Shopping Extravaganza

Sunday, May 9, 2010

So, I’ve been waiting for this weekend for a while now. We have been spending the last 5-6 weeks eating all of the groceries in our kitchen to the best of our ability. I’ve been purchasing only foods and dry goods that we needed to finish off everything in our arsenal. When I looked in the pantry on Friday, I saw rice, Triscuits, and cereal. In the fridge – milk, condiments, grapes, and celery. The freezer: dinner rolls, popsicles, and some banana baby food. Now, don’t call CPS…I did all of this on purpose.

Before you freak – see my blog entitled “Stretching Your Meal Options” from April 1st.

Before I got to the end of the groceries and meal options, I knew that my shopping ventures would be expensive because we were out of everything: mustard, ranch, paper towel, canned goods, chicken breast, EVERYTHING. You name it, we were out of it! So I started by buttering up my husband. “Babe, we’re going to need to do the BIG PUSH this weekend and it’s gonna be ugly.” This way, he was prepared to go with me, help me, and make the whole nightmare that much easier.

However, you KNOW that when you shop with your husband, you often buy stuff that isn’t on the list; it’s just how it goes. They don’t usually do the shopping, so they see things that you never buy, and they want them! I, personally, will take the help and spend a few extra dollars.

Having said all of this, we went to four different stores in two days to complete our list. We started at Aldi – our brand new, discount grocery store to save as much money as we possibly could, and scratch as much off the list as possible. I had a detailed list, but I certainly picked things up as I saw them. After Aldi, we hit up Big Lots to get the majority of the list taken care of. They do not have a cold or frozen section, and I knew I’d need to visit Target or Wal-Mart thirdly.

Big Lots was important for one reason, mostly: Insanely low prices on sandwich bags in all sizes. A nice bonus was the canned goods, crackers, pretzels and chips, and dry goods like pasta and rice all at extremely discounted prices.

Target was third on my list – produce (only the items that I was unable to purchase at Aldi), lunch meat, and Stauffer’s Whales – found in the $1 section which beats the HECK out of the prices on Goldfish.

Wal-Mart was last, and we wanted to kill ourselves momentarily, as we were TIRED OF SHOPPING! Paper towel, frozen chicken breasts, store-brand allergy medicine, and canned tuna fish. DONE!

Now, we have purchased everything that we need except a FEW things that we only purchase in bulk at Sam’s…Purina Dog Food, Splenda, Coffee, lean ground beef, and bacon.

Stay with me – I know you’re exhausted! We were tired and cranky by the end.

Let’s break it down…
1. Aldi: $78.16
2. Big Lots: $51.39
3. Target: $36.54
4. Wal-Mart: $35.71

TOTAL: $201.80

By taking some time…and a great deal of patients…to travel to four different stores in order to complete my list and save the most money possible, I was able to stuff our pantry, freezer, and refrigerator FULL TO THE BRIM with groceries that will last us about six weeks. Of course I will be going to the store for fresh dairy, produce, and the few items that I still need from Sam’s, but I believe I truly saved a great deal of money by doing it this way.

Give my new technique a try one time, and see how much money you are saving. The savings is significant and it is such a good feeling to empty your pantry as much as possible, and then fill it, starting the whole process over again!

Happy Mother’s Day!!