Grocery Shopping Inquiries...

I wanted to answer some questions about grocery shopping, this stems from the questions that Rona has up over at her site. She's looking for some tips on saving money while grocery shopping. Here's her questions and here are my answers:::

Do you shop every week?
I do shop weekly, with my shopping bill between $50 and $100 per week, depending on what is needed. Diaper/wipes weeks are usually quite a bit more.

Are you only going to one store to accomplish this?
I only shop at Stop & Shop, because they're the only store in the area that double coupons.

How do you decide which store you'll shop a per week?
99% of the time, I only shop at Stop & Shop, but if there's a crazy good sale somewhere for something I want, I will make a special trip for that item at that store.

Those of you with special diets ~ how do you stay within your tight budgets?
We do not have a special diet, but we do watch what we eat.

Do you always use coupons? If you do, do you purchase the Sunday newspaper, print from online websites, coupon swap?
99.9% of the time, I use coupons, the majority of them being either cut from the newspaper or printed from online sites. I like to print from mypoints.com because they give you points for however many coupons that you print/redeem in a month, which can be turned in for gift cards. I tend to store all my points until the holidays and use the gift cards to buy presents for the kids. I think I only spent $30 out of pocket for Christmas last year. I will always buy something if the double coupon saving is greater than the item price and I will always find a way to work it into my meal plans. Our Stop & Shop will give you the overage off on the item, so in a way you "make" money. Probably the reason that I have 15 bottles of BBQ sauce as well at 15 packets of the rice and noodle sides. I love to also keep an eye out for free product coupons wherever I can, they help immensely with keeping the grocery bill down and I tend not to cook anything with more than 6 (substantial) items. That keeps the bills down as well, and keeps my time in the kitchen at a minimum usually.

Do you purchase paid memberships with Sam's Club, BJ's, etc? If so, how does this work into your budget?
Buying in bulk at a Sam's or BJ's doesn't really work for us, we don't have the storage space for bulk at our house. My mother does have a Sam's membership so if we do choose to make a trip over, we share their membership. (Huge suggestion to share a Sam's membership unless you plan on using it all the time. Go halfsies with a friend and take your trips to the bulk stores together.)

What's a bargain price on ground beef and boneless chicken breasts?
To be honest, I'm not sure. Beef and Chicken are the two things that I hardly ever have to buy. My husband is a butcher and brings them home for nothing. I will say though, when crockpotting a piece of beef- in sauce per say, you can always use a cheaper cut. I make a pasta with meat sauce and I've used every cut of been imaginable. Its pretty hard to ruin something in a slow cooker, and beef, regardless of cut, generally gets more and more tender when slow cooked.

Is it a challenge to include fresh fruit and vegetables in a tight budget?
It can be, but I did a little reseach and frozen veggies are right up there nutritionally with fresh. I will also go and pick from farms in season fruits and veggies to save a buck, its fun for the kids too. We just bought 2 pumpkins and probably about 15 apples for $8 at the farm up the road. Cheaper then the grocery store!!