What Groceries Come From Where?
Last week, a commenter asked what types of things I buy at each of the grocery stores I go to, so as well as an overview of how spending went this week and this month, I’m going to do a quick outline of what types of things I buy where. That might make it clearer as to why I go to so many stores. 
First off though - how did this week go? I set a $75 budget per week for the month of January, and so far, I’ve had weeks I was way under, and weeks I was a bit over. This week I came in at just slightly over budget at $75.98. I spent $56.55 at Aldi and $19.43 at Walmart (no good sales at Kroger this week). I did buy two impulse items - garlic bread for $1.20 and salad dressing for $1.89 (I’m sick of the one bottle we have left) for a total of $3.09, or 4% of my spending on impulse items. Things went pretty well this week and overall, I came in just $9 over budget for the entire month of January. That is partly due to stocking up on pork roasts last week when Kroger had the $0.97/lb sale. I think $75/week is a reasonably ambitious target for me to shoot for, so I am going to keep the same budget in February. Maybe by March I’ll feel confident enough in it to try and knock it down to $70/week.
So, why are three different stores part of my grocery shopping routine? First off, I don’t think I’d go to three different places if I didn’t have a fairly efficient route to get to all of them. The majority of my shopping is done at Aldi, which is also the furthest away from me (about 20-25 minutes by car). To get home, I practically drive by Walmart and I do drive right by Kroger. So it only adds a miniscule amount of driving to my trip and only the time it takes to actually go to two additional stores. I go to three different stores because one is generally cheapest but does not have everything I need (Aldi), one is cheapest on the things that the first does not have (Walmart), and the last runs good sales and I get their flyer in the mail every week to check them out (Kroger).
Aldi is a store that carries primarily their own generic brand and little else. They have a limited selection, but what they do have is very inexpensive. I generally purchase the majority of my breads, dairy, canned goods, frozen vegetables, produce, condiments, cereal, dry goods (pasta, beans, rice), paper products (toilet, towels, tissues) and some of my meat there. I also buy a limited number of over-the-counter medicines and toiletries there, but there is a very small selection available.
I then go to Walmart to supplement what I buy at Aldi with either name brand items or items that aren’t sold at Aldi. I generally buy over-the-counter medicines, cleaning supplies, bakery items, organic milk, and personal care items there. Then, some weeks I also go to Kroger if they have something on a big sale, generally pantry items I use on a regular basis or meat items. Kroger is a chain grocery store here, not small and local but not quite national.
So there you have it - where I go and why. I hope it saves me money. 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Related entries for your reading pleasure:
January 26th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
$0.98 is excellent! We tried Aldi but there was too little of what we’d use. Often there was nothing. It was more money to drive the extra half-mile than we would save.
This week we managed to lower our grocery bill by having cooked such big batches of stuff last week.
January 26th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Great idea splitting up the grocery shopping. I primarily use Kroger (food stuff) and Walgreens (household, health & beauty stuff) as they are the 2 stores on my GroceryGame list. I do keep an eye out on the other stores in the area (Harvest Foods, etc) and will drop in if something is on sale.
January 26th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I shop similarly, with a weekly trip to Trader Joe’s and an occasional trip to Ralphs (part of the Kroger family) for loss leaders and things I can’t find at TJ’s. I also shop once in a while at Whole Foods, primarily for antibiotic-free meat (TJ’s selection is limited). Because we eat so much organic and hormone/antibiotic-free foods, my weekly spending is rarely under $100, so I think your $75 is very impressive!
January 27th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Nice work on the $75! That’s my weekly budget as well, but I am more impressed since you have the 2 kids to feed. I am trying shopping at multiple stores (Walgreens, Target & Stop & Shop this week) to see if it will save me money instead of just going to S&S. We’ll see how it goes.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Thats very impressive. I think I would have a tough time feeding just myself for $75 per week let alone more people.
January 27th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Since your grocery budget is larger than mine, I’m sure you’re better suited to going to 3 stores. However, going to 3 different grocery stores would break my budget because of the gas that it takes to travel between the stores. I would rather pay a few more cents at my regular store than drive 5 miles out of my way to go to another store that has a few things that are less expensive. Once again, I am just grocery shopping for me…and not a family…
January 27th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
That not only sounds like a very good plan, it makes me miss living near an Aldi. It saved me so much money!