How to Save on Groceries

This post is very geographic specific, so my apologies to all you readers who don’t happen to live near Lancaster, PA. However, some of the ideas mentioned here apply regardless of where you find yourself looking to save cash on groceries. So keep reading; you never know what you might discover 🙂

1.  Shop in Season  –  Buying fresh berries in January or corn-on-the-cob in February is generally a bad idea. You can save a bundle by purchasing food items (especially fruits and vegetables) that are in-season and freeze or can them for eating throughout the year.

2.  Costco   –  Your mileage may vary with buying groceries at Costco. Everything is sold in massive proportions. Be careful that you don’t buy more perishable food than you can use, since spoiled food doesn’t save you anything regardless of what you paid for it. Here’s a mini-list of items we get at Costco:

• Toilet paper – You can get their Kirkland brand TP for about the same price as the ‘el-cheapo’ brand at your local grocery store. But this stuff is the real deal quality-wise.
• Some frozen items – fish, chicken, beef, veggies and shredded cheese
• Salad – Their 6 pack of Romaine lettuce heads and large container of organic greens are incredibly fresh. Rumor has it that a lot of restaurants get their ‘house salad’ greens from Costco. Their tomatoes are excellent as well.
• Olive Oil – big savings here over your local grocery store
• Eggs – The jury is still out on this one. $1.11 for a dozen large eggs is great… unless you find that consuming 7.5 dozen of them at a shot is a difficult assignment 🙂
• Nuts – almonds, peanuts, you name your favorite and you’ll probably find it here at a value price

3.  Discount Grocery Outlets  – They exist in almost every community in America and Lancaster is no exception. There’s definitely a learning curve to figure out what you can get for a deal and what’s better left on the shelf. Remember to bring your own shopping bags since those aren’t part of the bargain here. Amelia’s, Sharp Shopper and ALDI are all vying for your business. Here’s what we’ve found perusing some of these stores:

• Canned goods – Sharp Shopper has some pretty good steals. Items include: salsa, canned fruits and veggies, canned beans, and lots more. Just be sure to check the expiry date. Canned goods last awhile, but not forever.
• Chips  –  Unless you have to have a certain brand, ALDI has some pretty good deals on corn and potato chips.
• Paper products  –  this one varies a lot, but you can often snag a deal on paper towels, paper plates and plastic ware at these stores.
• Frozen items – discount grocery stores can be a mixed bag, but occasionally you can find excellent deals on frozen veggies, frozen meat, and yes, even frozen potato patties here.

4.  Knee High  – When I shop at a grocery store, I basically ignore the carefully stacked displays at the ends of the aisles. Why? Because they usually are overpriced items that the manager is trying to sell off. Instead, I keep my eyes on the knee-level shelves where the best deals can be found. Especially with canned goods, the lower shelves hold the lower priced items that don’t make as big of a profit for the store. Eye level items fly off the shelf quicker, so big profit products are placed there.

5.  Farmer’s Markets – Lancaster has some excellent farmer’s markets. The Central Market in downtown Lancaster is the oldest Farmer’s Market in America. Since the 1730’s local farmers have been hauling their products to this building in downtown Lancaster. It’s quite the place. A few other options include the Eastern Market, Bird-in-Hand Farmer’s Market, Green Dragon, and Kauffman’s Fruit Farm (where you’ll find the best Apple Cider in the world).

6.  Road-Side Farm Stands  – This is Amish country and come summer, you can’t drive more than a few miles before you come across a little plywood shack sheltering some incredible deals on fresh produce and top-notch baked goods. The link below will take you to a map of these stands here in Lancaster County. Know of one that’s not on the map? Add the name and address in the comments at the bottom of this article and we’ll add it to the map.

• Map of Lancaster County Road-side Market Stands

7. Coupon Cutting  –  Several local grocery stores send out fliers with coupons. These can be time consuming to ‘clip’, but I’ve found a few deals this way. Weis Markets, Shady Maple and Giant are a few that send out cash saving coupons to local homes.

8.  Use a Price List – This one might be a little extreme, but when you buy groceries, create a spreadsheet of the items you purchase regularly. Three columns is all you need: Item name, ‘Sold By’ units, and Price. This way you can find the best deals around. I tend to keep a ‘mental price list’ of items we purchase regularly, but this is a more precise method.

9.  Avoid ‘One Item Trips’ – We needed milk the other day, but nothing else. So, rather than jump in the car and drive 3 miles to the grocery store, I walked to the corner store and bought some. Yes, it was 50 cents higher than the grocery store, but driving 6 miles round trip would have cost well over a dollar in fuel and I got some much needed exercise at the same time. An even better idea is to plan ahead, shop with a list and try not to forget that ‘one necessity’ that didn’t make it to the list. 🙂 

10. The Freezer is your Friend  –  It’s amazing what all you can freeze. Everything from milk, to meat to eggs can be frozen for future consumption. So go ahead and stock up when your favorite foods are on sale. Just make sure you’ve got a big enough freezer and you rotate the freezer items. Oh, and keep the freezer well stocked. The savings will show up on your electric bill since it takes more energy to keep several cubic feet of air frozen than a side of beef or a stash of frozen vegetables.

So, what frugal shopping habits have you developed? Feel free to share any tips you use when grocery shopping, in the comments below.