Food

Grocery Shopping Recap (Modoc Style)

Posted by Lindsay C on Oct 7, 2011 in Featured Articles, Food, Freebies, Likely Favorites, Sales, shopping | 0 comments

As yesterday’s post turned out to be a little longer than I thought, I wanted to make sure that my main points about shopping (and saving) at Holiday Market were understood.  The post about Rite Aid will be up soon, I promise! So here goes.

• To save money, you need to change the way you shop.  If you are only thinking of tonight’s dinner, or even the week’s dinners, you are throwing money away.  You need to shop based on what is on sale AND what you have a coupon for and STOCK UP! (But again, don’t clear the shelves…that’s not nice).  This will help you get in the mindset of planning a few months in advance, and always having what you need on hand for a few months is better than *just* the upcoming week, right?  Plus you are getting the absolute lowest price possible on those items.
• I’ve found this seems like a bigger cost up front, but imagine that next month you won’t have to run to the store for that item (i.e. spending NO money), because when there’s a blizzard outside you can go to your pantry and get your ingredients instead of braving the snow!  It will save you money in the long run.
• Of course there are things that you will NEED that aren’t on sale or you don’t have a coupon for, but just try to avoid it as much as possible.  With practice this won’t happen anymore.  And when it does happen, it will almost physically hurt you to spend your hard earned money on that product because of your new mindset, haha!
• Obviously fruits, veggies, milk, bread and other perishable items (that you probably won’t ever get a coupon for) will have to be shopped for regularly, but imagine going to the store ONLY for those items because you don’t NEED anything else? I’ve found I’m buying more milk at a time than usual because I know we can use 4 gallons before they expire (I have 2 fridges, by the way, and it helps – one for food we use regularly in the house, one for beverages, meat in the freezer and other spare stuff in the garage)…plus if that’s the only thing I have to go to the store for, so why not?  Prices on things like milk only seem to go up so buy it when you have the money and the space!
• Fruits and vegetables.  I only buy things that are discounted with a Rewards card, or unless they’re dirt cheap.  I like to buy apples for Glenn’s lunches and for Harper and I, but none were on sale this week so we had no apples.  It’s okay…we’ll live.
• Meat.  I save on meat by buying things in the ‘discount bin.’  It’s all about to go bad (but it’s not gross at all), and I either use it immediately, or it goes in the freezer.  Do I need another 2 pounds of ground beef?  Not really, but I know I’ll use it eventually and the price per pound is cheaper than the sale stuff over on the fresh side.
• Again – check Holiday’s website for what’s on sale and plan your list using that INSTEAD of by what you want to make.  Then get creative and plan your dinners based on the sale items you’re going to buy.  That is the big change here…don’t buy based on what you’re going to make.  Make based on what you’re going to buy!
• Buy as much as you can.  Do you really need 10 cans of chili?  No, but if you can afford it, buy it because they’re 10 for $10 (that was a Safeway special last week, sorry, bad example! Only one I could think of and that was an occasion where I was out of town for a doctor’s appointment and went grocery shopping.) and you’ll use them eventually.  And it’s a nice thought to know you won’t have to buy chili for a while.
• Reusable bag points (5 WOW points for each bag) add up quick, so you can get closer to your 10% off – and only use that 10% off on BIG shopping trips!

Unfortunately Holiday does not allow “doubling” up on coupons or anything like that (like you see on the Extreme Couponing shows), so $1,000 off probably isn’t going to happen.  But you can still make a dent in your grocery bill if you use coupons smartly.  It takes practice, but you’ll figure it out if you just start trying, and it will become second nature soon.  Saving money is addictive!  So go back and review my tips on where to find your coupons and how to use and organize them here: My Adventures in Couponing (Modoc Style) – Part 1 of 2.

Oh – I almost forgot – every time you spend $50 at Holiday in a single transaction this month (October), you get a bonus 100 WOW points! So if I’m going to spend over $100 I’d break my transactions down to 2 or more if possible.

Okay, I *think* that’s it…if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section, or on the Likely Design Facebook page!  And definitely share your tips for shopping at Holiday!! Happy Shopping!!

xo, L.

Food on the brain…

Posted by Lindsay C on Aug 21, 2010 in Featured Articles, Food | 0 comments

…and around your neck.

How cute is this? via treasuredcharms on etsy. That reminds me – has anyone snacked on the new pretzel m&m’s? I can’t wait until I can try them…mmm….