Grocery Shopping

RatLabGuy said:
Wait until they are teenagers and a half a pizza is the norm.
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You are so cute. That was 3rd grade...teenager? 2 large meat lovers and breadtsicks...each
 
Ron said:
You are so cute. That was 3rd grade...teenager? 2 large meat lovers and breadtsicks...each
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All Imma say is, Wendy’s was a ‘treat’ back when I was in high school, I’d usually get 2 spicy chicken sandwiches. And in my own immaturity would get pissed at my dad if he’d limit me to one or wouldn’t let me try to go for 3. First time I went to Wendy’s on my own dime, I lernt that day…promptly apologized to my dad and figured out how to make a 5pc and a cheesy cheddar burger last the weekend.

Edit…and that’s not about parenting or anything…just the shock of supporting the eating habits of a high schooler.
 
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In for the replies. We've talked about getting 1/2 for the upright freezer.
 
Atla said:
Anyone have any input on buying cows for butchering?

Worth it?
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Yes. Find a farmer local that will sell a whole and deliver to butcher then you pay butcher and farmer.
A guy at my old job was selling 60ish cows a year selling direct to someone but would only sell whole and then let them figure out who to split cow with. (He didn't wanna get stuck holding 1/2 a cow)


I think he was averaging 6-8 dollars a pound for finished product ready to go in freezer.
 
Loganwayne said:
i may be fat. BUT im not eating cookout that place makes me sick every time i eat there.
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Finally another person that doesn't like Cookout. Everytime I try to eat there the food is awful. Burgers are way past well done and aren't edible. Everything from the deep fryer looks and tastes like they forgot about it and left it in the fryer for an hour.
 
untchabl said:
Finally another person that doesn't like Cookout. Everytime I try to eat there the food is awful. Burgers are way past well done and aren't edible. Everything from the deep fryer looks and tastes like they forgot about it and left it in the fryer for an hour.
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Dang! I hate yall have such bad experiences with Cookout. I feel like for fast food, its pretty damn good and can def get a lot of food for the money (used to anyways)
 
So, we went to Neighborhood Walmart over the weekend for our weekly trip and that was sort of a bust. Ending up spending a little more, but I do feel like we got more food/drinks than I feel like we would have gotten at teeter for the same amount, so next week, we will try Aldi and see how that does.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So, we went to Neighborhood Walmart over the weekend for our weekly trip and that was sort of a bust. Ending up spending a little more, but I do feel like we got more food/drinks than I feel like we would have gotten at teeter for the same amount, so next week, we will try Aldi and see how that does.
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Keep in mind the best deal is likely not getting everything from one place. The different stores will have different categories they are better in.
We have 3 primary sources (Food Kitty (60%) Walmart (30%) and Target (10%)
 
Doesn't Harry Peeter have like a triple coupon day or something? My cousin works at HT corporate in purchasing, and says that you can get the best prices there if you play the system just a little, and he's a reasonably smart dude that is good with numbers, so I have no reason to doubt him.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Doesn't Harry Peeter have like a triple coupon day or something? My cousin works at HT corporate in purchasing, and says that you can get the best prices there if you play the system just a little, and he's a reasonably smart dude that is good with numbers, so I have no reason to doubt him.
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They do. Not as much as they used to, I don't think. I worked there all through high school and they used to give out $10, $15, $20 off coupons all the time, which was nice, but the most recent coupons they send out are only $5 off.

I've never been much into coupons because it seems most coupons are for things I don't buy normally.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So, we went to Neighborhood Walmart over the weekend for our weekly trip and that was sort of a bust. Ending up spending a little more, but I do feel like we got more food/drinks than I feel like we would have gotten at teeter for the same amount, so next week, we will try Aldi and see how that does.
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if you are just lookign at the total bill and dont have an exact match BOM or a peer unit value you are simply wasting time. The comparative data is 100% valueless.
 
