My 25% Grocery Savings Rule In Action-Part 6-Giving to Others

Published March 11th, 2009

Here we are, at the final installment in our series on how to implement my grocery savings rule. If you’re just joining us, and want to know what this is all about click here to read the original post. Over the last few weeks, we’ve gone over in great detail the tools you can use to save yourself hundreds–maybe even thousands of dollars a year in groceries. I know that times are very tough right now, but I thought I’d end the series on a positive note about how I use the rule to pay it forward and help others.

There were many years through university, and the early working years, that I wanted to help those that had even less than I did, even though I didn’t have a lot of money. I knew that a meager donation of a few dollars to a charity would probably get eaten up in administration fees, so I donated my time to my local food bank, soup kitchen, and took my dog into one of the local retirement homes for pet therapy. It didn’t cost me a thing, but the lessons I learned were priceless. I learned that there are some good people out there who tirelessly help others, and that anybody can fall on hard times. Not matter how bad things have gotten, I always remember that it could be much, much worse. During my time volunteering at the food bank and soup kitchen, I saw that there were other valuable ways to help, including food donations.

Because of my long commute, I don’t have as much time to volunteer as I would like. A couple of years ago, when I started using my grocery savings rule, I had an idea: I thought there’s always a list of high need items for both the food bank and soup kitchen, and by keeping these lists handy, I could purchase certains items that were on deep discount that week. The food bank generally needs non perishable items and toiletries, and the soup kitchen needs largely perishable items with certain non-perishable staples. By keeping a list on hand, and matching up what was on sale when I did my weekly planning, I saved a good 30-50% on those items–effectively being able to buy twice as much for the money I was going to spend. For example, last month, I was able to buy a package of 24 rolls of toilet paper, 3 big boxes of cornflakes, 3 jars of good quality pasta sauce, 3 cans of tuna, and 3 cans of beans for $20–a value of over $45 at regular price.

The organizations that work hard to provide food for people in our communities have a great need year-round. While we tend to think about donating around the holidays, people are hungry every day of the year, and more people than ever need our help. Giving to others not only makes us feel good, it also builds good karma…we never know when we might need to be on the receiving end.

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 25% Grocery Savings Rule in Action-Part 4: Case Study # 1
My 25% Grocery Savings Rule in Action-Part 5: Case Study # 2