S/O Savings Tips

[KristinCB]

This is a spinoff from the grocery cost thread.

In terms of products - what do you find helps save the most?

I admit I am horrible at checking around for the best price - I usually just go by what I am used to - ie. we buy the powdered tide for our laundry detergent, cascade for dishwasher etc..

What are some hints for cost saving? Is the liquid detergent more expensive? What do you use for cleaning - home recipe ones i imagine save quite a bit just using vinnegar/baking soda right?

This is probably a really dumb thread/question but humor me :) LOL

[ColleenSwerb]

We buy in bulk from BJ's. It really saves us a ton of money.
Aside from that, we don't do much. Neither of us has the patience to clip coupons or anything like that.

ETA:I like my brands, especially for cleaners. so that doesn't save us anything at all, lol.

[Jennifer]

Coupons are a huge help. I also watch the sales papers. There are only a few things I'm "brand loyal" to, so I don't mind buying the on sale dishsoap, detergent, cleaners, etc. I'm sure making your own would be so much cheaper, but there's something about the smell of hard core cleaners that I need to feel my house is clean. :p

I'm interested in some other answers, too. I know there's more to it than coupons/sales. :)

[KristinCB]

Yea.. I think because I am in a small town with no options that does make it hard, not really any coupons here. I think though I'm going to start doing what sonja does and maybe take a trip at least once a month to wal-mart to stock up on things. I always thought it wouldn't end up saving after its all said and done but i'm starting to rethink that. Just as long as I stay away from the aisles with things I really don't need. LOL

[ditzyscrap]

Kristin, my mom was a die-hard coupon clipper, flyer checker, and shop-around'er (lol). The small town we lived in had 2 grocery stores (3 now)...she would look in their flyers and pick the best price. If it wasn't a "good" price that week, she wouldn't buy it (like for grapes or apples or whatever, kwim). Once a month she'd make a trip into the city and shop at Superstore, Safeway, etc...checking flyers and making sure she was buying it at the store where it was cheapest. Anything she could stock up on and knew she'd use before the next trip, she'd buy in the city because it was cheaper than small-town grocery stores. Stuff like fresh fruit and veggies would have to be bought locally the other 3 weeks of the month.

ETA: My mom would also check her receipts afterwards and compare with the price she had written down. If it was wrong, she'd take it in and get the difference refunded. I'm SO not like that...I buy what I need, when I need and have never paid attention to the price of stuff. It's a really bad habit to get into...

[stayawake]

I get the sale flyers for four different grocery stores near me, and we'll go to the one that has the most we need. We go through a lot of cheese, that's expensive so we only buy when it's about half price, which it usually is somewhere a few times a month. We buy all our milk/eggs/butter/bread at Costco. We buy cheap laundry and dishwashing liquid, and large large bulk generic cleaning products like generic windex, etc. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a non-negotiable for us,we buy them but I do look around to see where they are on sale. Coupons are useless in Canada.... they are few and far between, so I have to rely on store sales.

OH! And we have our bank account with Presidents Choice which is the major grocery store chain here. We buy everything on credit then pay it immediately which gives us points. Not dumb never-can-use points, either. Cash to buy groceries. We earned over $600 last year. This year already we're at $80 in free groceries!

[DawnMarch]

We have yucky water here and were burning through the water bottles, so I got our Culligan Reverse Osmosis thingie up and running. Now I make everyone drink that water instead of going for water bottles. We have saved a ton on just that.

[nikkiARNGwife]

I make a once a month trip to Sam's and buy bulk in most of our household stuff like toilet paper, dishwasher/laundry detergent things like that..now diapers and wipes too for Ella.

I try to buy store brand of most of my groceries which really saves a lot on some things.

[amystoffel]

I need money saving tips...I am the worst! The only attention I pay to pricing is toilet paper, paper towels and laundry detergent.

