I have a $100 weekly grocery budget for my husband and I. I am typically able to keep our weekly grocery trip at $100 or just a bit below but I always have to remove one or time “unnecessary items” to make this happen. I have had a few people tell me to start shopping at Walmart because the prices are so cheap. We currently shop at Fred Meyers through Click List. So this week I decided to do a little research to see if Walmart is really better. Here are my findings:
I used both Walmarts and Fred Meyers online shopping apps. Below is my shopping list. For each item I selected the same size (unless otherwise stated) and the same brand when possible.
As you can see there is a price difference and both prices are over my budget. I did a second calculation where I took the least expensive option from each store and that came out to be $111.28 which is still over budget. And when you think about having to drive between stores that uses gas as well and isn’t necessarily saving any money.
After my research here is what I did/learned:
- I will keep shopping at Fred Meyer.
Reason #1 we get gas points every time we shop. We typically get anywhere from $.10-$.40 off per gallon. Those savings are really important to us because we both currently drive to another town for work.
Reason #2 the meat brand options are so much better. I do not buy Foster Farms or Tyson brand and that was all my Walmart had. I prefer the Simple Truth brand from Fred Meyers.
Reason #3 we get money rebates every 3 or 4 months that are usually about $20. - Fred Meyer has really great coupons for their online pick up program. I am usually about to use enough coupons to cover the cost of the pick up cost and then some.
- I think I will start to buy some bulk items at Walmart. The sparkling water was a steal in my opinion. I would love to by like 3 or 4 cases of that and stock up.
AND now here is what I actually bought this week:
To get under budget without removing too much here is what I did:
1. I removed the shrimp. It was alot of money and we really didn’t need it.
2. I got the tortillas on sale. It was a 2 for $5 deal but I only got one. You can still get the sale price on items like this even if just buy one. I think you have to have the “store card” in order to do this.
3. I got a coupon for the chicken breast. Dolla off y’all!
4. I bought the carrots from the bulk bin instead of prepackaged.
5. I got a smaller container of the blackberries. These are for my husband so we don’t need a massive amount.
6. I changed the bread brand and I was able to get a coupon so that I got two loafs for $5.
7. I changed the apple brand from Honeycrisp to a brand called Jazz. Obvi Honeycrisp is the best but the Jazz was a much better deal this week.
8. I changed the sparkling water brand and amount. Like I said I would like to get it in bulk from Walmart. Maybe next week!
I think these are some practical and #real tips for saving on a grocery bill. I pretty much got everything I still wanted (minus the shrimp) and I was still under budget. And now I know I am getting the best overall deal.
Sister Hack 