I love weeks when I can go grocery shopping and I don’t need to buy anything that is on sale. For our family of 5, I try and keep our monthly grocery bill under $300. We’ve been working on restocking our pantry since we moved but now we have a pretty good store of food so we typically don’t need to buy much.
Albertson’s had some great deals this week. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that the extra arrowhead water coupons I bought off ebay will be here today so I can take advantage of the sale. You can’t see them well in this picture but there are 6 cases of water hidden in there that I got for $0.25 each.
Buying Non-Perishables in Bulk
With the exception of the cantaloupe and steak in this picture, everything I bought was non-perishable so while it does still have to be rotated, it has a long shelf life. Buying non-perishables in bulk is a great way to stock your pantry and keep a stockpile of food in case of an emergency or to tide you over until the next sale cycle.
I’ve changed my thinking about bulk food. When I used to think about buying food in bulk, I thought of going to Costco or shopping the bulk food aisle of the local grocery store (you know, where you find the enormous cans of tomato paste that promise to go bad before you can ever possibly eat the whole thing). Now, when I think of bulk food shopping, I primarily look to my Sunday coupon inserts. I use Costco pricing as a guide and try and beat it by combining coupons with sale prices. Once I find a good deal, I then buy enough of each item to get me through the next several months (or longer) until I can count on the item going on sale again. If you play the game the right way, it ends up being much cheaper shopping with coupons than it is buying in bulk from Costco or another discount warehouse.
Pay attention to prices as you shop. I now know that there are several items I usually can’t beat Costco’s pricing on (for ex. maple syrup). For those things, I stop by Costco every month or so and stock up, knowing that I won’t be able to get a better deal anywhere else.
My Albertson’s Shopping Trip
Everything purchased above can be found in my Albertson’s grocery deal matchup for this week. There were a few things on my list that I couldn’t find at my local store but I was still able to stock up on some basics. Included in this trip were 2 packages of steaks, 1 cantaloupe, 1 box of cereal, 4 boxes of pancake mix, 6 cases of water bottles, 3 tubes of toothpaste, 4 jars of salsa, 2 packs of applesauce, 4 boxes of mac & cheese, 4 packs of goldfish crackers, 12 boxes of pasta, and 3 cans of diced tomatoes.
Grand Total: $41.62
That is a savings of $92.18!
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