[emilyscout]

Well, I haven't done this yet, but I plan on it. Our dog eats a raw diet. And we buy bulk chicken backs for him from a meat packaging company in NH. Its about 45 minutes away. I think with the next order I'm going to enquire about the price of their bulk chicken, hamburger, stew beef, etc. They sell to restaurants and I'm sure to supermarkets. So if I do this I bet I will never have to shop for meat again at a grocery store. And I'm willing to bet its a ton cheaper as well. We may have to buy another freezer though....
So you could google meat packaging plant/factory/distributor on google and add your town and see what you come up iwth.

[Nikki Epperson]

Candian girls -- does your wal-mart price match?

Ours do here, so I take our local grocery store ads and check for prices... Sometimes wal-mart is cheaper, but if there is a good sale at the grocery store, I can usually save quite a bit. We get 4 ads everyweek, and they are good for 1 week, so if the sale is still good, wal-mart will honor the price. :)

[ColleenSwerb]

We buy a whole corn fed cow every year with Jordan's parents. We save a TON by doing that instead of constantly buying ground beef/steaks/what have you. But I know that's not an option for everyone.

[danagirl82]

We too buy the half a cow, and it does really help.
I have also started buying whole chickens froms Sams Club and keeping them in the frezzer and making a few meals out of them. I also take the time to use the bones and ick to make chicken stock and then freeze the chicken stock so I am not wasting money on stock in a box.
I am interested in what people do to make cleaning supplies and if they really work...I like some of you love that hard core clean smell.

[ditzyscrap]

Emily, it's often cheaper to buy a cow and pay to have it butchered, then store it in an extra freezer. DH and I got 1/4 of a cow from his sister...they had to kill it anyway (broke a leg or something), so we only had to pay for butchering/packaging and it was SUPER cheap. Obviously that doesn't happen often, but it's still cheaper to do it that way than to buy it at a grocery store.

[sczos911]

Is Sam's Club really cheaper? I mean for TP, Detergent and the like? We did have a membership once and well, we found that it was no better (all broken down) than going to Target. Does Sam's do a Trial Pass or anything?

What I do is buy what is on sale. I get our store Ad on Wed. & if we need to go "good" grocery shopping (i.e. for meals) then I plan our meals using what is on sale & what I have coupons for. There are certain staples that I don't buy on sale - lettuce and bananas, milk and bread. But I do often buy the store brands on most things - milk, cheese, bread, veggies.... but there are some items we splurge on. It's all about finding the right balance, I think.

We stock up on Diet coke when on sale. And my hubby does the coke rewards to get free 12 packs, too. :) My hubby is addicted...slightly. LMAO. But as long as he is taking care of that part & doing his part on cutting costs, I'm okay with it.

I don't have the time nor patience to store shop! LOL!

[sczos911]

OH! When my dad or Andy go deer hunting, I tell my dad to only get the steaks he wants & the rest in ground form. I "hide" venison in tacos, chilli, soups and so on. :)

[Darcy Baldwin]

Something that we do that really helps - stock up on loss leaders. Even if you only have on grocery store, your store probably still does sales on products on occasion. If it's a product that you use often and the price is good, stock up on it - grab some to last for a week, a month, a couple of months, whatever seems reasonable to you - as long as it's something that you really use and won't just sit in your freezer/pantry.

I'm not a slave to brand names, so coupons don't work for me. And for most coupons, it's for stuff we wouldn't buy anyway. So I buy a lot of store/generic products to help cut our costs on food items.

I do use vinegar/baking soda/orange oil blends for cleaning. If you love that hard core smell..use essential oils to add to the cleaning products. The only other thing I used to clean is bleach for a spritz in the kitchen sink (our porcelain is wearing out) and our showers. We use liquid detergent for the washing machine because it's an issue of laziness..it's just easier for me than to remember to fill the tub, put the powdered soap in, then the clothes.

Bulk buying at Sams is great if you know you're prices. I keep a price sheet that goes along with my grocery list (an 11x14 excel spreadsheet of all the food we need), so I can remember prices on most of the food items we buy. When I went without it for awhile, I started forgetting what a really good deal was.

