My 25% Grocery Savings Rule In Action-Part 5-Case Study #2

Published February 21st, 2009

This week in our series on how to implement my 25% grocery savings rule, we take a look at a second case study of a typical week of grocery shopping in my house. If you’re just joining us, you may want to start with the original post above. I have received many emails over the last few months asking for detailed instructions on how you too can save some serious money while eating mostly whole foods…as opposed to mostly pre-prepared and takeout foods.

As described in previous posts, I shop between 3 discount grocery stores, within 10 minutes of each other, and get it all done in about an hour-and-a-half while my husband goes into work for a couple of hours every Saturday morning. So after going through the weekly routine of planning and doing the shopping, here’s a picture of that week’s groceries….

Grocery Savings Picture

I’ve created a chart below to make the comparison easier to follow. As discussed in the original post, each grocery chain has a high end and lower priced store in their family ie. food comes from the same warehouse and chain of distribution. To make it a fair comparison, the full price grocery price corresponds to it’s discount grocery counterpart (eg. Zehrs price is compared to No Frills price). The last column is the price I actually paid by buying what’s on sale that week +/- using a coupon, or paying the regular price at discount grocery store. The only thing I didn’t include in the chart was the two loaves of multi-grain bread because I bought from an independent bakery on the way home (they were $1.50 each).

Item	Full priced grocer	Discount grocer	Price I paid
Rougemont 1.7 L apple juice	$1.69	$0.99	$0.99
Cheese Tortellini	$2.97	$1.97	$1.97
Eggs large 1 dozen	$2.49	$1.99	$1.99
2L 1% Milk	$3.49	$2.69	$1.99
Eye of round steaks	$7.07	$5.07	$2.54
Pre-washed baby spinach	$3.49	$2.89	$1.99
Tomato on vine 1.25 lbs	$2.50	$1.88	$1.28
Deli Black Forest ham 300grams	$5.07	$4.15	$4.15
Croissants x 2	$1.98	$0.80	$0.80
Skillet sensation shrimp alfredo	$5.99	$4.99	$2.99
Clementines 2lbs	$3.50	$2.99	$1.88
Cauliflower	$3.99	$2.99	$1.50
Green onion 1 bunch	$0.99	$0.59	$0.59
Green beans 0.6 lb	$1.75	$1.00	$0.62
Green pepper 0.5 lb	$1.99	$1.50	$0.69
Frozen Green Giant Sweet Peas	$3.29	$2.49	$1.99
White mushrooms 1.4 lbs	$4.43	$3.48	$2.79
Canned black beans	$1.29	$0.99	$0.63
Canned red kidney beans	$1.29	$0.99	$0.63
Limes x 2	$1.00	$0.40	$0.40
Old El Paso Taco Seasoning	$1.39	$1.27	$1.27
Rice noodles	$2.49	$2.19	$2.19
Ground turkey 1 lb	$4.25	$2.39	$2.39
Campbell’s chicken broth	$2.99	$2.49	$2.49
Equality Canned Tomatoes	$1.29	$0.99	$0.99
Equality yellow mustard	$1.29	$0.99	$0.89
Canned baby corn	$1.39	$0.99	$0.99
Duncan Hines Cake Mix	$1.99	$1.69	$0.99
Duncan Hines Frosting	$1.99	$1.49	$0.99
Danone case 16 yogurt cups	$7.99	$6.49	$3.99
Sugar 2 kg	$2.49	$2.19	$1.49
TOTALS	$89.81	$68.01	$51.08

As you can see, some planning, organizing, and wise shopping can add up to big savings. This week, what I bought was at an impressive 43% savings over the full-priced grocery store and a 25% savings from the discount grocer’s regular prices. Even if you don’t want to go through the trouble of shopping at more than one store, just making a list and meal plan based on what you have, and what’s on sale will still make a difference in the long run!

Stay tuned for the final post in this series next week…using the savings rule to give to others… if you’re in a position to do this, it’s guaranteed to make you feel as good as the savings themselves!

Read the rest of this series:

Original post: My 25% Grocery Savings Rule
My 25% Grocery Savings Rule in Action-Part 1: Introduction
My 25% Grocery Savings Rule in Action-Part 2: Planning and Resources
My 25% Grocery Savings Rule in Action-Part 3: Challenges
My 24% Grocery Savings Rule in Action-Part 4: Case Study # 1