Another shopping strategy

Back in Houston, no hurricanes in sight, and it's "if I don't actually want to scrub floors, I don't have to--today." So there's time to dink around on the interwebs and even do some blogging. I am somewhat stunned!

So here's what I found today: The Simple Dollar. The relevant post for me today talks about saving money on grocery shopping in 6 more or less easy steps, but the whole blog is quite interesting because of the various discussions of different ways to save money on all sorts of things besides food. I think it's worth spending some time meandering through The Simple Dollar. You're sure to pick up at least one idea that will help survive this tough economy that we have right now.

The six steps to saving money at the grocery store are:

1. Get a flyer.
2. Find sales on fresh ingredients.
3. Do some recipe research.
4. Create a week-long meal plan.
5. Make a shopping list from the meal plan.
6. Go grocery shopping--and stick to your list.

As it turns out, I only do one of these things: get a flyer. From that point on, I'm a bit of a failure (as far as this list goes).

I look at all of the sales, not just the fresh ingredients. I am tending to cook more and more with fresh ingredients these days, but, frankly, my dear, I am so not going to make my own tomato sauce, ergo, it's gonna come in a can. So are many of the other ingredients that I use--for some menus, if not others.

I have been known to do some recipe research, but I am admittedly bad at following recipes. I actually enjoy reading cookbooks, but I tend to think of this as inspirational reading, not specifically educational or practical. I read recipes (and sometimes even clip them) and then kinda sorta make something that has a few points in common with what I read but, of course, several points that are not. (Hey, it's how I roll!) If I were going to do some research prior to shopping (and I often do), it will more likely be for the nutritional value of a specific food or for a list of foods with a particular nutritional element (fiber anyone?) or getting a better idea of how an ingredient that interests me might be used. The latter might be considered recipe research, but half the time I get my use info from Wikipedia and go from there.

Now meal planning is something that we should all do, I'm sure, but, well, I don't. I mean, I do plan what I want to have for Christmas dinner and shop to make sure that I have everything that I will need. For non-holiday meals, I tend to think about entrees: chicken something, something with ham, broiled steak, and so on. But that level of planning usually happens on the morning (if I'm lucky and don't forget until the afternoon) of the day I'm cooking. The rest of the menu will follow based on what experience, tradition, or availability-in-my-pantry pretty much dictates. If I planned a whole week at a time, I doubt that I could stick to the plan for the whole week--but I have no doubt that I would lose the list well before the week was up. Still, here's the meal planning sheet that The Simple Dollar provides to help you out if you are a better planner than I am.

My shopping lists are often heavily based on the sale flyer that we are using. Since we shop at three stores in Austin, that's three lists (but only two flyers since not all stores publish flyers). The lists also include staple items that we have to buy regardless of what's on sale (although we look for bargains and buy them at the cheapest store). Our lists also include items that we can stock up on but might not use for several weeks (or longer if we are really building up our stock of that item). Our meals for the week might come out of that list, but more likely they will come out of what I have purchased on past shopping trips and combine with some fresh items from the current trip.

Sticking to the list is also a tough one, not because we are inordinately prone to impulse purchases (I am more so than My Prince, but still not a "problem shopper"), but because there are unadvertised specials to be found, forgotten items to add when we are reminded by seeing them, and--in my case--the need to be creative. This creativity may come with the menu planning that I sometimes do while in the store ("I want to cook that ham this week, and I think I want to serve it with hominy"--which is not one of the items that I would stock up on). The creativity may also come later on when I have made sure that I have an array of items to choose from in the pantry when I want to toss together a stir-fry dish ("Ah, I do have bean sprouts!"). Sticking to the list is important for efficiency and for economy, but it can't be a straightjacket.

So I'm thinking that there are probably several ways to be frugal in shopping. Perhaps first step is to realize that the grocery store is not a cheap place to hang out and that you have to be actively responsible for keeping your money in your pocket--where it belongs. And then make a list!