My Grocery Addiction

My Grocery Addiction

Let me start by first saying that it is currently snowing.  It’s March 29^th and we have accumulating snow on the ground.  I know it snowed in late October so we have now had snow for a full 5 months.  I’m not opining on this, just documenting for the future when I’m whining about not having any snow on the ground!

Okay, on to the main topic.  I was up pretty early for a Saturday this morning to get through a ton of random errands and tasks, and as I was thinking through some of the more routine things like laundry and grocery shopping, it dawned on me that I am unusual in that I really enjoy doing laundry and grocery shopping.  I started thinking about why I like grocery shopping.  Here’s what I came up with:

·         It makes me feel productive without chewing up hours and hours of time.  I mean, who doesn’t like crossing things off a list?

·         I love all the quick math and trying to figure out if I can beat my budget and still get enough food for the week.  Some people get frustrated when they see a tag that says 3 for $5.  I like the mental math to figure out the unit cost and then analyze whether or not it’s a good value.  I usually get burned by toiletries – so expensive!

·         I love a good deal.  Coupons.  Sales.  And using coupons when items are on sale!  I think I embarrass Anissa sometimes when we grocery shop together.  I still buy a newspaper most Sundays and clip coupons (I know, I’m about 35 years ahead of myself here).  Sometimes I even go online looking for some.  At the end of the day it’s just a fun game for me to see how cheaply I can get some things.  My crowning achievement was a few years back.  I had a coupon for $0.50 off 1 can of Pringles.  Pringles were on sale for $0.99.  Kroger doubled my coupon and I was therefore paid a penny to take the Pringles home.  Booyah!

I thought I’d share a couple tips I have about how to get some good value at the grocery store.  But first I have to preface where I shop and why.  I do not shop at Walmart.  Not for any sort of moral reasons or anti-corporation sentiment.  I just think their produce is absolutely disgusting and the store is usually so crowded with rude people that the sour mood I have when I leave sticks with me all day.  I also do not shop at Meijer.  I probably should, but I’ve had some bad produce experiences that I have not yet overcome.  As my proportion of produce purchasing has risen, I had to stop shopping there.  But, they do double coupons so I may give them another chance.  I do not shop at Giant Eagle.  WAY.  TOO.  EXPENSIVE.  It’s also pretty inconvenient to get there and back for me; I think I have 3 Kroger stores closer to me than the closest Giant Eagle.  So living in Columbus, that leaves me with Kroger which is where I shop.  On average, it’s probably more expensive than Meijer and Walmart.  But it’s always clean, the produce is great, and the prices are competitive if you are paying attention and have some flexibility in what you purchase week-to-week.

So here are a few of my tips:

1.       Some foods that charge by weight are often great steals.  Bananas (I’m thinking we all know) are a great deal.   But, I’ve found Green Beans can be a huge value.  A pre-wrapped bag of green beans runs $2.50, but bagging your own usually runs about $1.25 for even more beans.  Sure, you have to wash them and probably cut them, but that’s a savings of 50% and they are probably fresher (probably even locally grown).  I also have found that cucumbers and squash offer a good deal of food for the price.  One weighed item that always seems outrageously expensive to me is grapes.  Why do they cost so much!? 

2.       Pay attention to the off-brand products available.  Kroger uses its own name as well as Home Sense for non-food items.  These are always way cheaper, sometimes up to 50% lower than the comparable brand name product.  I think Walmart uses Great Value as its food brand and Meijer may just use its own name.  I don’t think the off-brand products are always as good though.  I’ve had good success with most cereals (imitation Chex and Shredded Wheat), potato chips (Kroger brand is about half the price of Lays), jelly, and many household products like dishwasher detergent, dryer sheets, wet mops (think Swiffer), and disinfecting wipes.  I’ve also had success with Kroger shampoo and contact solution.  I will say that I don’t like Kroger peanut butter or Kroger vanilla wafers.  Any tips you have on off-brand items?

3.       Use coupons!  I’m telling you, if you spend a little time you can save some serious money each trip, especially if your grocer is doubling the coupons under $1.  Between sales and coupons, I try to reach a total discount of 20% off listed retail.  I usually end up somewhere between 12-17% off (it tallies it for me at the bottom of my receipt).  One caution on this – the discounts make you feel good but it could be foolish.  I always make sure I look back and feel good about how much I paid for an item. For example, if strawberries are $5 marked down to $3, that’s 40% off or a savings of $2.  But I’d still like to pay less than $3 for strawberries.

I will say, I have opportunities to learn more about the fuel perks and gift card perks.  I just need to invest a little time to understand how to best game the system.

So maybe if you think of grocery shopping as a menial task, or just a fact of life, try to make it a game for yourself.  See how much you can save.  Try to find the best values and see how little changes you make can help you get more food for your money!

Zip Codes

Zip Codes

Today I decided I would reflect on the zip code for each place I’ve ever lived.  People have a lot of pride about where they grew up and where they’ve lived, and I am no exception.   So let me take on a chronological whirlwind of my life.

44111 – Cleveland, OH

I was born in Cleveland, OH in the West Park neighborhood and lived there for the first 7 years of my life.  My sisters and I attended Our Lady of Angels Catholic School along with almost every kid on our street.  My mom actually went there as well – in fact, we had the same teacher for 1^st grade!  While I was very young when we lived there, I remember what a fun place it was to be.  Block parties, parades, tons of other kids to play with.  We also lived close to “The Valley” which was home to golf courses trails, and metroparks.  Sometimes we just went for drives down there because it was so beautiful.  We still have family that lives in this neighborhood and every time we visit we have to drive by our old house and I’m overcome with great memories.  Can you believe all 8 people in my family lived in this house?  Well my mom’s family of 9 lived there before we did, so that was even crazier!

