Simply Saving Money at the Grocery Store

Getting Started
Quality matters to me. I don’t just want to buy at the lowest price, I want quality too. For an item to be a great deal it has to meet my quality and price expectations.

What makes me different from other grocery sites is I track prices and rate the deals okay*, good**, or great***. By identifying the sales okay, good, or great will help you decide how much to buy of that item. Also, just because a store claims an item is on sale I won't put it on my Weekly Deals unless it really is an okay, good, or great buy.

I do buy some store brand items, but there are some items I just like the name brand. I want you to eat what you buy. Just because the store brand bread is .67 cents, it does not meet my "quality expectations" and so you won't see it on my Weekly Deals list.

What does okay, good or great mean to me?
Okay* is the price you would be if you bought the item at Wal-mart or Costco. When I need an item that is on sale and not at an okay price I will usually drag myself down to Wal-mart for a shopping trip.
Good* is the price level I will usually stock up buying a few more than I really need to feed my family for the week. I also try to coordinate a meal menu using these sale items.
Great* is the price level I will by extra for my food storage. I am working on building a 3-month supply of food that my family eats on a regular basis. There are many reasons to do this, if you want to know more about building a 3-month suppy of food visit http://providentliving.org/ and click on the Family Home Storage link on the left sidebar. One good reason to have a 3-month supply of food is it will save you money. Think of it has having your own little store in your basement and you will now only buy food and household goods when they are at a good or great deal to maintain your store.

How I like to shop
The way I like to shop is to buy on sale and buy in bulk. I also limit the number of grocery stores I go to, but will search the ads for the best deals. The grocery stores I will search ads for are Albertson's, King Sooper's and Safeway in the Denver metro area. I do shop at Wal-mart, but I only go there when something I need isn't on sale at the grocery store. Also, Walmart price matches, so some weeks it may make sense to shop at Walmart, but remember to bring your ads!

I also use coupons, most coupons I use are from the newspaper. If you don't want to use coupons, that's okay! The weekly deals I list are okay, good, or great without coupons, which makes coupon using a bonus savings.

If you have any questions about grocery shopping please email me at simplysavingcolorado @ gmail .com (remove spaces before sending email.) or leave a comment on the blog.