Frugal Grocery Shopping

I'll admit, I really enjoy grocery shopping! I like the little challenge of trying to make my money go as far as possible each week and the variation in my purchases that results from only buying things on sale or clearance. Here's my weekly grocery shopping routine.

phone shopping list

Reading Flyers

Every Friday I look forward to reading the new shopping flyers. I used to get home from school on Fridays and relax at the kitchen table with a stack of flyers and a cup of coffee. Now I save a little bit of time by reading them on flyer-consolidating websites like Smart Canucks.

Which flyers do I read? Nearly all of them -- Safeway, Save On Foods, No Frills, Superstore, Walmart, Target, H&W Produce, T&T Supermarket, Sobeys, Target, Shoppers Drug Mart, London Drugs, Army & Navy, Canadian Tire, and XS Cargo. As I skim the flyers I make a list on my phone of what is on sale at each place. Usually there will be nothing that I need to buy at most of the stores, so a lot of store names end up with "nil" after them.

What's A Good Price?

Just because something is "on sale" doesn't mean it's a good price! From reading the flyers every week I know what the cheapest sale prices are for all of my usual groceries, and those are the most I'm willing to spend on them. For example, broccoli crowns are $1.49/lb this week at Save On, but I won't jump on that as I know that sometime in the next month or so I'll probably find them for $0.99/lb. When I do find something at its lowest sale price, I make sure to buy a few to stock up!

Deciding Where To Shop

Clearly it's not time- or fuel-efficient to go to fifteen stores to pick up one or two items at each. I still do make it to three to five different stores a week. I save gas by walking to the nearby grocery stores, stopping at stores that I pass on my way home from work, and shopping in areas where several stores are clustered. I also decide which day will be most strategic for shopping (e.g. Safeway has Friday/Saturday/Sunday only specials).

Price-Matching

I take advantage of price matching to avoid visiting so many different stores. Places like Walmart will meet any competitor's price. I print a screenshot of the item from the competitor's online flyer to show them.

Coupons

I rarely use coupons. Why? The bulk of my groceries are produce and coupons are generally only offered for brand-name pantry items. When I do buy dry or canned food I usually get fairly cheap prices by buying store-brand items. Finding and figuring out how to best use coupons can be time consuming and often results in my spending money on things like cereal that I wouldn't have bought otherwise. That being said, couponing can be a great way to save money and I do always have a few coupons on hand in my car (e.g. yogurt, shampoo) that I can pull out to further discount a sale/clearance/price-matched item. Coupon stacking (using more than one coupon on the same item) is permitted by some stores, so long as the coupons have different barcode numbers. Most weeks I also make use of the often lucrative Shoppers Drug Mart email coupons.

Clearance & In-Store Specials

I always check the clearance sections in stores. My favourite finds are ripe bananas (perfect for freezing for smoothies) and half-priced bread (which I keep in the freezer and take out two slices each morning for my work lunch). Morning and closing are usually the best times to find clearance deals. I also do a quick walk around the store to scope out any in-store specials that are not advertised in the flyer.

Rainchecks

I always ask for them when sale items are not in stock!

Locally Owned Produce Stores

I've found that locally owned produce stores (e.g. The Root Cellar in Victoria, Fruiticana and Kin's Farm Market in Vancouver, H&W Produce in Edmonton) tend to offer better prices on fruits and vegetables than larger chain grocery stores. Often their produce is from local growers as well, so it's nice to support them.

a locally owned produce store in Edmonton

wall-to-wall beautiful produce!

All the produce deals I got today: pineapple ($1.99), grapes ($0.99/lb), bananas ($0.58/lb), broccoli crowns ($0.88/lb), potatoes (5 lb for $0.99), carrots (2 lb for $0.79), onions (3 lb for $1.28), & egg plants ($0.88 each).

Discount Stores

Concrete-floored discount stores like XS Cargo are great places to find deals -- many of which have brand names. While I don't go out of my way to shop here, I do like to stop by if I'm driving past. They always have fancy bread (like Silver Hills and Dempsters) that's a few days from expiring for $1.50. Today I found cheap tea ($1.51 for 100 bags). When I was setting up my apartment I found great bathroom and kitchen scales and a clothes drying rack here.

a discount chain

in true discount store spirit, concrete floors and cardboard boxes

brand name bread & bagels for $1.49

Dollar Stores

As a kid I loved dollar stores. I still usually pop in when I pass one in the mall. Dollar stores are my go-to places for pretzels and spices. There's nothing wrong with dollar store food -- just be careful to check expiry dates, as turnover may be low. A lot of my household items come from dollar stores, from my shower curtain to my dessert bowls.

everything is $1.25 unless otherwise marked

cheaper than Walmart brand pretzels

$1 spices

Store-Brand

I save lots of money by buying store-brand items. At Walmart today I picked up a few of my Great Value brand staples: canned beans ($0.87), pasta (900 g for $1), and oats (1 kg for $2). I make exceptions to my only-buy-on-sale rule for these things, since Walmart never seems to have sales on Great Value brand items -- probably because their regular prices are already cheaper than other stores' sale prices.

Walmart's regular price for Bick's banana peppers is the same as Save On's sale price this week;
better yet, Walmart's Great value brand is 60 cents cheaper!

Bring Your Own Bags!

I always keep reusable shopping bags in my car to avoid paying for bags be environmentally conscious. I do reuse grocery bags in my garbage cans, so if my supply is running low I'll leave my reusable bags in the car in shops like Walmart to collect a few free garbage bags.

Only Buy Things On Sale/Clearance

"Never grocery shop when you're hungry" doesn't apply if you're good at sticking to a list of on-sale items. I'm occasionally tempted by half-priced bakery items, but only buy these once in a while, if I truly think they are a good deal and if I really want them. Fortunately I've never had much of a sweet tooth and would rather spend the money on produce.

Don't Shop If You Don't Need To

If I go to a grocery store I'll walk out having spent $10 or so. If I don't set foot in a grocery store I spend $0. I usually pick up groceries once a week, but occasionally I'll go two weeks without going to a store. I look in my fridge and at the flyers and if there's nothing I really need, I don't go shopping.

Hold Yourself Accountable

I make sure I'm not spending too much by keeping track of my expenses in a notebook.


What do you do to save money on groceries?