This post is the third in my money management series. To start at the beginning, see post one: money management, post two: housing, and post three: food matters here!
Last Friday night (cool person that I am) I spent a couple hours at our grocery store – Woodman’s – with my shopping list, coupons, and a clipboard in hand. My mission was to record the prices of the products we most often buy and to also record prices of some cheaper (but less sustainable or “responsible”) products.
You all had some great thoughts and suggestions about food, and I put some of it to the test.
For those of you not in the area, Woodman’s is a warehouse-type grocery store. The shopping experience is…I’d say…not pleasant. It’s also the cheapest place I know of to shop for groceries. In the past, Bryan and I decided to cut our grocery bill (maybe $10/week) by shopping here instead of at Copps and the Willy Street Co-op. It was a trade-off that allowed us to keep purchasing the food items we wanted (although the produce really does kind of suck).
I wanted to find out if buying all my toiletries, organic groceries, and cleaning supplies at Woodman’s was the best strategy, or if I could get some of the same items for less money elsewhere. I found that a few toiletries (deodorant, contact solution, and tooth paste) were all actually cheaper at Woodman’s (the contact solution was $7 instead of $8) than at Walgreen’s. Organic milk, Annie’s mac & cheese, and 7th Generation diapers were about equally priced at the Willy Street Co-op (which I’d say specializes in organic and local products). So overall, I’d say that I’m doing pretty well by doing all my shopping at Woodman’s. I’d love to buy more at the Co-op or at Trader Joe’s, but I feel like I’m saving a bit by doing it this way…and that’s allowing me to buy more of the products that I love.
Several of you suggested that I consider using coupons. Some of you were shocked to hear that I have never clipped coupons. I like the 20% off Gymboree or Macy’s coupons I get in the mail, but I really can’t think of a time I have clipped grocery coupons. But, hey, I’m willing to try. So I spent a couple hours looking online at various coupon sites. There are hundreds of them. The NY Times did a good article last week on how people are getting into clipping coupons again. I was hoping to find a site where I could enter in all the brands of food that I like and they would let me know when manufacturer coupons became available. As far as I can tell, no such site exists. Instead, I found myself reading through hundreds of coupons for products I don’t want (mostly processed foods), and I just felt like I was reading advertisements. I had a bit better luck by going directly the websites for a couple brands I like (Organic Valley milk and Cascade Farms organic frozen vegetables). So I saved a couple dollars using coupons for the first time. Woodman’s doesn’t have store coupons (or big advertised store sales), so I don’t think that the coupon route is going to be a huge saver. If I wasn’t as picky…if I didn’t want a certain brand of yogurt or breakfast bars or soup…I think coupon clipping would be a lot more of a money saving technique. But after doing research into brands and rather carefully deciding which ones I most want to support, I don’t like to switch brands to save $0.30. Ahh, decisions, decisions.
Next I did a comparison of four products: Coffee, diapers, milk, and eggs. Here’s what I found.
Continue reading “A penny for the coffee, a penny for the tea”
As we were picking up our O’s and granola at Woodman’s today, Andrew scooted away and came back clutching a box of Fruity Pebbles to his chest. His eyes were big and bright. He. Wanted. Them.
