Do some research. Make a list of groceries you buy, move from store to store and write down the prices. At the end of of the exercise you'll find out that the stores prices their stuff differently. Some items in the [some stores] will be cheaper. Make it a point to buy those items from that store and head off elsewhere to get whatever items might be cheaper. Of course this strategy can only save you money if the stores you intend to buy your groceries from are close enough for you to walk over.
I look at the prices online and see if there are any specials that week and work it out like that to save the legs. I also look at what I need to stock up on and try ti plan for a couple of weeks. I tend to shop around anyhow, but sometimes there are additional coupons to use so I factor that in too. I buy what is available from the pound or dollar store and then buy the rest from the selected stores. It means sometimes I only go to one store or maybe three.
My 'go to' store for lowest prices is Aldi. I have not found any grocery stores that are as inexpensive. Aldi still runs cheaper even when other places have sales and discounts. I make a point of always doing my grocery shopping there. Sadly, Aldi can be limited in what they offer. To get other products I'd run to Meijer. I thought their sales in combination with mperks could not be beat. I'm starting to second guess that now. I've been shopping at Walmart more often and have noticed my total price is cheaper than Meijer. They usually never have significant sales either. This is based on their every day prices.
I would like to look at prices online and compare and shop, but it seems difficult to do with groceries because everything is not listed. I like the idea of taking a day to do an exercise in researching prices at shops in your neighborhood and then keeping a list. It can be time consuming, I wonder if there is an app for something like this.
Not worth it. The savings will be minimal, if any (gotta add in the gas price if it's not a shop that's really close to you). And it's definitely better to pay that 5 dollars extra than spending 3 hours running around the city getting groceries.
I do drive around to get things at different stores where I know I can get the lowest price. I have a good memory for prices so I won't buy something at one store if I know I have seen it cheaper somewhere else. This drives my husband crazy though. He says it is a waste of my time and gas to do this. He also says I probably spend more money in gas by driving around for so many different things. He is probably right, but I still can't shake the habit of doing it.
I do this too as there are several grocery stores in my area. Although it seems like a real effort at first, the savings soon add up. I usually visit 4-5 stores in total for my weekly shop. I appreciate that doing this isn't always possible for everyone though and it must be a bit of a drag to only have one or two grocery stores nearby.
It depends, for groceries, it might benefit you in the long run if you stick with one chain and sign up to their customer loyalty programs. They are there for a reason, to keep customers loyal, and therefore will provide you with some nice benefits, but I suppose it depends on your lifestyle and how often you buy groceries etc. For clothes I definitely do this though. Buying essentials like plain t shirts, vests, socks and all that, I usually go for the cheaper option like Primark since I don't need to be spending a lot of money for basic things like that. You end up saving a lot of money that way.
Yes, I definitely hit up multiple grocery stores and not only save money but get the specific items that I want and enjoy. The whole gas thing isn't really a big deal for me since many of these stores that I hop back and forth to are all within a mile or two of each other - we're talking a couple minutes apart from each other. In fact, some are literally across the street or around the corner. If I absolutely wanted to, I could walk from our Wal-Mart, to our Aldi, and our Giant Eagle and Marc's and not waste any additional gas. In fact, sometimes I will even hit up multiple locations of the same store, and snag all their discounted meats. Each store almost always has a couple packs of some particular meat marked down big time. So if I hit up 3 or so stores, I can get a whole bunch of meat heavily marked down. I look at it this way, why pay full price for meat when it's gonna sit in my freezer for days or weeks anyhow. May as well pay nearly half price for it, and just use it sooner.
