Cheap groceries USA: How I saved $54 on Groceries!!..Case study 2023
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How to find cheap groceries? This is a question that pops up at the beginning of every month and at the end of every week. You start running low on groceries and thinking about buying groceries on a tight budget.
You’re not the only one if you realize that your food spending has increased recently. Since 2020, food prices have significantly increased. In just two years, prices for poultry, fish, and eggs have increased, and the cost of beef has skyrocketed. That might significantly reduce your monthly spending. The good news is that our guide of the cheapest way to get groceries in the USA will help you locate possibilities for how to get a lot of groceries for cheap.
How to find cheap groceries in the USA?
Make a groceries list
Your grocery list is your guru. It helps you stay on track as much as possible so you wouldn’t be tempted with all the things you “think” you might need.
The necessary groceries are not the same for everyone, it depends on each person’s/family’s needs and preferences. We made a grocery list of some of the items that we often stick to.
- Bread
- Dairy (Cheese, Yogurt, Milk) & Eggs
- Meats & Fish
- Rice & Pasta
- Fruits & Vegetables
- Oils, Spices & Dressings
- Canned Goods
- Frozen Foods
- Toilet Paper
Find cheapest stores to grocery shop
Trying to decide which are the “cheap places to go grocery shopping near me”? Which supermarket will you save the most money at? And which are the most affordable organic grocery stores around?
Check out this comprehensive list of cheap groceries supermarket chains. Let’s find out which grocery store is the cheapest.
If you’re looking for cheap groceries, Aldi is at the forefront. One of several key reasons it is thought to be one of the superior and cheapest shopping destinations is because it doesn’t sell brand names. We all know that a brand’s ability to command a higher price at the checkout counter increases with its popularity.
The German retailer’s outlets, which have a significantly smaller footprint than conventional grocery stores, concentrate on selling low-cost, private-label goods. You can find affordable necessities everywhere in the shop thanks to their lean business approach, including produce and snacks and ready-to-eat foods.
You can also find much cheaper gluten-free, vegan, and dairy-free products. Research have shown that Aldi’s costs are so affordable that other grocery stores have to drop their prices to keep up with the competition.
There’s a good reason why Lidl is Aldi’s main rival. Like Aldi, Lidl has rock-bottom rates on many of its products on a weekly basis. For example, a pound of grapes only costs $0.79 at Lidl.
Lidl is different from Aldi in that you don’t need a quarter to use their carts. They also have a fresh bakery and both store brands and name brands. But they don’t give you bags or help you pack your groceries.
Lidl is currently only on the East Coast, but they are quickly growing. So, be on the lookout for this expanding store.
Market Basket is a grocery chain in the Northeast that has been around for 100 years. Market Basket has 90 shops in four states: 53 in its home state of Massachusetts, 33 in New Hampshire, two in Maine, and two in Rhode Island.
Like Aldi, Market Basket is famed for how well it treats its employees. Full-time workers get benefits like a share of the profits, health insurance, and time off when they are sick.
Market Basket also keeps costs low by handling most of its own distribution, making sure all of its stores hold the same goods, and keeping good dealings with suppliers who are most appropriate for their business. Market Basket’s lack of debt and lower overhead costs compared to its competitors also help.
Costco is for you if you have a big family or consume a large amount of the same food products and wish to have them on hand all the time. Costco is a store where you have to pay $60 annually to become a member.
But the money you’ll save by shopping at Costco is good enough to justify that and more. They are also giving new members a free $10 Costco card presently.
The food you buy from Costco doesn’t make them much profit. The prices are not too high. If gluten-free and organic foods are important to you, the store has a lot of them.
WinCo is a company that is owned by its employees. It has stores in Arizona, Texas, and other southern states.
If you haven’t heard of WinCo, they have some great perks, like price reductions on bulk items and products that have already been marked down (with the little green tags).
At WinCo, you have to bag your own groceries, just like at several of the other shops on this list. But you’ll find some fantastic deals, so it’s worth it.
The store attempts to be as green as conceivable, which is a big plus for people who care about the environment.
You might think that Walmart offers the best deals on groceries. Although it is uncommon, there may be good prices to be found.
Walmart is well-known to everyone, and for valid reasons. It boasts great discounts on basic foods like grains, fruits, and vegetables, and it’s frequently the only store open in remote places or areas with a food shortage.
Compared to several of the health food shops close to us, Walmart typically offers vegan/vegetarian, and items like tofu, beans, legumes, and vegan alternatives at considerably lower prices.
