So, we survived! I guess that is the first thing to point out about our monthly shopping trip that I talked about yesterday.
Here are the things I learned about this trip:
1)It is tiring. I expected it to be, but it was more than I thought it would be. I was tired. Hubs was tired. The kids were tired. The car was probably tired.
2)Monthly grocery shopping trips should not be planned on a day with ANY other planned activities. At 4:30, I suddenly realized that Kitten had t-ball practice at 6. We made it on time, but only because I already had a quick and easy meal planned for us, probably because I realized when I made the menu on Sunday that we had practice that evening.
3)Taking the kids requires an extra measure of patience. And longsuffering. And lots of gum to bribe them with. Not sure how that’s going to play out in the future, because I felt like it took longer with the two kiddos in tow, and Hubs was doing a lot of kid wrangling and not a lot of helping me with the big items or the decision-making. But, he did help with the loading and unloading, and he always got the REALLY big stuff for me. I’m not sure which way is the best way. Ideally, I’d take him and leave the kids at home. Oh, Grammy, I foresee a fun-filled day with the kids in your future!
4)Extra stops seem to work their way in, though there really is no time for that. We went to the three stores I’d planned to go to, but we also made two other stops for important things Hubs needs for work because the two stores were “right there”. Each stop only took a few minutes, but there was still the getting in and out of the car and the extra drive time that factored into our long day.
5)The shopping didn’t take as long as I thought it would. It went pretty smoothly, and the actual shopping took about 3 to 3.5 hours, not counting the driving and the lunch stop in Sam’s, which took 20ish minutes. Also, the potty breaks were well-timed, so they didn’t add too much extra time to the day–there was no trekking all the way across Sam’s to hit the loo. Both kids needed to go while we were right there, and Daddy and Doodle went again while Kitten and I stood in line, then she and I went again while the guys took the groceries to the car.
6)It didn’t cost as much either. I came in about $70 under my absolute maximum budget, and about $50 under what I’d planned to spend. That’s good, because that gives me plenty for milk and fresh produce (and anything else I may have forgotten as I get used to this kind of shopping) over the next 3 weeks. Granted, I didn’t find a few things that I wanted that I’ll either need to figure out a way to substitute something else for or make myself, or do without. Dry Ranch dressing mix is the big thing I couldn’t find. I found packs of dip mix, but it had spinach and onion dip too, and that’s not really what I wanted. Anyway, I didn’t get everything on my list. But, I did get several things that weren’t on my list. We found a good deal on Reese’s eggs (63 for $4.91) and those are our FAVORITE! I let the kids get a few more treats than I’d planned, and I myself fell victim to the “I’m hungry, and cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese sound really, really good right now!” trap. But overall, even with the splurges and unplanned purchases, I feel that we did really, really well.
7)Some things are not cheaper at Sam’s Club, and some things are not cheaper in bulk. There were a few things that I didn’t buy at Sam’s that I’d planned to, but purchased them at Aldi instead because the per unit price at Sam’s seemed too high. This is why having a good price list is so important, I guess. I’ll be working on that price list as soon as I can. I made notes in the stores, and I’m going to use my receipts as the starting point for my spreadsheets.
8)Both Aldi and Sam’s have limited selection, which is a good thing for time, but not such a good thing when you only shop there and need a specific thing. (Ranch dressing mix again.) It was easy to go, spaghetti noodles, check and not have to think about or decide on angel hair, linguine, blah, blah, blah. But, I couldn’t find coriander, so I’ll have to pick that up another time, and I went to Walmart for toothpaste, mouthwash, toilet paper, and cat litter first. I’ll probably start going there last to fill in the gaps, if I have to go there for the specific TP, toothpaste, and mouthwash we need.
