Hi, I am on a budget of $150 for groceries this month, and need some help figuring out how to make my money go as far as possible. I recently moved to Charlotte, NC and I am still pretty new to shopping for myself. The past couple of months I have tried a few different locations. First I tried shopping at target since I had never been to one before, and I quickly learned its way more expensive to buy groceries there than I thought it would be. Then I tried looking at Harris Teeter, and I was able to find some better deals but I still feel like I wasn't making my money go as far as possible. Last month I went to this Walmart Neighborhood market thing, and its the closest, but it has very little options for products and it didn't seem to be better in terms of price. I understand that groceries are just expensive all around, but I would like some help figuring out how to save as much as possible.
Any help is appreciated.
Hey Everyone!
I was wondering which grocery stores you shop at to keep the lowest overall grocery bill. There are a ton of options out there and some things are cheaper at some stores than others, which is why I ask about total bill.
I get ads in the mail for so many supermarkets it's overwhelming. More specifically: I buy frozen fruits, Greek yogurt, fairlife milk, and Prepackaged health foods and precut fruits. What's the best supermarket/cheapest supermarket?
El Super, Amazon Fresh, Vons, Food4Less, Vallarta, Smart & Final, Superior Grocers, Ralphs
I bounce between value center in Madison Heights and Hollywood markets.
I like Westborne for an occasional trip – my gf swears by trade joes.
I think for groceries you can beat Aldi but like TP and other household items I think are pricy.
Where do you guys go?
For those of you on a budget who enjoy home cooking & freezer meals /meal prep -
Where do you shop for things like vegetables, fruits, and meat? Where do you do your weekly shopping, and what are your budgets for a month of food? Costco, Trader Joe's, Aldi's, Food Lion, Walmart... What's the best value/price combo you've found?
Thank you!
I live in the Central Valley in CA. We have grocery outlet, target, Walmart, Costco, food maxx, food 4 less, sprouts, Safeway, save mart, and Raley’s. I typically shop at Walmart, target, and Costco. Surprisingly Target and Walmart are very close in prices. I haven’t tried food 4 less, grocery outlet, or food maxx in a long time. Does anyone know if these are typically cheaper overall? I have 3 little kids who eat A LOT of produce. Costco seems the best for that. We don’t eat a ton of meat, but we typically get it at Costco and split it up and freeze it.
I haven't seen this topic discussed in a while. So I figured I'll bring it up. With inflation and grocery prices going up. Where is everyone buying groceries? Where is the cheapest?
I'll start:
For meats:
Costco
Stater Brother
Grocery Outlet
Smart and Final
For Veggies:
My local Asian (ABC market), Mexican (Northgate) store
For junk food
Food 4 Less
Costco
Grocery Outlet
Grocery Store I frequently visit:
Aldi
Trader Joe's
Walmart Local
I don't shop at Ralphs, Albertsons, and Vons anymore.
Any hidden gems out there? I normally see Aldi being the best bang for your buck. What are your suggestions?
Like the title says, where do you go?
My roommate and I are both college students, my roommate and I both work on campus so we don’t make a whole lot of money. We try to budget around $75-$85 for food each week and try to cook larger meals using rice beans and vegetables to supplement not having as much meat. I know we can lower our grocery bill even more. What are the best places to shop for produce, essentials, meat, and carbs like rice and pasta? What’s worthwhile buying raw vs canned? I’m sure this is a common think here but we really need advice. We don’t need anything free or donations as there are people who definitely need that stuff more. Edit: are there any farmers markets or local sellers that worth going to?
I will probably make a spreadsheet of costs for my most frequently bought items to figure this out but thought I'd ask y'all.
For a family of 2 who can BARELY scrape by, what's the best option for inexpensive groceries? I'm all about options like Costco if the membership cost really makes the bottom line less.
(I'll also be looking at food pantry options but I can Google that.)
I normally shop at Walmart but lately I don't feel like I am saving. The groceries seem SO expensive. I live in an area that has Hispanic markets and Asian Markets. Does anyone know if these are usually actually cheaper?
I’m on the north side. Money is tight. I do shop around a bit but where are your go to spots for each of the different things: dry goods, frozen, toiletries, paper goods, produce, etc. thanks.
