I’m actually the person who wrote PriceMouse. I wrote it because I wanted to save money on groceries but I’m lousy at remembering prices.

Has anyone else noticed how crappy COUPONS are getting? Buy 3+ and save less than a dollar! A lot of stores wont accept printed coupons either.

When I do my monthly shopping, I make a list. I search the cabinets to find staples we need because forgetting them means another trip. Then I jot down fast meals I know my kid will eat. I check the ads for specials and note the store on the list. At the store, my son gets to pick 1 item for himself that we already need or I’ll let him bring the DS or read a book while I shop. I agree with the previous poster that checking before checkout is really helpful. I’m a sale hoarder When my fav non-parishable is 50 cents or more on sale I’ll buy many. It’s not good on the short-term but it’s good as long as you know you’ll use it. Worst example: This summer I bought 20 cans of tuna on sale! We mix tuna with everything when it’s over 90* outside

Tips:
Watch your barcodes and cent per unit. Walmart constantly argues that only products with the specific barcode ae on sale and all other identical items are full price. They do help a lot with noting unit price though. Lately, extra packaged is often cheaper than bulk.

Ive noticed that stores jack their prices before a sale so that its not really much of a sale anyway. Someone told me chain stores are price jacking on the first week of the month because of stamps, but I have’t kept track of that. **Our local news WXII just mentioned we should report (to whom?) grocery places that gouge before bad weather.**

I save money other ways. I make my own Greek yogurt for about $1.00 a quart. Just heat the milk to 180 degrees in the microwave, cool it to 112 degrees then add dry milk and the starter, I use Dan Active, put it in containers, place containers in a cooler, add enough hot water to come up to the top of the containers, place the lid on and put it in a warm place. It only takes 8 hours for you to have yogurt. I usually do this when I am doing dishes in the evening and let it sit over night. Leaving it more than 8 hours will not hurt it at all. I have left it sit for 12 hours one time and it was fine.

I take one day during the week to cook. On that day I make enough French bread for a week. I use my food processor, make small loaves and then freeze them. I make a crockpot full of dried beans and freeze them. If you change the water 3 times during the soaking time you will have no problems with gas. I make some kind of large roast to serve that day and have enough left over to freeze to use at another day in a casserole.

One thing that I do when I grocery shop is I set a limit on how much I can spend for the week. For every item I buy, I round the price up to the nearest dollar and I write it down. For example, milk….$3.19, I round up to $4.00. When the prices add up to what I want to spend, I quit shopping. When the cashier is done totalling everything up, I’ve usually spent about $10-$15 less than what I had planned.

You make good points about coupon scammers but I just wanted to point out that stores send manufacturer’s coupons in to be redeemed for cash. So they’re not actually losing money on that Reynold’s wrap transaction. Stores can set whatever policies they like, of course. Maybe a point of sale transaction that looks negative at the end of the day is a book keeping headache under the system your store uses. But it sounds like management might be a little confused on why the policy is what it is

If it’s so “tacky,” then why is that the store policy?

And if you think that’s tacky, then what about a store that lists a sale price to get people to buy a product but then rings it up at full price hoping they won’t notice? The extra money they make from the people who don’t notice more than makes up for a free item given to the few who do notice.
I’m not saying your store does this. But let’s say we give the store the benefit of the doubt and assume they immediately fix the incorrect scan price. Surely a free box of cereal is a small price to pay for the customer goodwill of all the subsequent buyers who get the correct price.

I also make my own broth from leftover chicken pieces and bones. At 99cents per can, I can make a gallon of broth for nothing by saving my cuttings from veggies and chicken (toss in bag into freezer until enough accumulates) and the savings is GREAT! We cook with broth rather than water for rice and veggies and soups to give more flavor and keep us from wishing we’d eat out more. Sneaky no?

That’s because some beef farms only feed their cattle corn to fatten them up quickly and when cattle don’t eat grass, the meat can contain E. Coli. So, instead of feeding their cattle grass for 5 days, the farmers run the meat through ammonia. Scary thought, huh?

For the benefit of your health and your pocket book, consider buying a cow from a farmer you trust. You’ll know where your meat came from and how it was raised and you’ll save money. If your family can’t eat the whole cow, you can divide it between other families.

I prefer frozen to canned because their nutritional profile is more intact though.

well they don’t always, and it’s not always to the same units when they do.

small example: my local grocery store has 3 packages of celery, none of them broken down by unit price. Two of them are weighted packages (8 oz and 16 oz)and are $1.99 a pound each. The last package (brand) is unweighted and sold by the bunch and costs $2.00 for the bunch.

If you weigh this last package as I did you find it weighs 1.5 pounds so it has a unit price of 2/1.5 which is $1.33 a pound.

Of course you can argue a calculator is unnecessary but I have found it reduces the friction in making calculations and comes in handy. Also I use the “m+” button on it to keep a running tally as I have a $40 or $50 (currently $40) per week food budget and if I’m getting close to $40 in the week some high priced or secondarily important item may have to stay on the shelf in preference to something of higher priority. If I’m using a list (haven’t forgotten it in other words) then I will also write the price of each item down as I pick it up and keep a tally that way (using the calculator or a pencil).

Using unit pricing to shop for groceries will save you a lot of time and you don’t need a calculator – all the work has been done for you.

I like your point about cooking meals from scratch and avoiding processed foods. As they say, the general relationship is that the more processed the foods are, the higher the cost. Another good reason for saving money and staying healthy.

Then I compile a list from that notebook, or at least read over the notebook, before I enter the store or actually start shopping.

Then when I go shopping I have 2 categories of stuff that I shop for: the food for the week (usually under $40, typically fresh veggies, maybe milk, and meat) and stuff for the pantry or household.

I just buy one of things if it’s at the normal price. If it’s on super sale I’ll buy anywhere from a 6 mo to a 1 year supply. I just bought like 2 yrs worth of toothbrushes and soap because they were on super sale and I was running out of each.

And as a final note, I pack my lunch and eat out very infrequently, but that’s my choice. I also have not been going to get coffee etc at cafes, as I just make it at work in the back room or drink filtered water. My financial goal on a workday is to go and take *all* the money I made back home with me, not to leave any of it in the restaurants/cafes and shops. I will make an exception for a social occasion, but those are really exceptions. I have found if I don’t keep a handle on this that I can easily spend $300 a month on cafes and coffee breaks.

I disagree with writing down prices, Prices change weekly, they can go up a few cents down a few cents. If the price doesnt change the size does. Biggest offenders are Paper products, and cereal.
I mean if you want to track store to store prices fine but keep this in mind.

To people that look for wrong prices to get stuff free, give me a break. Thats just tacky, kinda like people that shop in one place only to demand you match prices on every item. Bad karma people.

Be aware of sales tactics. Buy one get one you can usually get just one for half off. Same for “Three for $XX” You dont have to get all three.

A newer tactic is “Buy two get three free!!” One high end store is doing that to get people in, when you do the math based on their marked up price its just an ok deal not a spectacular one.

# Cook from scratch, avoid processed foods
# Avoid frozen/prepared entrees

Although normally healthier to cook from scratch and avoid processed foods – its often much cheaper for example to buy a can of green beans for .50 cents then to buy fresh green beans and have an hour in clean, prep and cook time.

I will never understand why it is cheaper to buy most fruits and veggies after they have been transported, processed, cooked down, put in manufactured containers, ink labeled, transported again and stored on a shelf.

I mainly buy frozen veggies and fruits now as it is somewhere inbetween canned and fresh in costs and quality.

Feel free to participate again