Price Wars

A fellow blogger recently did a comparison test between local grocery store prices. She simply bought her usual stuff at each and compared the individual and total costs. Interesting, but my main market lost!? How can that be? I really pay a lot of attention to trying to save money and have long been convinced that Price Chopper is cheaper than Hannaford. Could I be (gasp) wrong? Pride aside I felt a call to action and went to Hannaford to do some price checking on my 'usual' items.

So how to go about my investigation? Compare regular price to regular price? Current price to current price? Ignore sale prices or use them? Oi! I started out by just cruising the Hannaford looking for what I thought were good deals (to make the trip worthwhile) and noting the prices of things I regularly buy. Some prices stood out as high, some low and they didn't carry some of my weekly needs; I buy organic milk for Jake and they didn't carry gallon jugs for example. So today I went to Price Chopper and did some more recon there. The more I tried to get a clear comparison the more muddled it became. Here's why...

Produce prices are always a moving target. Last week Hannaford avocados were $1.39 versus PC's for $1.00, but this week Hannaford has tomatoes on the vine for $1.99/lb and PC's are $2.99 (and last week Hannaford was charging $2.99! See?!) Ragu pasta sauce was $1.99 at Hannaford last week - it's $2.49 'regularly' at PC but on sale for $1.24 today. So if on a regular Wednesday (Prince spaghetti day!) I had a sauce emergency and could only choose between Hannaford and PC, I'd go to Hannaford for a 50 cents savings. HOWEVER, I look for deals like PC's $1.24/jar, add coupons and stock up on stuff like that. If I really did eat spaghetti on Wednesdays I'd be set for about a year with my current stash and pay about half of the regular Hannaford cost.

Are you brand loyal? If so you may pay more for the name if you don't shift your purchases to the currently lowest prices. Even with a coupon, the store brand is often cheaper than the name brand.

Another wrinkle: I also shop for certain things at WalMart. Unless there's a super-sale at PC that I know to be cheaper or I can't wait for a trip to WalMart I wait til my next trip to WalMart. For example Domino's Organic Sugar...Hannaford $2.69, PC $2.49 BUT WalMart $1.78. Yikes! Mount Olive Banana Peppers? Hannaford $2.37, PC $2.29 and WalMart $1.88. BUT PC sometimes has those for sale as BOGO so I can technically get them for $1.15 per jar. See how complex this all is?! Since I do follow the sales, check the fliers, and keep track of prices (yes I even have a dorky spreadsheet) I am quite confident I save money with my PC/WalMart strategy but I'm now more open to adding some Hannaford to the mix. They often have better produce, I like their hippy (natural foods) section, and they have TofuLin baked tofu that I heart (PC doesn't).

Here's an example (roughly) of regular PC to regular Hannaford:

Domino's Organic Sugar 2.49 2.69 1.78
Old El Paso Chilis 1.59 1.83
Swanson Veg Broth 1.29 .99
Ragu Pasta Sauce 2.49 1.99
Mt Olive Pepper Rings 2.29 2.37
Teddie Peanut Butter 2.89 2.89
Store brand mustard 1.49 1.29
Store brand milk gal. 2.57 3.39
Hood Cottage Cheese 2.49 2.49
Cabot cheese 8oz 2.89 2.29
Tofu 2.99 2.99
Goldfish 2.00 2.50
Melba Crackers 1.89 1.79
Store brand sandwich bags (50) 1.99 1.79
Store brand storage bags (50) 2.79 2.99
34.14 34.28

BUT....if I use my usual 'method' and buy PC sale/BOGO items (and assume no other price differences) I could have purchased the list above for about $30.60. Seems that most likely, on average, the higher and lower prices even themselves out over time if you don't do anything but get what you need each week. If, however, you check Price Chopper's flier and stock up on non-perishables and freeze freezables, buy produce at the store with the best prices for what you want each week, and use the cents off on gas you would definitely save a lot at Price Chopper. Add an occasional trip to WalMart for canned and jarred goods, tea/coffee, cereal and non-perishables would mean even more savings.

I've probably made this sound more complicated than it is for me. I've just learned what the things I regularly buy "could" cost and try not to pay more than that. I conclude that more than where you shop it's HOW you shop. Paying attention and stocking up are the saving keys.

Tool Time

Well I got the laundry soap made but didn't get to the other two DIY projects because I started working on yet another new one! Yay for having more projects than there is time to do them! Anyhow, after seeing several home made kitchen sets online I decided darn it...I can do that and I will! I had a small 2-drawer dresser/end table in the basement that I thought would make a good stove/sink and when I went to size it up I found some old kitchen cabinets that, flipped on their side, would be a swell refrigerator. I was completely jazzed to jump in but of course my life no longer operates in such a whimsical way so I had to just dream for a while. In the mean time I did some more poking around the internet for ideas and got all sorts of inspiration.

This past Saturday I was zipping around the house cleaning everything in sight with my new Simple Green cleaner (love it!). When I hit the bathroom I suddenly decided it was the time to put on that final coat of paint and actually finish a (long over due) job. Happily I got it done and while I had extra paint and a wet brush and roller I thought "ding!" time to paint the "stove". So out I scurried to the garage and started slapping paint on the dresser. One coat was certainly not enough but I was happy to be beginning the project - a second coat on Sunday really helped and I may do one more for good measure. Sunday evening I went to Lowe's all by myself and had a great time walking the aisles looking for stuff I could repurpose into burners or knobs or doors or whatever! I found some 3 inch felt rounds that I think were supposed to be for furniture legs that I hope to use as burners and I scored a can of gray gloss spray paint that should be perfect for the stove interior - and half price $3 at that! I'm hoping to get a sink faucet of some sort online; I'm looking at RV size kitchen and bath stuff and think I can get something for under $20. I've been taking pictures and I'll track what I spend so I can put together a summary once it's all done. Yay for Mommy for jumping on a creative hunch and gettin 'er done!

I'm baaaaack!

We're back from our road trip and I'm back in the blogosphere! It seems somehow that the chaos of living in and out of a car for 10 days followed us home and I didn't feel 'settled' again until mid-week this week. So now what?! Well I'm nearly out of laundry soap so that's on the agenda for the weekend (yah, I live on the edge!) I've also looked into making dryer sheets or some sort of homemade version of dryer softening. Most of the information I found basically was a variation of using liquid fabric softener - on a washcloth or towel, dried or damp. Of course I need to use a coupon to buy the softener so I haven't bought my 'supplies' yet. Stay tuned for my results. And also on the DIY front, I found a fun blog tutorial for making freezer packs - you know the kind you pop in the lunch bag or cooler? I'll tackle that over the weekend as well and report back on what happens!