A descriptive look at traveling and full-timing with our second RV, a fifth wheel toyhauler.
Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005
for a two week vacation in a truck camper.
Living in a House and Saving Money
Using the Frugal Grocery Shopping List by Laura-n-Sasha.com
The Frugal Grocery Shopping List by Laura-n-Sasha.com:
If you have a question, please send us an email: Email@Laura-n-Sasha.com
The though process for Frugal Grocery Shopping List: Since we were trying to live frugally and cut expenses in all areas of our life, one of the basic ways to do that was with food. We tend to eat the same types of food all the time, and once I started using the Your Money or Your Life philosophy of writing every expense down, we started noticing some patterns. Food prices pretty much stayed the same throughout the year, except for some seasonal changes with produce and sometimes with meat.
The changes seem to occur in the first quarter of the year with the other foods, the staples and dried goods. That especially is happening now; we are seeing the recession in full swing, with increases in prices and smaller sizes. So I figured, why not help out others save some money with their grocery shopping needs.
Back in the summer, I showed a price list to my Mom and my Aunt Tina (in New Jersey). They loved the idea of seeing the information all laid out: the Items, the price that I bought it at, the unit bought, then what it costs per ounce and what it costs per pound or gallon/Liter. Everyone was so impressed by it that they wanted me to mass produce it. So I decided to try to make it into more of what others might want.
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Most often than not, you can save more money with the food expenses. But you have to buy the other stuff too, things like toothpaste and deodorant, toilet paper and paper towel (although some of my frugal and environmental friends would disagree with that!) So on the one side is groceries. The other side I would like your input on what you buy, so that I could check the prices. I only have a few things on that side, this Frugal List is a work in progress.
I plan on updating the Frugal Grocery Shopping List on a quarterly basis, to get the input from others and to put other things in the list. That is why the price is so low, so that if you want to get it in the first quarter and then subsequent quarters, I will have a frequent buyer or subscription price for the updates. But I want to see what the needs are first.
What is also neat about this list is that you can fold it in such a way as to place it in your checkbook or wallet. But still be able to see the most important things first.
I have it sorted by dry - non-refrigerated foods, (tons of those), breads/grains, dairy, caffeine products, soups and sauces, condiments, spices (only a few), produce, frozen food (only a few of those), meats (again, only a few), and then alcoholic beverages (beer and wine).
The prices are paid without sales or coupons, so that you know what the base price is for an item. That way, if an item is on sale, you can stock up. I did not put store bought on the sheet, as most people would not have it in their area. But the overall price would be the same. I have found going to the big box stores, the prices are the same all over the country for normal items.
Also note, NONE of the items are processed foods, no ready made stuff, except things like processed cheese and soups or sauces. I think the only real processed food I have on there is mac' and cheese. We ate tons of that stuff until I did the numbers, and found that making elbow pasta with Romano cheese was more cost effective than getting 7 ounces of pasta and some orange stuff that was not very nutritionally good for you. And if you add frozen veggies, you have a perfect meal. If you like warm tuna or chicken, you could add that as well. Then it becomes a balanced meal. Have an apple or orange for desert, and you are golden!
But we did have a few fun foods, like pretzels, tortilla chips, fig bars and sugar cookies. I found that getting pretzels and tortilla chips, you get more bang for your buck that potato chips. The tortillas are less broken and work well with Salsa, thereby almost being healthy.
Just so you can see a sample, here is two from the sheet, one we get all the time, and one we NEVER get, which is ground beef: (Of course, in HTML, it is much harder to show a table than in Excel, so this is my best effort!)
| Price | N | H | W | Price | N | H | W | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Price | Unit | Per Oz | Per LB/ | Food | Price | Unit | Per Oz | Per LB/ | ||||||
| Gallon | Gallon | ||||||||||||||
| Oatmeal | $6.89 | 160 | $0.04 | $0.69 | 40 | 15.0 | C | Beans (Kidney/black) | $0.77 | 16 | $0.05 | $0.77 | 0 | 1.0 | W |
| Oat Bran | $0.85 | 16 | $0.05 | $0.85 | 3 | 1.0 | W | Pinto Beans | $0.54 | 16 | $0.03 | $0.54 | 0 | 2.0 | W |
| Wheat Berries | $54.50 | 800 | $0.07 | $1.09 | Lentils Yellow | $0.84 | 16 | $0.05 | $0.84 | W | |||||
| Flax (seed) Meal | $1.57 | 16 | $0.10 | $1.57 | 2 | W | Lentils Green | $1.34 | 16 | $0.08 | $1.34 | 2 | 0.5 | W | |
| Wheat Bran | $0.41 | 16 | $0.03 | $0.41 | W | Dried Peas/split peas | $0.51 | 16 | $0.03 | $0.51 | W | ||||
| Wheat Germ | $0.90 | 16 | $0.06 | $0.90 | W | Lima/Soybean | $0.89 | 16 | $0.06 | $0.89 | W | ||||
| Dried Dates | $2.40 | 16 | $0.15 | $2.40 | 1 | W | Canned Pinto/Black | $1.39 | 29 | $0.05 | $0.77 | ||||
The Oatmeal is 10 lbs at a time (16 ounces in a pound so 160 ounces), for $6.89; per ounce it is $0.04 and per pound it is $0.69. You can not get boxed cereal for that price! So it is very economical, and very nutritious. Spice it up with other stuff on the sheet, and you have a very yummy breakfast.
Now I have on there as well, N - Need, H - Have, and W - Where? At the bottom of the sheet it shows the code for where I got the items. These are from some common areas like Costco, Walmart and Sam's although I also put in Winco, only found out west, but Aldi's might be a close grocery store as well. I would also suggest checking out: Sunday Saver, where you can see the grocery stores weekly ads.
My Mom wanted me to put meat on the list, because many of her contemporaries eat meat. So I did. But I put the cheap meats on there, so ground beef but not steaks, ham steaks and kielbasa, but not hot dogs or pork chops, because first, I don't eat hot dogs (nutritionally unsound) and pork chops are expensive. Obviously, there is no lobster or shrimp on the list, but there is tuna and chicken in cans. I found it is easier to eat chicken if it is in a can, than in a whole chicken. If nothing else, you can see what the price is in a can and use that number per ounce to see how little you can go with a whole chicken.
The biggest and scariest part of this all is the portion sizes. You may have noticed it especially in Tuna: the cans have stayed the same size, but the amount in them has changed, now it is 5 ounces, while before it was six. So I've changed that in the sheet.
I have decided to make the list available for no cost. I have found there is no need for me to price it out, so if you want to download it, go ahead. The more people learn from this site, the better it is for us all. You can always help me out another way, like clicking on ads that make sense to you. Residual income is always nice.
You can download the list as an Excel Spreadsheet or an Open Office Document. This way you can make your own changes to it as well. But please, do try to cite the source as from Laura-n-Sasha.com please?
I plan on having this list be changing when I find new prices. However, they have been staying the same for the most part, but they can change. If they do, I will update the page to make the changes. If you have any questions regarding this information or the Frugal Grocery Shopping List, please send me an email located at the bottom of the page.
Once you know where your best prices are, this can become a fun activity that helps you save for your next adventure.