I also meal plan,and if nothing else, that saves me TONS! I don't buy food just to buy food anymore. I have an idea of what we need, buy it, plus our extras, and we're good. I was relying on DH to go buy his own food for his lunches (he's on a strict diet for lunches), but he'd come home with more stuff that he saw and thought we needed LOL So I'm now making sure I get his stuff, too. But I plan even down to snacks for the kids so that I know what I need and am not buying a bunch of stuff just have it on hand.

[lizzyfizzy]

just watch for the cheapest price on everything. every penny counts. most stores now break down the price per ounce or whatever. check that. sometimes a name brand will be cheaper than a generic. just always watch. and yes to sams club/costco places. you can save big time on your everyday necessities. not so much on the other stuff that they lure you with while your in there shopping.

[jessica31876]

we not spend alot on cleaning products. Honestly I buy bleach, pine-sol, laundry soap and dish soap. Thats it. I buy liquid detergent because it seems to dissolve better to me and therefore wastes less. I use coupons when I can but dont purposely go out looking for them (like buying multiple newspapers just to clip them). When we get the paper I check the coupons for things I regularly buy. I do not buy things I dont think I would necasarily use...like for instance last week Hunts ketchup was on sale and was a little cheaper then Heinz (not much though) but I do not like Hunts at all and wouldnt really use it so that would be a waste of money for us. I buy bulk items on things I use alot of. I also make the same things most weeks (alternate between about 20 different dinners) and so that makes it really easy for buying. I try to only make one trip per week to the store so as to not buy extras that arent really needed. I have learned to curb impulse buying alot also. You know you go to the store and see something that looks good but you dont really NEED it and end up spending 50 dollars when you just went in for milk and bread?? LOL

[scrapperjade]

OKay, I haven't read ALL the replies, so if I repeat anything, just ignore me, lol! I know where you are coming from though Kristin, because I live in a small town where the prices of groceries are inflated to unreasonableness ($6 for a gallon of milk!?!?!?!).

Here are my best tips:
1) Make a weekly menu and only buy the groceries you NEED. This helps SO much, seriously! When we buy just the essentials, our grocery bill is cut down by as much as half, sometimes more!

2) I love Costco, but if you don't have a card, don't bother getting one. I've price compared a lot, and really, their prices are not any better than waiting for sales. Plus you have to buy such HUGE quantities, your money doesn't really go that far. Say you have $100 as your budget this week. At Costco, everything is $8+, so you may walk out with only 10 different products. Mind you, you'll have 12 HUGE cans of soup, 12 HUGE cans of tomatoes, a HUGE bag of lettuce, etc, but you won't have a huge variety.

3) I totally agree with Lindsay about the PC card. Last time DH and I were at Superstore, they asked if we wanted to redeem points, and we saved $20 off our bill!

4)www.save.ca

5) Make that 1x per month trip to the city! DH and I live an hour away from Saskatoon, but we make a trip at least every 2 weeks for groceries. They are SO much cheaper there, it actually pays to go. When brown sugar is $6 a bag here (1 kg), and $2.99 there, the savings add up really quickly. $100 worth of groceries in S'toon would cost at least $200 here (unless there were amazing sales, which if there is they either don't have them in stock at all or their entire inventory is sold by day 1... super frustrating!!).

[tuneskids]

for Kristin and I, literally, the only store here where I live is Overwaitea (aka OverPricee). And as I said, that's where I live, Kristin has to drive 31km to get here as it is. Our next closest store is Extra Foods, another 31km from where I live (there is also another Overwaitea there). And then the next is 88km away, in the other direction (into Alberta), which is Wal Mart.
If we want bigger stores (SuperStore, large Wal Mart - biggest one in Western Canada, or Costco), we have to head 2 hours to Lethbridge, or 1.5 hours to Cranbrook (regular Wal Mart & no Costco).

I do pick up random things throughout the week at Overwaitea, but not often (usually fresh salad stuff, buns, etc).