9)You have to be willing to try a different brand than “your” brand. For the most part, I’m not stuck on one particular brand. There are things that I am picky about, like Crisco. I have preferences on some things, like cat litter, and with those things, I’m willing to try a different brand once if the price is right. So, since we hate every single other brand of cat litter but Tidy Cat (which is our least favorite) and Scoop Away (my new favorite), and haven’t tried Fresh Step (my Mom’s old stand-by), I either have to buy less litter for the same price at Walmart (Scoop Away), buy my least-least favorite Tidy Cat (non-clumping), or try Fresh Step, which is a much better price per pound at Sam’s than even what Walmart has. We’re trying Fresh Step next time, and if we like it, great, if not, we’ll keep getting Scoop Away at Walmart.
10)Shopping once a month takes up a LOT of space in the kitchen! Organization is key, I think. I didn’t get everything put up today, and I need to rotate out those things I talked about yesterday that I always keep in stock, like cream of whatever soup. Wish I had a huge, huge pantry and a commercial fridge and freezer! Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a good deal on a fridge and freezer at an auction or something. Hubs has mentioned getting them before, so maybe I can talk him into a set!
11)Mistakes will be made. I know I bought things at Sam’s that I should have gotten at Aldi, and vice versa. Again, that’s were the price list will help me in the future. I’ll learn, and I’ve already decided that paying a few cents more per pound/ounce/unit for some things will be worth it to have only one container to put up instead of three or four. Other things are the opposite. And, I refuse to beat myself up over a couple of cents or my organizational/space options. A couple of dollars makes a big difference, but not a few cents. And I literally mean 2 or 3 cents.
So, that’s pretty much all I can think of. This trip has me tired, exhausted, and hungry. All that food! Looking forward to my splurge bagel and cream cheese in the morning!
What do you think? Do you shop monthly for your groceries? Are you willing to try it?
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Great job! I came over from Prudent Homemaker. Its a lot of work, but aren’t you glad you have it done? 🙂
Yes! I am so glad I don’t have to do that again for several weeks! Thanks for stopping by!
Now that I’m reading the ‘after’, I think I better understand what you are doing. When I read your post about planning for this trip, I thought you were going to buy produce and such for the month too, but it sounds like you will still be making weekly trips for some of those items.
In a sense, I already do what you’re doing. I have a pantry in the basement where I keep all the staples. Most of them were purchased either on sale or in bulk (whichever was more cost-effective), and if there is a nonperishable that I can get a great price on (or even get for free) I stock as much as I can. For example, tuna always goes on sale during Lent around here. This year, the best price was at Walgreens, and I happened to have gotten a $25 gift card free from them for transferring a prescription, so I bought about a year’s worth of tuna, no $$ out of pocket.
Depending on where you live, some basic staples (rice, oats, beans) are really affordable at the LDS Home Storage Center. We happen to have one about 10 miles away, so I do shop there for a few things. I am not LDS (Mormon), but I am still welcomed there and able to purchase items, no problem. If there is one near you, it can be a real money saver….and they also have some items that they ship.
I think that over time you’ll find that you get more than a month’s worth of some things, too. If you buy a huge bag of flour at Costco you’ll want to get it into a storage container so it doesn’t get weevils or something in it. I get food grade storage buckets (2 to 5 gallon buckets with lids) from the bakery at the supermarket. Sometimes they smell like frosting, but if you wash them and leave them out in the sun for a day, then wash them again (because they’ll get dusty) you can fix that.
I wish you the best!
-Laura at TenThingsFarm
You know, I think you could do all your produce shopping for a month (besides what you’d grow) if you planned the fresh produce to be eaten first, then the more stable stuff like apples and potatoes for the middle couple of weeks, and frozen or canned stuff for the last week. I think if you did it like that, you could get by with one trip a month in total. Now, that won’t work for me, because my kids eat bananas like monkeys, and grapes and apples don’t last long around here either! If I had the freezer space, I’d buy 8 gallons of milk at a time to have milk for the entire month and freeze them. My kids, especially the littlest one, drink a lot of milk, and I happily spend the money because my Kitten is a tiny, tiny girl and still needs some help catching up in her growth from all the health issues she had from 9 months old until about 3.5 or 4. That could help bring down the total number of grocery store trips in a month.