I've been shopping at Publix almost exclusively because I thought it was cheaper than other local grocery stores, but recently I've been told a few times that Trader Joes is cheaper. Where do yall get good yet less expensive groceries? Is Publix still the way to go, or are there better options? Thanks!
I have always travelled from store to store based on their weekly sales. Today I had to go to Walmart. There prices are cheaper than Aldis. Do others find this to be true?
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It really depends on what you're buying. Aldi has limited selection, and some of the prices aren't great, especially on sausage, jarred food, or liquor. On the other hand, their fresh produce is frequently much cheaper than the competition - apples might be half the price of Wal-Mart or Costco.
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Costco's prices are generally lowest on name-brand items and dairy, beef or pork - the chicken is quality, but not the cheapest. Bulk purchases of dry goods (protein bars, vanilla extract, etc.) can be half the price of the alternatives in this list, and the luxury liquor prices are low, especially the frequently excellent Kirkland products. The meat is a special case in that they do their own meat processing and the quality is frequently excellent - I'll take their $3.20/lb 88% lean beef over anyone's, even at half again the price. Produce can be cheap, but is not always: The bulk spinach is drastically cheaper than the dinky bags everywhere else, but the apples and pears are often sold for the same elsewhere without having to buy a case.
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Local grocery stores tend to offer the biggest loss leaders in sales - you're not finding a strip roast for $4.99 a pound anywhere else. Chicken is extremely common - $1.99 breasts, $0.89 thighs, etc. Keep up with the circulars.
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Dollar Tree has ketchup and some dry goods - beans, mostly. There's generic snack foods, too; though the quality won't win any awards, sometimes you need a bag of really cheap gingersnaps. They also have premade graham cracker crusts cheap.
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The 0.99 store is all over the map. If it's bulk in-season produce, the prices are ludicrously low - $0.99 pineapples, $0.99 bags of peppers, $0.99 whatever. The stuff they always have in stock is sometimes not so good value.
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Trader Joe's has the lowest prices here on a few items, though only if you're buying quality. Their cheese is frequently cheaper than Costco, the $5 1.1lb bars of 70% dark chocolate are a bargain, the cheap liquor is pretty good, the fancy condiments are usually reasonably priced, they have an array of surprisingly good spices for ~$1.99, and the frozen fish is surprisingly reasonable - $8.99 for decent swordfish is a bargain. Once again, prices go all over the map here - I buy a few items at TJs, but I buy them religiously.
I did a massive price comparison for my own family on the things we bought the most. I had compared Meijer, Aldi, Dollar Tree, Sam's Club, Walmart, Costco and Family fare(Spartan stores) Aldi was cheaper on every single thing except ketchup was actually cheaper at Dollar Tree. There were some things Aldi didn't have and they were cheaper at Walmart than all the other stores.
This was in West Michigan about 4-5 years ago. It was a very interesting giant messy notebook I carried around for awhile. But worth it.
Hey All, Just trying to find out what's the cheapest grocery store for everyday things. I found different things cheapest at different stores so wondering what does everyone think and where do they shop.
Wegmans - Canned food, banana, avocado bag, regular milk
Aldi - bread, chicken/meat
BJ's/Costco - whole lot of cheap stuff but the portion is huge for a small family/couple
Giant - don't see anything that's cheapest compared to others
Walmart - Frozen section/bread
Trader Joe's - reasonable for small portions and good variety.
Might add more to the list as I remember.
In my experience in Canada Cheapest is FOOD BASICS then GIANT TIGER then NO FRILLS then FRESCO then COSTCO AND then WALMART. ALL Other GROCERY stores are a rip-off. Use REEBEE App or flipp app to find latest flyers or deals.
Is Pricerite the cheapest grocery store in Boston? How does it compare with StopnShop, ALDI, Weee, etc?
Market Basket, Costco aren't located in a lot of areas
Hi everybody! Up to now, I have only shopped for groceries at Walmart and Aldi. I try to buy decent quality food, but money is tighter lately. So, in an effort to reduce my spending on food, I’ve been wondering if I should shop at other grocery stores as well. Nearby, I have a Lidl, Ingles, Food Lion, and Costco. Do any of these stores have consistently better costs for food? I’m based out of South Carolina, if location affects anything. Thank you for your time!