Posted by Having eliminated spending in all other categories, food is the last luxury. We have yet to make any serious sacrifices when it comes to the food we eat. This is only possible because we only buy items that are on sale. I sometimes spend several hours clipping digital coupons and taking advantage of every possible discount offer I can find. By doing this, I am able to reduce our grocery bill by 25-30%. We only shop at one store that is close to our home. Traveling by car to a store on the other side of town would negate any savings we might get. Some grocery stores have a different promotion every day to entice people to shop there more frequently. Our local store has monthly and weekly sales. Plus, you can clip digital manufacturer coupons on their website. The digital coupons can sometimes be combined with store sales.
When you shop online, you have more control over how much you are spending. Sometimes the store makes substitutions that are not in your favor. They sometimes pick a more expensive brand as a replacement or an item you need for a discount isn’t available. These things happen from time to time, but overall, it’s still cheaper than going into the store without a shopping list. We still have to visit the store if we run out of something during the week. In that case, we go in with a short list and always check the website to see if there are any new digital coupons. We are still spending more than we did back in 2020 for less food. But it would be far worse if we did not take advantage of the sale items. I know this because it is harder to keep our pantry full.
It does seem like food prices have stabilized. The fact that grocery stores are still able to discount prices on some items is a good sign. We may never get back to pre-pandemic food prices, but it would be nice to be able to use our gas grill a little more often than we did this past summer. I found it interesting that there are so many grills for sale on Facebook Marketplace. That tells me that a lot of people are getting rid if their grills because they can’t afford the meat to cook on it. In a normal summer we will use two propane tanks on our grill. This year it was only one. Propane is only a few dollars more for a 20 lb. tank, so it is the price of meat that has reduced the number of cookouts for us. Sadly, grilling season is over now. This week I brushed the dust off our slow cooker and made a batch of chili. Chuck and pork roast are also slow cooker favorites, when they go on sale. Cooking a meal that you can eat over several days is another good way to save money.