We don’t have a LDS cannery near enough to us to justify the gas. It’s about 2 hours away. I do know that they are very visitor friendly, and we do have a few friends who are Mormon and go there periodically. We have talked about getting some supplies from there, but so far, we haven’t done more than talk about it. It would require a big trip for our family, my siblings, and my parents to make it worth it, I think. Not to mention that I very strongly dislike (fill in the blank with an “h” word that I don’t like to use 😉 ) making the drive into the big city where the cannery is. I’m so a country girl!
I have done the stock up on staples to a degree, with coupons and sales and stuff, but my time has really been stretched thin, and with the gardening season about to kick into full gear, I’m taking a break from that and trying this monthly trek. Now, that’s not to say that I won’t hit a super sale from time to time, but I’m really looking for ways to streamline the entire food procuring process from planning to purchasing to putting away. I want to find more time for canning and preserving the garden’s bounty, and I want to find more time for other home projects, like learning to sew. And of course, we all want more time with our kids and husbands!
We’ve got a couple of food grade storage buckets (can’t remember what they are called) and my Mom found that putting pre-measured amounts of flour in vacuum sealed bags and putting those bags in a container is a great way to store it for years. We cracked open a bucket that had 3 year old flour in it the other day and it was fine. I have also heard that you should freeze flour for a couple of weeks to kill weevils regardless of how large the bag is or where it came from before you set it up for storage.
I think we’re going to learn a lot from each other!
This is essentially the way I’ve been shopping for several years now. I hate grocery shopping, I hate going to town, and I hate having to deal with traffic and rude people–so I figured that if I just dedicated a day to do it all at one time, I could prepare for my “bad day” and get it over with. And I do save money, too, because I’m not running into town constantly.
I, like you, wish I had a bigger freezer so I could buy up milk for the month, too. I end up back at the little small-town grocery or Ingles (15 min from my house) about once a week for milk, produce, and sometimes bread. I also like to reserve $50-$100 beyond what I’ll need for milk, when it’s possible, so that I can snag up some killer BOGO sales if they come up and I’m going to be at or near the store anyway…but I don’t go all the way into Athens for BOGO sales unless they are VERY much worth it or I have to, despite all my best efforts, go into town anyway.
I also recommend making this mainly a solo affair. Your sanity will thank you! The few times we’ve tried to make it a family expedition, I ended up reconsidering my convictions about divorce and seriously considered putting the kids up for adoption–LOL! What I do to include and educate the kids now is to choose one that gets to be that month’s special shopping assistant. I can really focus on teaching them how to find the best price, when to leave a sale item, and the thrill of having two qualifying coupons for BOGO items–without threatening the lot of them with bodily harm or loss of life the entire time. 😉 They love this because they get to feel big, helpful, and special, plus they get quality one-on-one time with me. I love it because, well…I have 3 girls. I think my reasoning is obvious–lol.
In the end, though, as much as I dread my monthly BIG shopping trip, it does make life easier overall. Even though my trips do average taking 3-4 hours, plus the hour or so putting away groceries and rotating stock at home, it’s much less time consuming and stressful than making a 1-2 hour shopping trip every week and then having to spend that time every week taking care of putting items away. I wish you all the luck in the world as you try out this new method, and I hope it works as well for you as it does for me! 🙂
I actually considered leaving all 3 of them in Aldi at one point . . . just walking away from the buggy and going home. And I did have to tell all 3 of them to stop asking for things or simply pointing out all the “cool” and “interesting” things they’d love to have. “Hey, honey, look at this cool (thing). That’s pretty interesting. What do you think about it?” Which translates into “Can we get this?” I find the kids’ “Can we get this” much easier to deal with than Hubs’ version, lol! And I have, in the past, promised to give the children away to next person who passed by who looked even remotely sane!