$5.00 a gallon back East. $4.89 a gallon locally. No this is not the price of a gallon of gas. This is what it will cost for you to buy one gallon of milk at your grocery store. With the rise of gas prices brings the rise of groceries. Most families in America are already on a tight budget. From clipping coupons to changing your shopping habits, tonight I am sharing five sure ways to help you reduce your grocery bill.
• Buy store brands. Brands like Western Family or Sam’s Choice have improved in quality over the years in order to compete with name brands. Some of us shoppers want name brands as they are tried and true. However switching to store brands can save anywhere from 20 to 50%.
• Evaluate unit prices. Checking an item’s cost per unit, which is found on the shelf sticker, can help you make your decisions on what brand to buy at the cheapest cost per unit. You will still need to compare cost per unit even when an item goes on sale to see which is the better deal. This method is timely but does help save you money.
• Consider changing markets. Here is a comparison on three different items from three stores. I also chose three items of the same brand name and compared prices at each store.
Wal mart
-One gallon of 1% Milk $3.35, Umpqua Dairy
-One dozen eggs $2.24, Eggland’s Best
-Two pounds cheese $7.98, Tillamook Cheese
Fred Meyer
-One gallon of 1% Milk $3.69, Umpqua Dairy
-One dozen eggs $3.99, Eggland’s Best
-Two pounds cheese $5.99, Tillamook Cheese ~ Fred Meyers claims this is an every day low price.
Safeway
-One gallon of 1% Milk $4.89, Umpqua Dairy
-One dozen eggs $3.49, Eggland’s Best
-Two pounds cheese $10.99, Tillamook Cheese
• Clip coupons. Shoppers should look through newspapers or online for coupons, especially double coupons where accepted. When reading ads, do not assume that all items in a supermarket’s flyer are on sale. Manufacturers pay to have items featured. “Featured” is not the same as “On Sale”.
• Ask for a store discount card. These discount cards allow shoppers to get discounts on items without having to clip coupons. This can be a pain as you may end up with 4-5 discount cards in your wallet. Not to mention that I can never find mine. However two pounds of cheese at Safeway that is regularly $10.99 was on the discount card this week for $7.99. Though this is still higher then prices Wal Mart and Fred Meyers.
• Shop different sections of the store. Cheese and sliced meat is often cheaper in the dairy aisle than the deli because shoppers have to pay extra for it to be sliced.
While gas, rent and groceries cost more and more each day, yet wages stay the same, the lack of disposable income makes it hard to live a comfortable life. We can ride a bike or walk to work. We can move to a smaller more affordable home, but we have to have groceries to survive. Cutting costs is crucial to most budgets. Compare, clip and consider down sizing from your favorite brand names. Or as one of my good friends told me just recently… “I know how to the cut cost of my grocery bill. I eat out more!”
*This will be a speech I am giving on 6/4/08 for Toastmasters in Grants Pass.