You can save cash by using the Walmart grocery app or website in addition to the cheaper products. Online grocery shopping is practical as you can schedule a time to pick up your groceries and can help you avoid unplanned buying.
It’s difficult to keep track of all the honors and awards that Trader Joe’s has earned; it has twice been awarded America’s favorite grocery store, and customers can’t get enough of the private-label goods that TJ’s is famous for.
There are many items you can buy in-store for $5 or less from Trader Joe’s, which has more than enough healthy supermarket staples to have Cooking Light editors returning for more.
After gathering this list of the most affordable grocery stores, we compared some of the products we wanted to buy. This is one of the methods you can locate the cheapest stores to grocery shop at.
Here are the grocery stores we chose and a cheap shopping list for a week of some products. We compared their prices and here’s what we found:
| Lidl | Costco | Walmart | |
| Babybel Mini Snack Cheese 12 X 0.75 oz each | 78.9 ¢ per oz. =$7.1 | 42.2 ¢ per oz. =$3.8 | 85.3 ¢ per oz. =$7.7 |
| Whole Milk | 3.57 per Gal | _ | 3.69 per Gal |
| Ground beef chuck, 80% lean. 3lb Costco: Diamond Valley Halal Ground Beef 3lb | $4.36 per lb =$13.1 | $5.40 per lb =$16.2 | $4.36 per lb =$13.1 |
| Wonder white bread | 2.72 per pack | _ | 2.86 per pack |
| Filippo Berio olive oil 25.3 fl. oz. | 35.5 ¢ per fl. oz.=$8.98 | _ | 35.5 ¢ per fl. Oz.=$8.98 |
| Kirkland olive oil 2L | _ | $17.99 | $22.94 |
| 3 lb bananas,3lb apples, and red grapes | 1.38+4.79+1.68= $7.85 | _ | 0.69+5.01+3.56=$9.26 |
Note: Costco sells products in bulk and it doesn’t always hold products with big names but we wanted to give you a closer picture anyway.
Aslo, Aldi is mostly known to have the lowest prices but it doesn’t provide prices on its website. Therefore, we couldn’t include it in our comparison. But, that means you could probably save even more if Aldi was included!
If we compare all the prices and choose the best ones for each product we would save around $13.5 on only a few products of the weekly grocery shopping. That’s around $54 a month! Imagine how much you could save on all of your grocery list..
Remember to also look for inexpensive grocery delivery. Add that to the cost of your groceries or check if you could pick it up from a nearby store location instead.
Use price comparison apps to find the cheapest groceries
After collecting information about the best grocery stores on a budget, we used price comparison apps and websites to help us a little more. This is the cheapest way to grocery shop online.
When shopping, the vast majority of customers first visit a Price Comparison USA website. Now, many online retailers also employ price comparison websites to provide shoppers the best possible deals.
These applications and search tools are made to carry out the hard work on your behalf. If you want to make sure you’re always getting the best deal and cheap grocery store delivery on a certain item, they’ll check the price at every store, no matter how big or small.
These are some of the grocery comparison apps & sites we usually use:
We compared some products on PriceGrabber and Bizrate. We found that the prices of Velveeta Original Loaf cheddar cheese (32 oz.) were 22.78 in Walmart, and 13.98 in Sam’s Club. This is only an example of how you could benefit from the apps to find cheap groceries.
In addition, we find apps like shopsavvy amazing since it has an extension that can be added to safari and google chrome. When you look for any product it automatically compares the price to other websites. Then, it tells you which provider has the lowest price, and all in a few seconds!
Check for cheap groceries in your local stores
What if the cheapest grocery store doesn’t offer the most affordable grocery delivery? How to grocery shop cheap if you don’t have Walmart or Aldi nearby? The answer is your local grocery stores.
You can do a simple task of comparing product prices yourself. The first thing is making a list of the products you need on a weekly or a monthly basis. Make sure not to use many products so as not to overwhelm yourself. You can also use our groceries list for inspiration (*wink*).
Then you can make a few trips to your preferred local grocery stores. Furthermore, write down the prices of each product at each of the stores. Lastly, TADA! You’ve got a list of prices vs. stores that tells you where each product is cheapest.
The cheapest way to order groceries online is to do your research. If these local stores have apps or websites that provide prices, check them and spare yourself the hassle. It’s a huge plus if these stores have affordable grocery delivery service so you could also save on gas.
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