December 03, 2005
uber-geeky
You may or may not want to read a long, nerdy entry about comparing prices at the grocery store, and how to get the best deal.
A few days ago, when Ben & I were low on food, I made up a not-comprehensive list of some of the items we buy frequently.
In spare moments, I went to the five grocery stores closest to my home and to my office, as well as to two big box department stores near where I work. I jotted down pricing information for each item I could find at each store, though not every store carried every item.
I entered the prices into a spreadsheet and identified the best price, median price, and mean price for each item. Then I set up a list of cheapskate buying guidelines.
My goals are to stock up on things when they're at their cheapest, and never to pay more than average (the lesser of the mean and the median price).
If you'd like, you can check out my Excel spreadsheet, where all this nerdy calculating took place.
Hopefully this list will help me become a more efficient shopper, though I'm not going to count on my produce price points holding steady through the year. Maybe I'll come up with an addendum list of other frequently purchased items and expand my survey next time I feel like geeking out again.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at December 3, 2005 09:28 PM
Comments
Courtney, did you mean to say your goal was to "never stock up on things when they're at their cheapest"? Because the spreadsheet has a "Horde when less than" column . . .
Posted by: Hilary at December 4, 2005 05:25 AM
I am so impressed, I may just go out and do the same thing. I have a vague idea of which stores are good for which things, but I don't deal well with temporal fluctuations. My system seems to be particularly effective with produce -- it seems that some stores, especially the Mexican supermarket I do most of my shopping at, draw people in with really cheap produce and dry goods with the expectation that they'll end up spending a ton of money on doritos and coke while they're there. So the same store pretty reliably has the cheapest produce prices in town, even though the prices themselves fluctuate quite a bit. I guess that only works for me because I go there and by whatever's cheapest at the time. I end up eating some weird stuff that way, though.
Posted by: Sara at December 4, 2005 09:07 AM
There are a couple of small mercados near where I live but no Mexican supermarkets. I should check their produce prices, I guess. I'm living in an agricultural town, and during the dry months there's a big market with mostly local produce for good prices nearby.
Oops, thanks for the copy editing Hilary. I fixed it.
Posted by: Courtney at December 4, 2005 11:23 AM
this isn't geeky, just financially practical. i hit the big asian grocers in northern va for produce - they always have lower prices and have a lot of the asian fruits and veggies not carried by the american stores. now for tofu... good tofu must be made at home, or bought freshly made each day, so you have the know the tiny little grocers for that - the ones who get daily deliveries from local at-home producers.
Posted by: lana at December 4, 2005 07:16 PM
I'd say "financially practical" would be identifying the cheapest store, shopping there, stocking up when frequently-bought items are on sale.
"Financially obsessive" and "uber geeky" seem more appropriate when it comes to comparison shopping for 40-some items, then developing a rules-to-live-by spreadsheet that compares means and medians to determine guidelines. But maybe that's just me.
I won't be having much fresh tofu while I'm living in this small, rural town. I'd have to drive at least 30 miles. There are a lot of Latino markets in this area, but no Asian stores that I'm aware of. I didn't grow up eating the good tofu, at least, so I don't have a well-developed palate.
Posted by: Courtney at December 4, 2005 11:26 PM