Photo: Flickr goodiesfirst
In an earlier post, I explained that cooking rather than eating out saves a lot of money. But to maximize your savings, you have to be smart when shopping for groceries. So here are a few ways I save money.
Use a Cash back credit card
I use the Sallie Mae World Mastercard which gives you 5% cash back on groceries, but it is capped at $250 per month.
The American Express Preferred Blue card offers 6% cash back, but there is a $75 annual fee and there is a $6000 a year cap on groceries. American Express and Bank of America also offer cards that give you 3% cash back, but 3% doesn’t get me excited like 5% does. And, I don’t like to pay annual fees, so I’ll stick with my Sallie Mae card.
Buy Generic brands
When I was a child, I used to snub my nose at the generic brand Pathmark milk and snacks. Of course, I wasn’t paying for it so I didn’t know the costs. Well, now that I go grocery shopping, I notice the price difference and I often buy the cheaper generic brands. I usually can’t tell the difference between them. If I find that the name brand product tastes better, I’ll stick with the name brand, but for the ones that I don’t notice any significant difference, I pay less for the generic brand. So give the generic brands a try.
Make a grocery list
Using a list helps you avoid the temptation to purchase things that you don’t need. Also plan your meals in advance for the week, so you know what you need to get.
Check out the circulars
Look at the circulars before you go to the store and buy products that are on sale. If you are flexible with what you want to buy, you can often get great deals. There will be big sales on certain items which are “loss leaders.” Basically, the supermarket is willing to take a loss on some of its sale items to get you in the door to buy more expensive products.
Use Coupons
I don’t watch Extreme Couponing so I don’t know what extreme couponers do, but I know that you can save a good amount using coupons. Just don’t buy something because there’s a coupon for it if you don’t need it. Check the Sunday papers for coupons.
Target/Walmart
You may not know but Target also sells groceries and its prices are pretty affordable. I use my Redcard at Target to get 5% off. The 5% off is automatic, so there is no need to redeem your rewards. Walmart also has groceries, but from my experience, it does not have as much produce and meats as Target. Don’t forget to check the back of the aisles to look for the clearance products at Target.
Aldi’s
Aldi’s has super low prices, but they do not take credit cards and you have to pay for a bag if you don’t bring one. They do not have any name brand items, so don’t go there looking for them.
Ethnic Supermarkets
Don’t go there to buy any American products like cereal or snacks because those are expensive. But you will find great prices on vegetables, fruits and meats. If you are not familiar with Chinese Supermarkets, check these out: Great Wall Supermarket, Good Fortune Supermarket and Hong Kong Supermarket.
Warehouse stores
Some people love BJ’s and Costco and I’m sure you can get good deals there. I had a BJ’s membership for a year because some co-workers wanted to split the membership fee. However, I don’t like going there because the lines are usually insane and I don’t have much room to buy things in bulk. Maybe with a new addition to the family, I’ll have to reassess whether I want to join again.
In NYC, other great supermarkets with good prices are Fairway and Trader Joe’s. If you live in Brooklyn in the Bay Ridge area, Three Guys from Brooklyn is an open air market with low, low prices which is open 24/7.
Additional tip: If you go to Chinatown at around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., the street vendors usually mark down their prices as they need to get rid of their inventory. I got a box of “organic” strawberries for $1.00.
Very solid tips! I am working my way to save more when shopping and making a shopping list (and trying to stick to it) saved me a lot of money because I didn’t overspend on things I didn’t need 🙂 Also, buying generic brands works great for me too as you can save a ton of money here as well.
Thanks Romanian. Yes, having a list is great as it saves time and you resist the temptation to buy things you don’t need. Great to hear that you can buy generic brands to save money there too!
Good tips. We use Target for most of our grocery shopping and I love the 5% back. Costco is great for certain things, especially diapers and wipes (you’ll save a ton), and paper towels and things like that. I haven’t really checked out the Chinese supermarkets, but there’s one near our Target that we could try. Could be a cool new find.
Thanks Matt, I’m sure I’ll be buying a lot of diapers and wipes so I’ll have to look into that. Let me know how it goes at the Chinese supermarket! I think you should be able to find some great deals on vegetables and fruits there.
I always used to go to Aldi when I lived near one. I like their no-thrills model. You get exactly what you need, and nothing more.
Now I live 2 blocks from and ethnic grocery store. It’s amazing, the produce is awesome and cheap, and there are whole aisles dedicated to individual ethnic foods.
That’s great. I think some people might be intimidated in going to an ethnic grocery store, but they do have fresh and cheap produce. And, I definitely like making different types of foods so that is another plus for me in going there.
This is a really solid post! We go to Walmart only because we price match everything from the other stores when they are on sale. It save us a lot of time.
Does the Sallie Mae cash back only go toward student loan debt or is it actually cash back?
Thanks Jacob! The card gives you the option to credit your Sallie Mae student loan debt, transfer to UPromise account or to get a statement credit. I just got this card recently and haven’t decided what to redeem it for. I do have a Sallie Mae student loan, but the interest rate is very low, so we’ll see.
I wish we had an Aldi around. My parents swear by it. I can never understand why people don’t buy generics. I get mad when a store doesn’t have a generic version of something.
I know, I don’t get it either. Most times the generic version has the same exact ingredients. There’s no difference except for the price.
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I will second the suggestion for warehouse stores if you can share your membership and find a location that isn’t CRAZY. I used to live in Astoria and the Costco in LIC on Vernon Blvd always has parking and the lines aren’t that terrible, although that Costco is slightly smaller than BK one off the BQE so it has a few less items. The BK Costco is a madhouse parking wise… it’s like trying to park at a shopping mall on black Friday every weekend.
I have a car so I often pick up a friend or my brother and we can split large packages of paper goods and cleaning supplies and the three packs of ketchup (who can go through a three pack of full sized ketchup outside of family full of kids?).
As I have the 2% cash back membership at Costco, me taking friends shopping ends up paying for my membership so it’s totally worth it (and my friends never need to pay for their membership so it’s a win-win). My brother even bought a new mattress through my Costco membership (free delivery and great warranties) so that is just more money I get cash back. 🙂
I am now a 45 minute drive from the LIC Costco (closer to BK store) but the drive is easy and the smaller crowds make the longer commute worth my sanity!
Yes, it is definitely good to share the cost of the membership. I can imagine that the one in BK off the BQE would be a madhouse parking wise…heck, the BQE sometimes feels like a parking lot itself. I split a membership to BJ’s with a co-worker but that wasn’t renewed. I might look into Costco…there’s one even closer to me in Rego Park but it is paid parking but not that expensive. Glad to hear you found a Costco that has smaller crowds…I know how frustrating looking for parking and dealing with crowds gets.
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