Getting the Most Out of Grocery Spending
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When it was just Hannah and me, our grocery expenses were about $150 per week. Not no more with two hungry kid bellies to fill every day. We probably spend about $250 every week now to feed our family of four. It seems as though our two children's bellies never cease to stop being hungry. To deal with this increased expense, we always buy in bulk because we know that the food we buy will always be eaten. Nothing goes to waste! In doing so, we generally go to one major grocery store (Safeway) for major food items, followed by a smaller purchase from local farmers market (Palisades Farmers Market) where we like to get fresh fruits and vegetables. The number of points we accumulate on Safeway.com is not that big in the grand scheme of things. However, no matter how small, the points we earn can be exchanged for a moderate saving each time we go shopping. The points we earn can frequently triple or quadruple when we go onto our Safeway.com online account and click on the 'personalized' deals. After a couple of weeks of point accumulations, we often can get $25 off our next grocery bill.
Why we like grocery points: We all have to eat. So why not get something in return when we're at it? The points gained may be swapped for discounts on future grocery shopping. |
After you finish shopping at Safeway...Receipt Sharing with Marketers
We also spend about 15 seconds (yes, you read that right) after we complete our grocery shopping each week to take photos and share our food purchases with a company called Fetch Rewards. We do this by saving the grocery receipts and uploading the photos on an app that we downloaded. In doing so, we earn varying levels of points depending on the purchased items (some that earns us significantly more points). Fetch Rewards won't make you rich. But just like the grocery savings we discussed above, the rewards are a nice byproduct of purchases that we make every week. After some accumulation of points, they can be turned in for gift cards to restaurants, retailers, and even airline ticket purchases. Why we like Fetch Rewards:
Other options...While we don't use the following grocery stores or grocery delivery options on a regular basis, we have used them on occasion when we were crunched for time. These companies will help families who value time equally as much as the price they pay at the checkout. For instance, we tried Instacart a couple of times when the pandemic hit the world in 2020 and we didn't want to go shopping for food physically for fear of catching the virus. But Hannah and I actually enjoy touching and feeling the foods we buy. So we haven't really returned to the options listed here since the pandemic has tapered off. But again, they will be useful services for those who are looking to save time.
Instacart
Instacart is a great option for families who have busy schedules. The company does all of the food shopping for you and also delivers the grocery to your door. They charge a $3.99 delivery fee + a 5% service fee. While the convenience is great, the prices you pay for grocery shopping on this website are generally more expensive than you going to the grocery store yourself. So understand the tradeoff before you shop here. 
Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh sells mail order meal kits. This and other similar companies were a big part of our family's weekly dinner options during the start of the pandemic. The meals are come portioned out, so there is no cutting and dicing involved. Meal costs from $11.49 per serving to $8.99 per serving, depending on the volume of meals purchased. Frequently, Hello Fresh offers teaser deals to acquire new customers. These deals slash the initial cost of trying their meal plans. |
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Home Chef
Home Chef is another mail order meal kit company. In comparison to Hello Fresh from above, Home Chef is a bit cheaper per meal. Our family tried their meal service for a few weeks and we found them to be just as delicious and easy to prepare. Meals costs from $8.99 per serving and the cost goes down per volume of meals purchased. When we initially signed up for Home Chef, the person meal cost was $3 (a great price to test their meal products). |
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Dinnerly
Among all of the meal delivery services, Dinnerly is arguably the lowest cost option. They manage to keep their prices low in part by the menu items they offer (think more chicken than shrimp) and also not packing hard copies of menus in their meal boxes. We found their meals to be comparable in taste and our kids loved it. Meal costs from $6.39 per serving and goes down depending on the volume of meals purchased. They also have teaser sign-up offers that cost well below this price. |
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Costco
Our family joined Costco in early 2022 as we were digging out of the Omicron COVID-19 variant as a way to economize further. We did so after tagging along a friend of ours who was already a Costco member. We were blown by the enormous value we could gain by shopping at this warehouse grocery store. We generally go to Costco once every other month to get non-perishable items like toiletry and canned goods. Membership is $60 per year for their basic plan and $120 per year for the premium plan. 
Card Cash
Card Cash is a gift card exchange website where you can frequently find steep discounts. For instance, it is not unusual to find $50 gift cards to Dominos Pizza or Subway sandwiches for $40 (or 20 percent discount on the value of the gift card). Money is money and, in this instance, gift cards are cash in a different form. Rather than paying for these meal expenses with cash or credit card, we would get instant discounts by using these gift cards purchased from Card Cash. Our family frequently purchased gift cards on Card Cash as a way to benefit from the arbitrage of cash for gift card discounts. |
Next: Do It Yourself Companies and Retailers
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