How does everyone shop to maintain the budget?

[chainsaw]

Once again we are getting ready for our bi-weekly shopping trip for provisions. Here in Ponca City OK that means:
Aldi's-Discount Foods-Pyramid-or the local meat market-or WalMart. No COSTCO, SAMS or any other outlet within 90 miles, so I shop around.
SO aside from the double pack .99 cent pork shoulder special, for meat I shop around at these stores. I have noticed WalMart wings are superior for size, and at $2.00 a pound can't be beat.
I wonder about everyone's buying strategies-unlike many, we need to shop around to get the best deal. One of the reasons I started smoking was to make the cheapest cuts edible. So what are everyone's buying habits to keep costs managible?

 

[solaryellow]

I know this doesn't help you any but I buy cryopacks (usually from Sams Club) every other week to get the cheapest price. If there is a special at a grocery store I will take advantage of it. I then will cook all of it up and freeze it for future use.

 

[jirodriguez]

We split our shopping between three stores: WinCo for 75-80% of our basic staples and canned goods, FredMeyers (Krogers) for fruit and veg (Winco beats the crap out of their fruit), and Costco for cereal, milk, eggs and a few other items (usually get out of Costco for under $75!).

Occasionaly I do a side trip to Safeway when they have a real good deal on meats.

 

[pineywoods]

I watch the sale ads and stock up when on sale I found beef cube steak for 2.49 a lb today and chuck roasts for 1.99 just wish I had the grinder home I woulda bought a bunch of chuck roasts and ground them since burger was 3.17 today and mine would have tasted better. I did buy several for smoking tho. Tomorrow whole ribeyes go on sale at 3.99 a lb so back to the store again

 

[bmudd14474]

I live in the mountains of Cali so we dont have alot of options besides driving 60 miles to costco. But what we do is shop ads. Went to safeway the other day and bought $180 worth of stuff that only cost us $100 because it was all onsale in their ad. Then we we go to costco we stock the deep freezer. Usually we have 1 big shopping trip to Costco and all then only have to spend $50 a week for the support stuff.

 

[sawyerrt10]

I watch the circulurs of our local IGA store. They have BB's on sale for .98 a lb and whole boneless ribeyes for 4.29 a lb. gonna be stopping by there this weekend!

 

[igolf2]

Giant Eagle - if you watch for the sales and BOGO items you can save a lot and you earn 10 cents (and sometimes 20 cents) for every $50 spent ( we buy gift cards to shop and eat elsewhere ) - I love going to get gas and getting 30 gallons and seeing 000.00 on the pump!

 

[mballi3011]

I guess I'm lucky but I also live in a pretty good size town. I have 4 grocery stores within 5 miles of us and 3 butchers within 10 miles from us. Then to top it all off we have a Sam's about a 3 miles from my door to theirs. Then you can also include a restuarant depot, BJ's, Cosco's and many others not really far fro the house either. Living in a good size town helps. But I do have neighbors but they aren't real close I do have 4 acres.

 

[desertlites]

Shopping the adds & taking advantage of the freezer space I have-however the way one lives can save Much more than the savings on a monthly food bill.

 

[walle]

One HUGE things that cuts my food bill is raising and butchering our own beef and pork and a couple of big freezers.
I know that's not an option for a lot of folks, but sounds like if you're 90 miles from Sams, you gotta have a rancher close buy. Look into a local meat processor. You may have to buy the beef, then have someone slaughter and butcher it, but I'm thinking you can probably have both done for around $3.00 cut and wrapped. That's the same price for hamburger and T-Bones! If anyone has a more up-to-date cost, let us know! I know MulePack'en eats his own beef, so he probably sells some too and could give us a current price. That's the same price for hamburger and T-Bones!

Something to think about. I know I couldn't aford to buy all the meat I eat at retail prices. I still shell out for the good stuff - ribs, tri-tip, and an occasional prime rib, but the staples - hamburger, roasts, steak are covered.

 

[travcoman45]

I get the big 3's ads via email here, shop the meat specials with them. Then when we gota #4 we shop the yellow tags. It's meat that is gettin close ta the sell by date an they discount it 30%, bout the only time I buy meat from them. We bring that meat home, break it down an vac pack then freeze it.

When stuff goes on sale IE: butts, pork loins an such, I stock up the freezers.

I got a perty good relationship with a couple a the meat managers an they let me know if there gonna have some instore deals comin up, cause I usually by bout 100 pounds a meat from em at a crack.

 

[deltadude]

I used to do this with several customers, we would either go halves on a cow or quarters. You can find deals at in smaller outlying areas where there is agriculture, find a small butcher, he can point you to the deals.

