I did it! I will easily make it to this weekend without a grocery shop for myself! (I don’t count this week’s Imperfect Foods delivery because that was 90 percent stuff for Boyfriend).
I am going to go to Aldi as we are out of many staples like oatmeal and rice and almond milk. And we need some produce. Goal is to come out spending no more than $50, which seems do-able.
How do you guys stay on budget for groceries - as in, how are you not surprised by a high total at the checkout? Do you add it up as you put each thing in your cart? I used to do that when we were cash only, out of necessity, but it always felt weird and anal. I should probably start doing that again though.
I’m also pondering how to balance “eat down our food stash before moving in March” with “Winter Is Coming and we should have at least a small larder to get us through when we get blizzards/polar vortex/life threatening cold.”
I can estimate within about $5 at this point, just by kind of looking at what’s in the cart and feeling it out, but I absolutely used to bring a calculator to the store with me. For years I had the calculator with me and I kept a written price book for different stores. The price book really helped me get a feel for how much things should cost, at what price to buy/not buy things, and also made me better at estimating because I know if there are cans in my cart, they were on sale. The price book also helped me make fast substitutions, because if something isn’t priced well I will not buy it, I’ll just change course a little on the fly. If bell peppers are super expensive and I needed like 6 of them for a potato soup and a stir fry, I might get a cabbage (stirfry) and green beans (soup) instead, if they are a better deal. So that helps me avoid sticker shock at the register. Stores love to randomly jack up prices on things but if you don’t know what the price should be you don’t even notice.
Do you play the game where you guess what the total will be before they start scanning the stuff, and if you guess right you feel smart and superior for a while?
I don’t tend to go in with a goal of spending x amount of money - instead I’ve already got a mental model of what things are expensive, what things are inexpensive, and what a cost per volume/weight “should” be. I didn’t do a price book like @AllHat, but I tracked flyer sales for years in my Livejournal (it was fascinating reading, which is probably why only like 3 people ever read it)
I get stressed when we are almost out of things I consider staples (the pandemic didn’t help), so on bulky things like rice I’m looking for the sales when I am down to a quarter of the 10lb bag. (TC, there was supposed to be a sale on my preferred brand this week, but it wasn’t labeled properly in the store - perhaps because we went the evening of the last day, but we still have plenty). So basically anything that is a staple like rice, flour, oats, oil, peanut butter, I know what my target sale price is, and I buy to make sure we never run out or are required to buy at full price. This means that when cheese goes on sale, we buy $40 of cheese. But that saves us $20. I know it will even out.
We only do this for certain foods that are either stressful for me to run out of, or where the difference between sale and regular price is pretty meaningful at the volume we consume it. We also know which brands are the right level of quality/price for us and which ones we are less picky about.
And then for produce I know the cost per pound, and we tend to buy mostly vegetables that are under $2/lb, and keep the splurge veggies to two meals a week.
With your list: rice is $10 for 10lbs for at least one brand that is on sale this week. Oatmeal is $3.50-$4.50. Almond milk is $4 for the larger carton. A bag of onions is $3. A bunch of bananas is $3. Peppers are ~$2 per. Apples are ~$1 per. Sweet potatoes are cheap, or get butternut squash. Napa cabbage is usually cheap per pound, but the price will be dependant on the size, which is highly variable. Frozen veggies are $3 per bag - this is the best deal for spinach if you’re cooking it anyways.
Note, I could have easily brought the bag to the checkout, shown them the flyer on my phone and gotten the price matched. But we have time to wait for another sale, we would have had to stand in line, and we didn’t want anything else at the store. We were mostly there because I needed an excuse to get out of the house and it is inconvenient to buy rice with the rest of our regular shop when we don’t have a car.
So it depends on how I’m doing groceries and budgeting. This year prices have gone a little wonky, so when I’m healthy enough I will track some staples for a few months to internalize new prices.