[kscwgirl]

Sam's works for us because it stops Jeff from going to Walmart. While it may be the same price per piece or whatever, he doesn't shop for extras that way. :D

[scrapperjade]

Okay, I thought of more!

6) I buy the Parent's Choice diapers for Avalynne (Walmart brand). They are cheap... $19.77 for a huge box (which last about 3 weeks or more). And the big club packs of diaper wipes at Superstore or Walmart (their own brands, Teddy's Choice at Superstore, Parent's Choice at WM).

7) If shopping at Superstore, the President's Choice brand is actually really good! No Name is WAY cheaper than the brand names, and a lot of their food is decent. The canned goods anyways. We buy the PC stuff as much as possible, NN for things like canned tomatos, and brand name only if we've tried the PC and decided that brand name was better (Heinz ketchup is a MUST, but most other things we happily switch).

8) Lots of stores have in-store coupons. Superstore has them on the wall as you are going into the store. Only grab the ones that apply to whats on your list... don't be like me and buy stuff just because I can "Save 50 cents", lol!

9) This might sound silly, but it really works! Shop after a meal so you aren't hungry! Its proven (and I personally know its true, lol) that if you are hungry, you are more likely to impulse buy those chips, cookies, icecreams, etc, and put more in your cart than you need!

10) ALWAYS stick to your list!!! Make one as you run out of stuff, jotting it down on the same peice of paper (I've lost SO many little scraps... now I keep a magnatized list pad on the fridge and add stuff as I run out or thats really low to buy next time its on sale or next time I do my city trip). If its not on the list, don't buy it!

11) If there is a Sobey's in your nearby city, check it to see if they are having Dollar Days. They have them every 2 weeks or so, and you can get killer deals on fruits, veggies, canned goods, pop, cookies... everything. I stock up when I happen to be in the city while Dollar Days are happening.

Whew!! If I think of anymore, I'll let you know. I'm seriously turning into my mother, and somedays, it really scares me, lol!!!

[Kat Stokes]

I buy bulk (Costco) as much as I can. I am really picky about my brands too.

Tide (DH is allergic to everything else) $18 - $20 - lasts about a month or so
Paper Towels - Kirkland brand $15ish - once a month (these are soooooo much better than most brands!)
TP - Northern - $16ish - lasts about a month or so
I just bought Cascade $8 - which will last a while but the next time I go I am going to try the Kirkland brand because you get 2 bottles for the same price as Cascade.

I only buy Lysol brand, Clorox bleach, and Dawn Dish soap as well.

So I basically spend about $100 a month on cleaning supplies alone.
I try to buy diapers and wipes, dog food, cat litter, etc. at Costco too.

I really need to start clipping coupons and actually USING them! LOL

[KristinCB]

Thanks girls!!!

This really is helpful advice! :)

[danagirl82]

I am like Darcey and I keep a spread sheet. Not everything is cheper at cosco or sams, but some things really are a good deal. I buy huge cans of tomatoe sauce and tomato paste and I use that to make my own spaghetti sauce and freeze it and make lasanagas and that goes alot farther than buying indv. serving of spaghetti sauce. So anyway you just have to be informed. Me and a couple of local friends kinda watch prices for eachother, BIG HELP!

I mentioned on the other thread. I meal plan too and I do roll over meals (so I plan new meals with my left overs) and that helps food not go to waste in our house. Which saves money.

[ditzyscrap]

Whew!! If I think of anymore, I'll let you know. I'm seriously turning into my mother, and somedays, it really scares me, lol!!!
That scares me too.... :blink: ;)

[scrapperjade]

That scares me too.... :blink: ;)

Haha! Mom is turning into me (more relaxed), and I'm turning into Mom (deal anal)... The last 2 weeks I'm like "Did you see that _________ was on sale for only $xx???"... and then she's all like "WHAT?", and then I make fun of her for not looking at the flyer close enough... it is truly frightening some days!