I love a good deal. My first “real” blog was blogging bargains. Finding a good deal gets me high, and allows me luxuries I wouldn’t have if I didn’t find them on discount. Most of the bargains that I love are in the form of tech and clothing. I can find those online – hit BUY and *ding* they are at my front door. Where I really should be trying to find deals on is food, since that seems to eat up the majority of our budget.
We are a family of 6, that eats together at our dinner table on most nights. I try to cook at least 5 nights a week and have kids sporadically home through-out the week – so that makes for the need of having a lot of food around the house.
When it comes to grocery shopping, I – for the most part am in a hurry. I pre-write my list of meals, buy the staples and ingredients and then get on with the other 50 things I need to do. Our grocery bills are one of our largest expenses and if I could cut down to spending less on this area (while still feeding 6 mouths), that would be awesome.
Kroger recently emailed me with a challenge. I am ALL about challenges. They loaded my Kroger card with $25 and asked to see what I could buy with that. On a typical week, I usually spend between $150 – $200 on groceries. So $25, I wanted to see if I made an effort to save – if I could. Boy did I.
Kroger mentioned they had lowered prices on numerous items. I believed them, but my family eats a certain way and doubted we would see too much of a discount.
Here is what I ended up with fro $25. NO COUPONS used!
As I was shopping, I realized that most of the time I buy the same brand of item. It’s habitual. Looking at the prices, if I bought certain items I could save SIGNIFICANTLY. I thought, well now is the time to try store-brand since Kroger is paying (thanks Kroger!) or different brands to see if I could tell a big difference. The answer is nope, tastes pretty much the same!
The tortilla chips were $1 compared to $2.99 for the On the Border chips I typically buy. ONE DOLLAR PEOPLE!
$1.99 savings
Extreme Fusion Waters – we usually buy the kids Capri Sun flavored water – this was around a dollar cheaper as well.
All in all, the above will make 3 meals for us:
- Chicken and pasta
- Baked ziti
- Breakfast tacos
We don’t eat a lot of meat and we try to use whole wheat products – and I still found great deals!
Sparkling water with lemon – I quit Coke Zero a year ago and have since been missing my canned drink. I know it sounds funny, but it’s just a 20 year habit I had of drinking Coke of some form and then going cold turkey with no can in hand, it was weird. Kroger’s sparkling water with lemon comes in a can and is delish. It’s cheap (a whole lot cheaper than Coke Zero!) and yum.
Coupons
While we are in the age of Extreme Couponing, I hate coupons. I love the idea of them, but here is my problem – I can’t keep them with me. I will spend hours, clipping, sorting and organizing – then go to the store to realize I forgot my coupons. So I just made peace with the fact I AM NOT A COUPONER – unless it’s a digital coupon (check out the Kroger app) or I just happen to have a coupon with me. So yes, I could save money that way but coupons don’t work for me.