If I’m on a strict budget of say $50/2 weeks for groceries, I’ll aim for one $35 trip and two forgot something’s and one $10 trip. On both trips I would be shopping a list based on staples + what I want to cook, and keeping a tally in my head. And I would have another $50 every other month for that day when I need rice and toilet paper and got a ride to the far store etc etc.
On those trips I heavily modify my shopping to hit my budget.
Right now I’m not on a strict grocery budget, so when I make a list I have an idea of what it will cost and I adjust my expectations based on store shelves. If the adjusted cart cost is waaaay too high I’ll pull a few things out or something.
But the only times I’m ever surprised are when I’m buying a ton of stuff for having company or something and don’t take a tally and catastrosize and estimate like 300 and then it’s only 200.
Or thanksgiving where it was 500.
I’ve also prepped for those kinds of huge holidays on a budget and not been surprised.
Oh, that’s a good idea, having a “shit, forgot something essential” buffer. I will definitely try that. I think this is one reason I end up spending more than intended.
I’ve definitely been having a hard time internalizing what stuff “should” cost since covid. When we were isolating and getting everything delivered, we sort of threw caution to the wind because we didn’t want to go into stores. We’ve been going into stores since, what, May now? Prices are weird and unpredictable. Generally if I go to Aldi I do better price wise but they’re also the place that’s most likely to be out of stuff. (And also the place with all the delicious cheese that I sometimes overspend on so I can have good snacks!)
I admit I am guilty of buying some veggies regardless of cost, to some extent, because Boyfriend is a picky eater and has a limited range of veg he will actually eat. This is a vast improvement from a decade ago when he literally would eat NONE, zero, except potatoes, corn, and tomatoes if they are in stuff. So, like, I’ll usually get bell peppers as long as they are not completely obscene in cost.
Another tricky thing, especially in winter and early spring, is sometimes there’s a period where you have to go with what looks freshest and that is not always the cheapest option. No point getting something wilty or half-slimed already lol. I give myself some grace because we gotta prioritize health and diet variety, too!
YES. Also, going with things that taste good. I am going to pivot to frozen berries soon because fresh will taste like sand.
Did you ever shop at Stanley’s Produce? (RIP) Now THAT was a place where you had to be open minded and snatch up whatever was fresh and cheap and not moldy. But the deals were SO good. I miss that place even though it was a bus and an el away. I used to load up a huge backpack of CHEAP CHEAP stuff to haul home.
Oof. I have a friend like that, it is a struggle. Sometimes you just gotta go with what’s possible, not optimal.
I’ve been struggling with grocery prices too. I know that I could comparison shop but honestly I don’t have the energy to figure out a whole new set of price baselines…
(Oh no, now I’m daydreaming about writing a program to do this for me. Someone stop me.)
OK, so, went to Aldi tonight with Boyfriend. Goal was to spend $50, spent $60.45 (but I was not adding in my head). Interestingly, there is not 1 single item on this list that cost more than $2.99.
what I bought
1/2 gallon milk
jug of white vinegar
cheddar cheese
cumin
canola oil
bag of frozen strawberries
brown rice
wheat bread
rolled oats
2 cans tomato paste
ham (lunchmeat)
lettuce
tortillas
raisin bran
2 cans coconut milk
crackers
half and half
almond eggnog (this is the only thing that feels like a waste, because I don’t like it. Oh well. Maybe it’ll be OK in coffee.)
mushrooms
almond milk
raspberries
peanuts
3-pack of sweet peppers
grapes
bag of onions
What sucks is that Boyfriend is out of town next weekend and usually that means Food Treats for me (ie, I buy stuff that I can’t have in the house because he’ll immediately inhale it and I won’t get any). But I feel like I don’t have the budget for that. And last time he was out of town I didn’t do this either because I was newly on blood pressure meds and brain meds and a) was trying to eat super healthy and b) had zero appetite and nausea thanks to the brain meds.
Oh well. Maybe I can find a small treat. I should probably not get it at Trader Joe’s like usual though, I can’t control myself in there.
We went to Aldi today too! Uh…our list is not as restrained as yours. Somehow a Christmas cactus and a snowglobe cookie decorating kit found its way into our cart.