

Value your time, too. If you are time rich and money poor, you can cook more from scratch and but a lot less processed foods, which will considerably lower your supermarket bill. If you are time poor though..you will need to balance differently.

 

I am about to start meal planning because I know we will waste less food that way, and we have got to the point we need to save on our food bill, particlarly as I prefer organic nowadays.

 

There are so many ways to save money- only you can work out the right balance for your family.

[cjzimmer1]

I can't wash my hair with baking soda. It will dry my hair out to a crisp lol. I do see what your saying. .

 

 

I tried the baking soda/vinegar rinse and my hair got very dry very fast. Then I started using a small amount of coconut oil as a leave in conditioner. My hair has never been softer or easier to take care of - even my spilt ends are almost gone. I'll never go back to store products again but for me the coconut oil was the missing component for getting fantastic results at cheap prices. It did take a few months for everything to stabilize.

[hillfarm]

I think one of the best ways to save money is to guard your family members' health.

 

One costly illness can quickly wipe out a whole year's worth of frugal spending. We have fairly decent health insurance through dh's work, but dd's recent xray for a possible broken foot cost us $120 out of pocket. That would eat a big chunk of the money I have saved through being frugal with my monthly grocery budget.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with saving money through the household budget, and I do my best to be vigilant in that area. However, pinching pennies in a way that might pave the way for more costly problems to manifest is penny wise and pound foolish to me.

 

In addition to health, other areas that concern me are car repairs and home repairs. A large problem in either of these areas can also sap the hard earned efforts of a year's worth of frugality in one fell swoop.

 

In my mind, although shopping with coupons, cooking from scratch, and other ideas mentioned here are good ways to save money, it is critical to simultaneously address these other areas as well as possible to avoid the terribly costly problems that crop up there.

[Aggie]

How do you do this? And is it dishwasher detergent or dish soap (for the sink)?

Thanks

Melissa

 

Dishwasher detergent.

Equal parts baking soda and borax. :001_smile: Vinegar for the rinse cycle.

[mbeaser]

I agree with menu planning, definitely, and shopping to stock up as well. And, try to shop without the kids. What I do is shop the grocery ads to see if there are any good deals. I look at the ad for my parents' town (which is 50 miles away) and if they have good deals I will probably shop there (especially since I can leave the kids with them while I go :) ). They have a Kroger subsidiary that frequently has different deals than Kroger does, and an Aldi, as well as a Walmart. I avoid Walmart generally (because I always get "extras" while I'm there and can blow the budget), although they do tend to have great prices on a few things. I've been to Walmart once in the last 6 weeks. If Kroger or Marsh has great deals, I stop there on the way home from visiting my parents/grocery shopping (its about 15 miles to Kroger/Marsh). Alternately, when XH is not out of town I will shop at Kroger/Marsh in his town after I deliver the kids to him.

 

I used to have a grocery budget of under $150 a month, but recently went up to $200 and I feel rich! I actually spent $206 for May, but I was under for gas so I threw the extra in and I should be able to make it to June 8/9 before I need to shop again.

 

I watch for target prices on meat and stock up (I have a small chest freezer). I have a foodsaver to help keep the meat edible for a long time in the freezer. I don't cook a huge variety of meals because my kids like things that aren't a huge variety. When I pre-shop, I note prices. This week, Kroger had 1/2gals for $1.25 each and milk was 2.59 at aldi, so I didn't get milk at aldi (and it turned out gallons were 2.08 at Kroger, so I got 2 of those and 1 half gal).

 

A lot can depend on what kind of eaters your family are. My kids eat a decent amount, I think, but not as much as many other kids. HTH :)

[emubird]

I never found skimping on household items was all that big of a cost saver. I'm careful. We don't throw out much food. We don't eat a ton of prepared foods. I stock up at sales if they're really sales. But I don't find that that's a place where we can save a whole lot of money.

 

Other things we did were more helpful:

 

We went down to one car. That was our biggest cost savings ever. We've considered going to no car, but it seemed that taxis and buses might actually cost more than the jalopy we're driving now. Also, drive a crummy car and don't pay for collision insurance. Live close enough to work that you can walk or bike. When you have to buy a new car (which you should delay as long as possible) don't buy new. Buy used.

 

Eat less meat. Replace it with legumes and such. (Milk and cheese are still pretty pricey.)

 

Don't eat out. (This goes for school lunches too. When my kids were in school, I could pack a lunch for less than the reduced price lunch we could get. And they were things the kids would eat.)

 

Switch to a health insurance plan with a higher deductible. It may or may not save money. Our insurance company plans are such that if we go to the high deductible plan and everyone in our family gets sick so that we have to pay out all the deductibles, we end up breaking even. It costs the same as if we had gone with the low deductible plan in the first place. If we don't all get sick, we've saved money. You'd have to crunch the numbers on your available plans, though.

