News, Moms' new battle: The food price bulge. (ideas, milk, baby)

[John1960]

Beyond clipping coupons, families are embracing generic grocery brands, and making their own baby food and detergent.

Soaring food prices elicit creative solutions from moms - Apr. 21, 2008

[regarese]

I do the grocery shopping and my husband is always picking on me for "cheaping out" and buying the generic brand for a lot of things. I made sure to send him the article so he sees I'm not the only one. LOL. We grow our own veggies when the season allows, buy them from the less expensive vegetable market the rest of the year, and if it's not ketchup, laundry detergent or mayonaise (the only things we require brand specificity on-LOL) I buy the generic and use coupons. He's learning though. If there are Keebler cookies in the pantry when he comes home, he'll ask, "Good coupon or good sale?" LOL.

[Inthesierras]

Originally Posted by regarese

He's learning though. If there are Keebler cookies in the pantry when he comes home, he'll ask, "Good coupon or good sale?" LOL.

LOL My hubby asks the same thing now that I have been using coupons. In the last year we have saved thousands of dollars on everything from household cleaners, clothing, to regular groceries.

[njkate]

Having been there once myself, growing kids & their friends in the house, I don't know how people are doing it..the cost of groceries are over the top.

The once considered budget meals..chicken..the cost is outrageous.
have not bought steak in forever, not paying $17-21 for 2 NY strip steaks

[yankeegirl313]

I can`t get over how much a gallon of milk is here...$5.32.
Heck, we need to buy a cow, goat, or something!
Anyone have any suggestions on where to get coupons? I normally don`t buy magazines, and I do watch the sales paper, but any other ideas?

[sgresident]

I am of the opinion that it doesn't matter how much money my husband makes, I still look for the best bargains on food! I shop at Aldi, I don't know if they are everywhere, but they do have some really good prices. our Aldi store opened about a year ago. they milk is only 1.99 gal. and it is fine. they have their own brands of things and periodically get in name brands and sell them for less than at Jewel. I tell my kids that they are only getting whatever type of chip is on sale that week. so if they want doritos, they are waiting! I am never paying full price for stuff like that. same goes for frozen pizza etc. I have a freezer and stock up on the various meat when it is on sale and use a food saver vacuum sealer. We have set aside an area in our basement for other items that we stock up on..paper towels, toilet paper and certain canned goods. We also have some drawers dedicated just to school supplies. usually in august walmart has huge sales on school supplies. the kids know where we keep the stuff all year and I rarely have to ever go for more markers, folders or glue sticks during the school year!

[drjones96]

You will definitly save a ton on the generics. We buy generics on the stuff that doesn't matter. You can save 50...75% by buying store brand stuff. My wife is a bodywash type of girl....I pretty much just do bar soap. Body wash is expensive if you buy name brand stuff. Dove bodywash is like $5 for about a 16 oz bottle. The Target brand is like $2 and it's virtually the same stuff! There are some things I don't like to skimp on but stuff like that what does it matter what the brand is? Sugar for example. You cannot tell the difference between name brand sugar and a generic. You just can't. And the price difference can be amazing.

[cdc3217]

I cannot BELIEVE how expensive it is becoming to grocery shop!

Plus, I see less and less coupons for actual FOOD in the paper each week. And the coupons I do see for food are for processed stuff like hamburger helper and crescent rolls. (Not that we don't enjoy a good crescent roll..but I need coupons for flour, sugar, milk, eggs, produce, less-processed meat, etc!)

While I agree store brands are fine and do save you some $$ - where I am it is nowhere near 50-75% savings. More like 20-25%. Generic sugar might be $1.99 and brand sugar will be $2.50

We also grow our own veggies in season, and buy at the farmers market in bulk to can homemade salsa and stuff. This saves a little as well.

[sean98125]

It won't be a bad thing if more people become true home economists and start being more aware of how they are spending their money.

When we started using a price book, I was surprised how much money we were throwing away by going to the store that is three blocks away instead of the one a half mile away.

[cdc3217]

The other thing I realize is even more expensive grocery store food is cheaper than carry-out/eating out, and that's where I've tried to cut back.

Also, I do try to shop some organic and I've found that the organic prices have held steady, while the regular prices have gone up, so there's less of a gap between the prices.

One other thing - do people include things like detergent, kleenex, shampoo in their grocery totals? When I hear $200 -$300 a month I'm impressed, but wonder what that includes?