The Grocery Store

Oh I love to grocery shop. Sounds weird huh? It's like a game to me. How much can I get with my modest shopping budget. I see it as a challenge. The prize ..... a small bill at the end.

A little background on me and grocery shopping. While I do try to stretch my dollar until it is ready to rip I am also concerned with health and nutrition. I have a son with ADHD and my husband while thin tends towards high sugar levels and high blood pressure and cholesterol. As a result most of my grocery purchases are organic minimally processed foods.

I love in southern NH and am able to keep my food and household supplies bill to $100 on an average week. Costs for groceries will vary by region. I am sure I could spend less if I lived in some areas and more if I lived in others.

I will be sharing a variety of grocery tips but the tip for today is to check the back of your grocery store first. In my favorite grocery store Stop and Shop ( a division of Giant ) reduced items are in the back of the store on racks. There are racks for packaged items ( canned soupons, veggies, cereals and tons more), as well as a baked goods rack and reduced produce.

My store generally marks these items down 40% of the usual retail. I don't care if my cereal box is dented if it saves me 40%. Ah I love a good dent sometimes....weird I know. I have a freezer in my garage so I an stock up on certain items when I get a good deal. I typically find great orgainc bread on the reduced rack for $2.14 a loaf. I buy them out if I see it for less than that and stock up ( another topic for another post). The bread bag goeas into a re-useable freezer bag in my freezer and can last for weeks and weeks with no freezer burn. I save the bags and use them on other items or more bread later when I put the loaf out to defrost.

I also love the reduced produce rack. My kids and hubby love bananas so we go through them very fast. They put them on the rack when they have a few brown spots but are just fine inside. We eat them so fast they never have a chance to go south. On average I pay .29$ per lb on bananas. I also remove the peels and freeze them for smoothies that my family enjoy's. I make my own pasta sauce and the reduced rack is a great place to get my ingredients if I am making a batch in the next few days. Tomatoes that are slightly soft are great for cooking down into a sauce. Peppers are another favorite of mine for sauces and are easy to cut up and freeze.

More to come....