How to save money, snag the best deals at grocery stores as prices rise
When prices increase, savvy grocery shoppers get to work, staying extra vigilant about saving.
I am one of those shoppers.
We check prices, clip coupons (paper and digital), and keep a keen eye out for what’s on sale. And we hunt for bargains.
A lifelong money-saver, Jolyn Felten, administrator/owner of bargainstobounty.com and Bargains to Bounty Facebook page, said consumers need to educate themselves to save.
"You need to know your prices so when you see a good price, you know what to buy to stock up," Felten said. "It can be as complicated as keeping a price book so you know whether Costco ounce for ounce is better or a store with a coupon is a better deal."
Metro Detroiters are seeing price hikes at grocery stores on plenty of food items and paper products compared with a year ago.
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As of December 2021, prices for food at home (groceries) rose 6.5% from a year ago, according to the Labor Department’s monthly Consumer Price Index findings.
Overall inflation increased at its fastest pace since 1982.
Bacon and beef prices are up exponentially. Chicken prices are up — though we’ve seen some recent bargains. Eggs cost 10% more than they did a year ago. Bacon is up 18% year-over-year. A pound of Oscar Mayer bacon averages a staggering $10 a pound. If you buy ground beef, unless you get it on sale, it’s running close to $6 per pound for the store brand of ground round.
And prices are not expected to drop dramatically anytime soon. Phil Lempert, food industry analyst and also known as the Supermarket Guru, expects prices to remain high for the next 12 to 18 months. Lempert cites a perfect storm of climate change — the northwest wildfires destroying some corn and soybean crops, floods in Brazil impacting coffee prices and potato issues in Asia and India — along with transportation and labor issues as major factors impacting prices and grocery shortages.
"Beef and bacon will continue to be high," Lempert said. "Anything to do with an animal because of the cost of feed, again corn and soy. Whether it's milk, butter, eggs, beef ... we will continue to see an increase on those and that's probably the biggest price increase."
But following a few guidelines may help you save. Planning trips and mapping out a game plan is a good start, he said.
Lempert is also a fan of store brands which, he said, can save you 20-30%.
Felten also recommends watching the sales cycles at stores and in general.
"In the Midwest, that's about every six to eight weeks for when a product would come on sale again," she said. "It all kind of rotates."
With special sales of say, 10 items for $10 that rotate about every six weeks, Felten said. And sales at local Meijer and Kroger stores, Felten said, have been running two weeks with only changes in the meat and produce prices.
Combining store sales with coupons is also key.
"So is knowing what your store has available through its app and what they have available online," Felten said. " Know about Meijer mperks rewards, Kroger cash back and digital coupons at stores."
Here are 10 more tips to save on food costs gleaned from various savings websites, Felten and Lempert:
Make a list and stick to it. Sure, it’s age-old advice and we all impulse shop. But sticking to the list prevents that not-on-list bag of chips, bag of mini candy bars or cookies from showing up in your shopping carts.
Study store weekly sales. Know when sales start and stop. This will help make that shopping list of what you need or what’s a good deal on something that you use.
Look for coupons. Clip them from inserts found in the Sunday newspaper (including the Sunday Detroit Free Press) and anywhere else you come across them. Most stores also have digital coupons. While most can’t be paired with other coupons, digital coupons are helpful when buying more of one item. Use coupons on products you would buy unless you want to try an item.
Join a grocery store loyalty or rewards program. Sometimes savings are offered only to those who are members. And sometimes stores periodically send coupons in the mail. Coupons are also tucked in booklets, also sent via mail.
Area stores offer deals that save you money when you buy five or 10 specific items. At some stores, once you buy the number of required items you can still buy more. For example, if it’s a buy five get 50 cents off each item and you buy the sixth item, you should get 50 cents off that item, too. You don’t need to buy another five items.
Pair coupons with items on sale. This leads to additional savings on products you normally buy. Most of the time you can use coupons even on buy-one-get-one (BOGO) free items.
Check out store brands. If you’re not wedded to a specific brand, try the store brand or not a widely known label. Aldi stores are known for their own store-wide branded items from chocolates to tortilla chips to cereal. At Meijer stores we noticed the Penny Saver brand of eggs were cheaper than the Meijer brand. Targets Good and Gather brand of all-purpose flour was considerably less than Gold Medal at other chain stores.
Stock up. If an item that you buy often is on sale, and if you have room, stock up. Meijer recently had bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs on sale for 89 cents per pound. Sold in a family pack, there are about a dozen chicken thighs in a package.
Check prices per ounce. If a product comes in different sizes check the shelf tag which typically lists the cost per ounce. A smaller version may cost more per ounce than a larger version giving you more bang for your buck. A 1-pound package of Oscar Mayer bacon typically costs 10 cents more per pound than the 22-ounce package.
Catalina coupons. Ever heard of them? Catalina Coupons are what spits out of the machine next to the register once you’ve totaled out. Some of these are super valuable. Recently, I had a Catalina Coupon for $1.50 off Panera Bread salad dressing. The salad dressing was buy-one-get-one (BOGO) free. One bottle cost $4.29, the coupon knocked it down to $2.79 for two bottles. Sometimes Catalina Coupons are a mix of manufacturers or store-specific coupons. You can use manufacturer coupons at any store.
Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: 313-222-6872 or sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Inflation 2022: How to save money, snag the best deals