 

[gnubee]

I don't buy canned beans or rice a roni type products. I cook my own beans and rice dishes from scratch. I make my own hot grain breakfasts from cracked grains bought from the bulk stores. I buy all spices in bulk often with an 300% saving over the store bought stuff.

My mother in law who is a certified chef buys those made up bags of green salads at $3.95 per bag even though there is only about 50 cents worth of lettuce, carrots and onions in them. To lazy to make her own.

I have cut my grocery bill down to less than 1/2 what it used to be.

I travel to Cosco about once a month to stock up on case lots and the larger containers of stuff.

I go to a local green grocer for veggies, he has the lowest prices on great quality greens.

Its Meat thats my downfall. No where near here is there a good quality butcher shop that isn't way overpriced.

Wal mart is supposed to expand to become an new supercenter but that has been delayed by the cutbacks, all they have for meat is a couple of bins of pre packaged meats.

 

[rbranstner]

My wife usually picks up most of our meat since she is the only one with a Sams Club card (she is under her parents) and she is very anal about watching prices and checking for the "Best Deal" If I catch sales at the local grocery store I try to pick some up and put them in the freezer for later. The only thing is my freezer is full all the way to the top right now. Might have to invest in another freezer soon.

 

[pops6927]

Being diabetic and having a stroke, plus the wife with cancer, our diet is focused on lean. We conservatively buy only select cuts to use in dishes. In beef, it's usually cube steak or on a rare occasion a sirloin, plus 80/20 5# tubes of ground beef. We will splurge and buy a rump or shoulder clod roast once every other month or so for a roast beef dinner, maybe a chuck roast once or twice a year.
In chicken we primarily get boneless skinless chicken breasts and bake, stirfry, casserole, grill or nugget into tasty meals. On occasion, every other month or so we will get a whole fryer and roast (or pickle and smoke). We get 12lb. turkeys and pickle and smoke, usually around the holidays for ourselves and others, plus a 22lb. one for Thanksgiving.
In pork, it is almost exclusively pork sirloin chops for dinners; either baked or grilled or stirfried. For sausages it's pork butts. Once in a while, maybe twice a year, I'll bone and roll a shoulder for a pork roast, or roast a center cut loin. I'm brining more bucksaw bacon from pork butts that I'll smoke this weekend (AFTER my doctor's appointment and blood tests tomorrow, lol!),

 

[blue]

Bingo! That's what we do as well. I just bought 40 pounds of butt and brisket yesterday and I got 15 pounds of belly curing in the fridge. This weekend I am smoking.

We are also in Metro Detroit so we got grocery stores on every corner. We are big into only buying sale items so we shop at several places a week spending $10 here and there with an occassional big purchase for a great deal.

 

[gene111]

Always watch the sales adds for good sale on meat ,also worked a deal with local buther for meat we buy for comps, catering ,& other to get a good discount if we buy it all there!!!

 

[chisoxjim]

I buy very little or any meat where I buy my canned goods, etc. I like to get my meat from places I trust, and buy meat that is quality, fresh, and not injected with solution. Locally raised pork is also nice to have when I have a few extra $$'s

I check the the ads for 2 or 3 small grocery stores I buy my meat every Wednesday, and look for sales, and plan the menu. If nothing is on sale I go to the local butcher, and get what he has. Im not a fan of Sams, or Costco, so I dont shop there. I am getting a membership to Restaurant Depot for a catering business so Ill see how that goes. If not I have fall back options. For me quality trumps price when it comes to food. I will not buy injected pork no matter how cheap it is.

Produce is bought where I can get it, farmers markets and roadside satands in season, and Mexican markets, and whatever looks decent @ the grocer for the cold months.

Eating pretty good we spend about $100/week for a family of 3, and 2 cats.

 

[rickw]

Most of the meat we eat comes from a meat locker that offers locally grown animals. The beef my nephew raises on a friends farm and takes in for processing. We have a couple of local stores here that have decent meat departments that we watch for sales on chicken or we go to a town around 20 miles from here that has a great Mexican store with a good meat department and they always have chicken at some really good prices.

When I run out of ribs from the hog I buy my ribs from the local meat market.

 

[erain]

ditto!!! and when something is on sale, check into case pricing. saved an additional .22 cents a pound on some baby backs that were on sale, bought a case, 6 cyrovacked 3pacs per case, 18 racks total. 5 of them now reside in my freezer, made one pac last weekend. not to mention next time i want ribs, no gas to go get them and no time spent doing so. also the least amount of time i spend at the market, at least for me, will be a money saver right there. sometimes cannot help myself!!!