Grocery Shopping

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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I think we need a photo of the haul, so we can actually see what $200 is buying.
 
trailhugger said:
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.
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This thought never even crossed my mind. I like to keep bread at work, but sometimes I only eat a couple slices a week. I tell the wife to give me the loaf from home when it gets low, because if she buys a new one for me, I rarely eat more than 1/3 of it before it molds. 90% of the time its for cheese toast or some other type of heated bread, so now I just feel like a dumbass for not just keeping it in the freezer at work.
 
UTfball68 said:
I’d add another column for waste…
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I think my wife throws away about $1000+ per year in strawberries, blueberries, and avocados that the kids pick at and don't finish.
 
jeepinmatt said:
I think my wife throws away about $1000+ per year in strawberries, blueberries, and avocados that the kids pick at and don't finish.
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We often end up with half- eaten bananas bc toddler. I freeze leftover fruit to put into the smoothies I make for breakfast a couple of times a week.
 
jeepinmatt said:
I think my wife throws away about $1000+ per year in strawberries, blueberries, and avocados that the kids pick at and don't finish.
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It's always the 'new' stuff that my wife wants to try. We used to throw out $25-50/wk of that stuff...but now with garage fridges, I forget about it...and about every 3 months I get to play a game of 'what do you think this chunk of mold is'. My kids will straight up stab someone for strawberries/blueberries/avocados...so just have that part of the instacart redirected to my house, and I'm sure there's something on my list that you could benefit from.
 
RatLabGuy said:
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%)
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If you're going to three different stores, you're definitely not saving money.
 
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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I did this just the other week for my families weekly grocery order. HT and Food lion were only around $3 difference on a $180 order.

A little late to the thread, but has the OP tried ordering for pickup online? I feel like I save a significant amount when I plan out each meal of the week and figure out a grocery list for that week. Places like HT don't charge for pickup on orders over a certain amount. Plus you get the benefit of not having to be in the store forever.
 
Dawnpatrol said:
I did this just the other week for my families weekly grocery order. HT and Food lion were only around $3 difference on a $180 order.

A little late to the thread, but has the OP tried ordering for pickup online? I feel like I save a significant amount when I plan out each meal of the week and figure out a grocery list for that week. Places like HT don't charge for pickup on orders over a certain amount. Plus you get the benefit of not having to be in the store forever.
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So we have done Walmart pickup, but the problem is, they give us all stuff that expires in 1-2 days. meats, salad stuff, etc.
We haven't tried HT pickup. I really love the pick up option because I just get so annoyed with actually going, but it seems like I can control the amount of money spent, but its all up to the discretion of the person who is picking out the items.
 
shawn said:
If you're going to three different stores, you're definitely not saving money.
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Ron said:
he said definitely, definitively.
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And he's definitely, definitively wrong.
All 3 stores are on our daily commute path. There's virtually no financial cost aside, only a little more time.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So we have done Walmart pickup, but the problem is, they give us all stuff that expires in 1-2 days. meats, salad stuff, etc.
We haven't tried HT pickup. I really love the pick up option because I just get so annoyed with actually going, but it seems like I can control the amount of money spent, but its all up to the discretion of the person who is picking out the items.
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I could see that being an issue. Most of the time I've had good experience with HT online, but it could vary from store to store. It might be a little more work but you could order everything but the meat online for pickup, and then just go into the store for the meat on your list.
 
DSM Turbos said:
Depends how much you value your time and how far away other stores are?
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Nobody said anything about the value of time here, this is about cutting costs and saving money, which is what @shawn says isn't happening. If I valued my time highly I'd just have everything delivered by doordash.
But it isn't hard for it t work out.
Lets say you take the Fed estimated cost of mileage, which include repair, gas, devaluation, etc - currently $0.65/mile. For most people with a halfway gas efficient car, and people on this board that do their own (or no....) maintenance its way less. I average about $.20.
But anyway....
If you go 10 miles out of your way, 20 miles round trip - which is a LOT of driving around a town, then you expended $13. On a $200 shopping trip that is 6.5%. For us we easily save $13 by selecting the store properly. And that is a worst case scenario. Realistic is probably more like a cost of $.35/mile and 10 extra miles, or $3.50 difference.
We pick stores that are on the commuting path so the extra vehicle cost is probably $2 monthly and the time is minimal.
shawn said:
Luckily, there's an infinite supply of that and it has no monetary value.
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You said saving money. The value of time is a totally different subject. The monetary value of my time is irrelevant if the equation at hand doesn't have any means to actually collect on it.
 
Tell me you work for the government without telling me you work for the government....
 
shawn said:
Tell me you work for the government without telling me you work for the government....
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Would you prefer people who work for the government don't know the difference between savings and value?
 
RatLabGuy said:
Would you prefer people who work for the government don't know the difference between savings and value?
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I'm patiently waiting for you to demonstrate any mastery of the subject.
 
shawn said:
I'm patiently waiting for you to demonstrate any mastery of the subject.
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I can't really type any slower so that you'd understand, sorry.
 
shawn said:
Tell me you work for the government without telling me you work for the government....
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I used to have this friend who hung out here named saf-t-scissors who loved to quote things like this and point out they were ad hominems.

I miss that dude.
 
Ron said:
I used to have this friend who hung out here named saf-t-scissors who loved to quote things like this and point out they were ad hominems.

I miss that dude.
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Me too. Though I only remember 1 dash a la saf-t scissors. But it's been a long time, so I might be wrong.
 
This afternoon, the kids and I spent about 45 minutes in the store, including the oldest ordering deli sandwiches for supper while the rest of us gathered grocery items. Dried beans were on sale, as were canned beans and vegetables, fresh berries, bag salad, and crackers. The 7-yo put peanut butter and jelly in the cart, even though we didn't really need them. The receipt says we bought 67 items for $200.18, before tax. This included 4 gallons of whole milk, a case of club soda, a case of seltzer, three loaves of bread, 8 ears of corn, 3# tangelos, 3# grapes, 2# carrots, 5.5# bananas, 4# chicken thighs, 1# bacon, and not quite 2.5# ground beef.
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