 

Switch to a high deductible on your house and car insurance, if you have the cash to cover smaller losses.

 

Avoid sales unless you've really done your homework on what prices should be. Don't use coupons at all, unless it's something you're going to buy anyway. Don't drive all over town looking for deals.

 

Skip cable.

 

Don't keep oodles of money accessible. Pay off the credit card each month. If you can't pay it off, you've spent too much. Don't do that again.

 

Shop thrift stores for clothes. Use the library for books.

 

We paid off our house in 7 years on one rather low salary (so low we could have qualified for WIC). We didn't really skimp all that much except for the above mentioned items. Although I was careful with buying household items and stocking up when there were sales, that really wasn't what allowed us to save a ton of money.

 

 

 

 

I've heard that after washing hair with baking soda you can do a vinegar rinse. It's supposed to make hair more manageable. I haven't tried it (being allergic to vinegar).

[weddell]

Start keeping a log of the prices of the items you normally buy. Do it by price per serving or oz or whatever so that you can compare different sized packages (at Costco for example). Then when you are at each store you are willing to make the trip to shop at, make note of the prices or how often the items go on sale. After a while (this will take weeks to get all done), you will start to see where the lowest prices on each item are. Then you only buy it at that store or that sale price and stock up.

 

I've found that our lowest prices are Costco for some things, Aldi for others, and a produce store near our Aldi. Sometimes there are amazing deals at Target combing sales and coupons and I read a blog totallytarget.com that has them listed. If you know what a good price is, then you will be able to tell if a sale or coupon is really a good deal--they aren't always.

 

Check out the book The Tightwad Gazette. She spells out exactly how to do this.

[teachermom2834]

I coupon and get the really great deals at Kroger/ CVS.

 

I get whatever I can at Aldi.

 

Next up is Sam's for stuff that is cheaper in bulk there (meat/cheese/eggs/butter).

 

Produce and whatever special items I can't get at Aldi I get at Kroger/ CVS.

 

This does take quite a bit of organization but the key is that I don't do it all every week and I don't do it all the same week. I stock up on what I can at Aldi's every few months. Same thing with Sam's. I fill in with Kroger when I need to. Some weeks I can't even get to the coupons/ads so I just don't worry about it those weeks.

 

I think my biggest savings is just staying out of the stores. If I only hit Aldi's 3-4 times per year, Sam's 6 times per year and Kroger twice a month I just can't overspend by too much.

 

I have found that bulk buying/ few trips has helped me learn to be more creative making do with what I have and it has helped me waste less. I know if I go to Aldi or Sam's I'm going to come home with a lot and I'm going to need to have a nearly empty fridge/ freezer/ pantry to accomodate it. I do better using everything up this way.

 

Another tip- if all I need is milk I stop at the gas station. It is competitively priced and I don't throw anything else in my cart. It keeps me out of the store which is a good thing.

 

IMO, you can't beat couponing grocery game style for cleaning products (especially laundry products) and toiletries.

 

Good luck. It took me a while to figure this out but it works for us. You need to find your own style, though!

 

I love not shopping every week. I actually kind of find it fun to go to Sam's or Aldi because I go so seldom.

[catalinakel]

Couldn't resist.....

http://consumerist.com/2007/04/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford.html

[Murmer]

The biggest thing for me has been a strict menu planning where I take into account what I have available and what is on sale. Then it's bonus if I have a coupon but not nessessary. We only spend about 250 on food a month this way. The only hard part is that we don't really have a stockpile of food available and so occasionally we find it adventageous to shop a warehouse store and stock up every couple of months and that will blow the budget by about 100 dollars.

[TechWife]

It really is different for everyone. I will say that you do not have to eat prepared foods in order to save $ with coupons. Instead, you have to watch sales and stack coupons if possible. I blogged about one of my coupon shopping expeditions here. As you can see, the only prepared items I purchased were a bag of frozen cut fruit and ice cream (ok, and snickers bars). I also was able to get a lot free by pairing sales with coupons. The free items included pasta and organic yogurt. I was able to purchase a lot of plain frozen veggies, yogurt, bacon and rice. The picture shows everything I purchased on that particular trip.

 

I also use menu planning and try to cook from the pantry. I use the menu to plan grocery lists and that way I buy only what I need for each meal. I do separate grocery trips to take advantage of sales/coupons and stock up - but I always have a list. I make use of the grocery store websites - I can build my shopping list there, complete with prices and print it before I go. I can put coupon values in the "comment" space so I can easily shop and price compare without juggling coupons, list, cart, calculator, etc.

[newbie]

Don't have kids.

 

Tara

 

:lol::lol: