Budgeting: Groceries

Money is one of the most stressful things in everyday life. We are trying to stick to a budget in our house to help ease this stress and save for our future. It's not extremely complicated, but one of the biggest expenses we have each month is our grocery tab. I thought I did a pretty good job finding the best prices around, but I wanted to see just how much money could be saved.

Now, I've been through several stages of this grocery shopping saga, so I have narrowed my shopping options based on my three favorite stores: Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Meijer and Aldi.

We only buy meat and produce that is on sale, and then base our weekly menus around those sale items (more on this later!). I've found that Fresh Thyme typically has a great selection of produce on sale for terrific prices. So, I buy my produce at Fresh Thyme.

The rest of the groceries on our weekly list get put into this spreadsheet, and I use the Meijer website to track their prices. The website uses any sale prices that apply at the time, so I know I'm using the best pricing for comparison. I also make sure and choose Meijer brand or "off-brand" products because Aldi does not typically carry brand name items.

So, when I shop through Aldi, I take this list with me and purchase all of the items that are less expensive there than theIy are at Meijer. You can see above that I saved almost 25% from the original amount.

To be fair, some things on sale are cheaper at Meijer - this week it was frozen pizza and BBQ sauce. Also, Aldi just doesn't carry some of our favorite items (like Double Stuf Oreos and Spaghettios). So, I make a trip to each store for our groceries each week.

It really does pay to watch store ads, specials and other deals in your area. Groceries can be an expensive necessity, but if you pay attention you can make it work with your budget.

I'm looking forward to tracking my savings over the next months. Stay tuned!