That Damn Grocery Bill

I have a friend who brags about getting 2 weeks worth of groceries for $ 53 and earning enough reward points in the process to do it again the next week. She's a lovely woman, really, but I just want to see an entire floor display of, say, Wheaties come crashing down on her when she tells me this stuff. I've tried the tips and tricks of those crazy coupon ladies who feed 11 families in their towns on a buck and a half a week, and I just can't do it. The coupons are always for stuff I wouldn't buy anyway, and that's IF some weasel hasn't stolen them out of my Sunday paper before I get it. And who determines portion sizes, anyway? Sure, I could feed my family for half the money if we only ate 6 ounces of food at a sitting... and it was mostly generic white rice. No way, not in my house. We're all lean, active, healthy people and we still eat far more food than most "serving suggestions" would lead you to believe is appropriate.

So every month I contend with That Damn Grocery Bill. In our house, I do the shopping and cooking for the family. I actually enjoy cooking. In fact, if money were no object (and when I lived like it wasn't, but it really should have been) I'm a total foodie. Therein lies my first downfall - I love to use really good, rare or novel ingredients. At this very moment, I have a 12 ounce, $ 5 bag of dried pasta in my pantry. Five dollars I paid for artisanal pasta for my children, who will eat any starch I throw at them. They don't care that it was made with three different organic vegetable juices or sun-dried. That's all me.
My second big failing in the store is the frozen section. I melt for convenience foods, and little "nibblies" that would be so tasty with the glass of wine I always seem to be craving by the end of my shopping trip. Did I mention I have a tiny freezer? I'm sure you're seeing this second issue becoming worse and worse with every sentence.
My final, and worst, problem with the grocery store actually follows me around everywhere - in my wallet. I use my debit card for groceries. I've even been known to use a (gasp!) credit card, although thankfully that's been a rare event for me. I can clearly remember my mother paying cash for groceries and thinking, "C'mon Mum, get with it - no one uses cash anymore. Duh." Now that I'm a mum myself and not an insolent teenager I'm thinking, "Wow! Mum and Dad have REAL money!"

There are tons of tips out there for saving money at the grocery store. As I mentioned in the beginning, I can't play the system right and make them all work for me. You'll have to try a few to find what works for you with your budget and location. However, if there's one tip I've found that's worked pretty much everywhere we've lived, regardless of the size of our family and income, it's to stick to the outside of the store. No, I don't mean don't buy food, although that would certainly fix the whole food budget problem for the few weeks you slowly starved to death. What I mean is only buy things that are sold on the outside perimeter of the store. That's your produce, deli, meat, dairy and bakery. You may have to venture down the first isle for grains, but that's about it. If you stick to these sections of the store, you'll be avoiding all the more costly convenience items, the pretty packaging, and the fancy stuff like $ 5 pasta. You'll also be eating very healthfully, too. The outside of the store is where the REAL food is. Try eating the real food, and you could end up with real money too.