just wondering because i usually buy when stuff is on sale, for istance i picked up some whole chickens yesterday for .69 a pound and noticed a few people in front of me to check out with 2 and $300 baskets of stuff that was mostly garbage. just wondering if im the only price conscious buyer that buys em cheap and stacks em deep.

it depends on the sale.  if it's a badass sale, then yes, i stock up.  HEB had chicken fajita meat on sale for $.99 a pound - regular $4.99.  i bought ten pounds and stuck it in the freezer.  i saw one guy fill up his cart with 60 or 70 pounds of the stuff


other then that, i just buy groceries when i need them.

a little of both...  there are things I go for once a week - bread, produce, etc., but if something I'll need's on sale, I pick it up. yesterday, I bought a few whole frozen salmon for $2 each. I always allow room in the grocery budget for stocking up on stuff that will be used eventually...  

nah im terrible about that, food store is 2 blocks away so im in there every other day it seems

Quoted: a little of both...  there are things I go for once a week - bread, produce, etc., but if something I'll need's on sale, I pick it up. yesterday, I bought a few whole frozen salmon for $2 each. I always allow room in the grocery budget for stocking up on stuff that will be used eventually...

dam thats a good deal, i thought i made out like a banditto with the .69 chickens

When I was going to college, I shopped every week and used the coupons in the newspaper.

I also stocked up on sale stuff, but only things that I would actually use or eat (couldn't afford to buy useless stuff just because it was cheap).

Now, my wife just goes whenever she feels like it and blows my money on a bunch of crap nobody eats, then orders pizza delivery or takes the kids to McDonalds.

Once a week or so I grab canned goods/paper goods.  Large sizes if I can get them at Sams or Costco.

I hit the supermarket every few days for fresh stuff.  Or the farmers market in the summer.  

Quoted: . . Now, my wife just goes whenever she feels like it and blows my money on a bunch of crap nobody eats, then orders pizza delivery or takes the kids to McDonalds.

Wow, now I don't feel so bad, the samething happens at my house.  But unfortunately, my wife being the consumate "nice guy," let's my children talk her into going to Mickey Dee's etc.  I have been trying to discourage my children from getting the wife to go to those fast food places, but to no avail.  The wife is getting on the older side and really shouldn't be eating all of those high fat and sodium foods.

For me, I usually try to stock up on the stuff that the mainstream supers have on sale, and buy only the absolutely minimum necessary stuff that is not on sale.  I also try to shop the mom & pop grocery stores(ie ethnic stores, Spanish and Asian), they seem to have the cheaper prices.  Mom & pop stores in So. Calif are less than 100 stores.  In the Los Angeles area, the Asian supermarkets have the best prices on chicken and pork, but they have the lousiest prices on beef.  I usually try to visit a mainstream supermarket maybe once every 2 weeks or so, and an ethnic store about once per week.  The mainstream stream supermarkets are the best for beef.

I have a strict budget for food.  I make a shopping list based on needs and save my receipts to track the prices.  On the shopping list, I also include the price and that influences my shopping choices.  For example, I like Wheaties.  The store's price was cut to $2 a box because they over-ordered the UT commerative box so I bought two...regular price was $2.99.

And another item was yeast,  I bake bread, 2-3 times a week.  Regular Fleishmans Instant in the jar is over $3 for a 4 oz bottle.  The store also had institutional vacupack Fleishman's instant for $2.26 a POUND.  It will be good for a year which is about the time I will need to buy more.  It costs me about $.50 a loaf to make quality bread, including the energy to bake it.  I also make pizza dough and other yeast goods so this was an excellent buy.

I also buy store brand items when they prove to be equal in taste testing.  Canned Alaskan salmon is all the same, just a few canneries make the canned wild salmon and they stamp it with the same code.

I am so specific that I now shop for my girlfriend because using my price tracking and coupon database, I can save her $4-8 a week.  

Oh yes, if you are buying organic, you are getting ripped for the most part.

I go on Sunday after church, buy a footlong sub for $5, and spend about 20-25 for groceries for the week.

Occasionally I'll make a midweek trip for bread and/or beer.

So no, I don't shop the sales.  

Quoted: . . I also buy store brand items when they prove to be equal in taste testing.  Canned Alaskan salmon is all the same, just a few canneries make the canned wild salmon and they stamp it with the same code. . . Oh yes, if you are buying organic, you are getting ripped for the most part.

Sometimes there is a difference between the store brands and the name brand.  The difference is mainly in the appearance, for instance, in refined white sugar, you can get a few more specks of brown sugar(molassaes), this doesn't bother me any because when I put the stuff in my morning coffee I don't see it any more, or putting the sugar in a catsup based marinate.  In can't fruits you get more broken pieces, but what the heck you just have to strain it a bit more.

I guess organic is good if you want to spend the money, my wife buys organic milk that cost something like $4/half-gallon, personally I can't taste the difference between it and the regular milk that costs $2.50/half-gallon.

Quoted: just wondering because i usually buy when stuff is on sale,

Yeah.  When i see stuff on sale... i buy so much people look at me funny...

Especially stuff i know i will use all the time, & bathroom supplies...

Example.  I saw 200 ounce bottles of Tide, on sale at target for 9 bucks each, (they are usually 12-15 bucks).  Well... i left the store with 2,000 ounces of Tide, & that was 2 years ago... i think.

Same thing with fabric softener, & bars of Dial Soap, i found great deals at sams club.

And then there was the holy grail....

A gun shop had 1,000 round cases of 9mm stacked in the middle of the store they didn't want anymore.  They sold me every case they had.... for 50 bucks a case.

I bought 6 cases of the glass Prego spaghetti sauce for a dollar a jar when they were on sale. If the store has a really good deal that doesn't happen that often, I stock up on it. If the item in question is something that you're going to be buying every week or two, you might as well stock up on that item.

I look for groceries on sale.  Sometimes you need to buy things that aren't on sale.  

Grocery Game and Costco - Once a week.

Eric  

I go once a month, stock up on the basic needs and go.


Few loaves of bread, few packs of lunch meat, eggs, and some cereal.


Freeze the lunch meat and bread till I need it, eggs last a month pretty easy, cereal lasts long enough.  Milk Ill grab at a convenience store when I run out.

I generally just buy what I need, on about a weekly basis.  But if I see something I eat, and there's a great deal, I'll grab a bunch.  Getting $15 worth of food for $12 is like a 25% return on investment.

My wife goes to the grocery store every week...... and buys some of the stuff on sale...

I don't stock up that much, and I pay little attention to food prices. When I need some more food, or just want some of something I don't have, I go to the grocery store and get it. The total cost of food is pretty insignificant, compared to everything else. At most, I'll buy more then usual of something if it's on sale cheap. IMHO, life's too short to clip coupons and run around comparing prices to save a few bucks a week.

Quoted: <snip>IMHO, life's too short to clip coupons and run around comparing prices to save a few bucks a week.

when I went to the store this last week, I went to the 10 for $10 sale and used coupons. (I only cut the coupons of stuff I always buy, not stuff I want to try.)  I didn't buy anything I wouldn't normally buy - it's all stuff we eat.

I saved $84.87. My total bill that I ended up paying was $174.06, so that boils down to about a 33% savings.  Do that twice a month, and you've got an extra chunk of change that's worth the few minutes it takes to look at store ads and clip coupons...