Ron said:
if you are just lookign at the total bill and dont have an exact match BOM or a peer unit value you are simply wasting time. The comparative data is 100% valueless.
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This.
If you're serious about this effort, take your WM receipt and make a spreadsheet, go through the receipt and make at least 4 columns - Item, quantity in item, and the cost. then calculate the cost per item.
Do that again at Aldi and again at your normal grocery. Then compare them. Based on that you can make a plan for next time that takes the best of each location.

Think of it this way. Most big retail stores have pretty similar operating costs. They make their money by having some things that are high profit and others that are not, so that the sum for an average shopper is enough that is balances out as good for them. The different stores have different schemes (and they change over time) for how they balance their profits across items.
Your job is to figure out the difference in their schemes, then focus on just those things at each place.

Its work. But think of it as paying yourself for that effort in the savings.
 
RatLabGuy said:
This.
If you're serious about this effort, take your WM receipt and make a spreadsheet, go through the receipt and make at least 4 columns - Item, quantity in item, and the cost. then calculate the cost per item.
Do that again at Aldi and again at your normal grocery. Then compare them. Based on that you can make a plan for next time that takes the best of each location.

Think of it this way. Most big retail stores have pretty similar operating costs. They make their money by having some things that are high profit and others that are not, so that the sum for an average shopper is enough that is balances out as good for them. The different stores have different schemes (and they change over time) for how they balance their profits across items.
Your job is to figure out the difference in their schemes, then focus on just those things at each place.

Its work. But think of it as paying yourself for that effort in the savings.
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I’d add another column for waste…as another data point so you’re not always caught up on unit price. Unit price means diddly if you’re throwing away your savings, where utilization matters. Back when I was doing the whole ‘budget coach’ thing…an example of unit price vs utilization/consumption would be folks would fixate on the fact that they could buy a 10lb bag of apples and it was 25 cents/apple cheaper than buying a couple individual apples. That’s great…but if you only eat 3 apples/week and throw away the rest of the 10lb bag…you lost money. That’s the potential pitfall of value/bulk shopping.
 
UTfball68 said:
I’d add another column for waste…as another data point so you’re not always caught up on unit price. Unit price means diddly if you’re throwing away your savings, where utilization matters. Back when I was doing the whole ‘budget coach’ thing…an example of unit price vs utilization/consumption would be folks would fixate on the fact that they could buy a 10lb bag of apples and it was 25 cents/apple cheaper than buying a couple individual apples. That’s great…but if you only eat 3 apples/week and throw away the rest of the 10lb bag…you lost money. That’s the potential pitfall of value/bulk shopping.
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We sometimes have this problem with bread products. Have half a loaf at home, bread is on sale so Rachael buys another, then for whatever reason we don't eat sandwiches for a whole week and that first half a loaf goes in the trash.
unfortunately for spreadsheet-building, this column you have to go back and fill in later, it takes awhile to figure out what really happens.

But the main lesson is - notes and math, and tracking over time.
 
RatLabGuy said:
We sometimes have this problem with bread products. Have half a loaf at home, bread is on sale so Rachael buys another, then for whatever reason we don't eat sandwiches for a whole week and that first half a loaf goes in the trash.
unfortunately for spreadsheet-building, this column you have to go back and fill in later, it takes awhile to figure out what really happens.
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Bread freezes and thaws super easily. I started stocking up during covid shutdowns when they'd be short sometimes and I just put extra in the freezer. Thaws back out overnight or you can just put a couple of slices in the toaster if you're reeaally bad at planning ahead. I typically do this for hot dog / hamburger buns and other bread products on sale, so we have them when we need them without having to pay full price or make an extra trip.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So, we went to Neighborhood Walmart over the weekend for our weekly trip and that was sort of a bust. Ending up spending a little more, but I do feel like we got more food/drinks than I feel like we would have gotten at teeter for the same amount, so next week, we will try Aldi and see how that does.
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If you are spending money on drinks, that's the first place to cut. Water or making tea at home is a whole lot cheaper.
 
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