Cleveland is where I grew to love snow.

75002 – Allen, TX

When I was 7 we moved to the Dallas area.  We lived “way out” but these days it’s a fully-developed super-sized suburb.  One of the things I remember the most about Texas was how friendly everyone at school was.  I was there for 2^nd-4^th grades and I don’t think I ever had a single enemy.  Gym class was legendary.  One unit we covered gymnastics and Allen Gymnastics (home to Olympic medalists) came to our school and let us play on all of their equipment – so cool!  I also remember one summer when our family friends The Stubners came to visit.  We went to a Rangers-Indians baseball game at the then-new stadium (for the record, Cleveland won 13-4, wahoo!).  We also hit up Six Flags over Texas.  It was maybe the best couple weeks of my life.  Overall, everyone in my family grew quite fond of Texas and the brutal heat.  One final note  - it did snow one time and guess who made friends quick since we had the only sleds in the neighborhood?!

43016 – Dublin, OH

After almost 3 very fun years in Texas, our family headed back to Ohio to live in a burgeoning suburb outside Columbus.  We lived in Dublin for more than a decade including 2 different houses.  We watched the city develop into one of the best places to live, and my sisters and I grew into adults here.  We spent the better part of our high school and college summers working long hours at the Columbus Zoo in the Food Court and Concessions groups (I think I worked there for 9 summers!).  We came to know and love the quirky things about our city, like the cement corn (look it up), the incredible Dublin Irish Festival every August, the swelling pride every time someone mentions Wendy’s (especially in the context that it’s better than McDonald’s), and of course Jack Nicklaus’ famed Memorial Tournament at the end of every May.  We embraced all things Dublin and a great deal of our friends and memories still reside there.

 

43085 – Powell, OH

After graduating from Miami University in 2007 I moved into my sister Maureen’s condo and lived with her for about 2 years.  This was great for me – cheap rent in a nice place and not far from work.  It was nice for her too – help with the mortgage and utilities!  Mo and I had so much fun living together.  I turned her into a Survivor (tv show) fan and we also applied to be on The Amazing Race.  She helped mentor me as I studied for the CPA exam and started my career in public accounting.  Those were definitely 2 very fun and memorable years!

 

28202 – Charlotte, NC

In 2009 my audit firm, KPMG, presented me an opportunity to transfer to the Charlotte office.  I had no lease, no girlfriend, and basically no reason to not take this chance.  So I accepted and promptly moved to Charlotte with no close friends or family.  It was probably one of the most uncharacteristic moves I’ve ever made because I like what I know.  I lived with a girl I knew from work who was also transferring.  It took a couple months but we gradually made several friends down there.  I loved our apartment; we were right in the city.  We could walk anywhere “uptown” – bars, sports venues, work, restaurants, grocery store.  The first Christmas after I moved, I came back to Columbus and had a Miami reunion with some of my college friends.  My good friend Amy brought her friend Anissa who I had met several times before.  We kind of hit it off, and later that week we had our first official date.  Well after I headed back to Charlotte we kept in touch and over the next few months things got more serious as each of us made the long trek to visit the other (she was living in Cincinnati).  Toward the end of my first year in Charlotte, KPMG was working me like a dog and I realized I didn’t want to be an auditor any more.  Additionally I missed my family in Columbus and wanted to be closer to Anissa (Columbus is only 100 miles from Cinci).  So I ended my short stint in Charlotte after only 1 year and took a job with Limited Stores in Columbus.

Night-time view of Charlotte from my roof deck.

 

43235 – Columbus, OH

Everything with Limited Stores happened so fast that I actually didn’t have time to apartment-hunt.  I signed a lease for an apartment I had never seen and crossed my fingers the day of the move.  It turned out to be a very lucky selection, so much so that I stayed there for 3 years.  It was close to work, affordable, and had an incredible pool!  After the first 2 years, my sister Amy moved back to Columbus from Dayton, and lived right across the street in another complex.  What was even better was that Anissa moved to Columbus at the same time and they ended up being roommates for a year.  Anissa and I went from 450 miles apart, to 100 miles apart, to 0.5 miles apart.  Life was good J

 43081 – Westerville, OH

And for the past 8 months Anissa and I have lived in our new house, located just a few miles north of our previous apartments.  It’s a quiet little neighborhood tucked away from the hustle and bustle the northern Columbus suburbs.  It’s close to everything and life is very convenient.  As you may have read, we are spending time improving our house and just settling down and enjoying life now that we are finally together.  And in about 4 months, we get married J

So there you have it, the run down of where I’ve lived.  It shouldn’t go without mention that zip code 13078 (Jamesville, NY) is where my parents lived for a couple years.  I never lived there with them but visited multiple times.  It’s a small town outside of Syracuse, right in the middle of NY state.  What’s great about the location is the proximity to the Finger Lakes, the 2^nd largest wine-producing region in the U.S. behind Napa.  There were actually quite a few fun little secrets about Central NY so I thought I’d live it an honorable mention.

We can't wait to enjoy our deck this summer!

 

Unrelated, I will leave you with this amazing sunset we caught on our way to dinner tonight.

Maybe this is Mother Nature's peace offering after the winter we've had.