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[quote=Anonymous]I shop at Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Giant, and Trader Joes. I buy different things at different stores.

Whole Foods has good prices on high quality produce. It will cost more than at other stores but will cost the same or less than organic items at other stores and be better quality. It is worth it to buy produce at WF, in my opinion.

Meat is often about the same at Whole Foods and Harris Teeter, and the Whole Foods meat is generally of a better quality (hormone free, more likely to be from a regional farm, etc.). We don't eat a ton of meat but I almost always buy it at WF.

You can also get decent prices on the 356 brand at WF, especially on shelf stable items like canned goods and spices. Also a select number of brand name items, including dried pasta.

Prepared foods, most dairy, and commercial bakery items at WF are MUCH more expensive than at other stores. Prepared food at WFs is highway robbery.

Alcohol, bakery, certain snack items (nuts, chips, crackers) are very well priced at Trader Joes. These are the main things I buy there. Sometimes cheese. I find their frozen items low quality overall but there are a few things I'll buy there because the prices are very good and I check the ingredients list.

Harris Teeter is, overall, the best one-stop-shop if you are cost conscious. You have to watch their BOGO deals and pay attention to how they are applied -- many deals are applied even if you only buy one item (so you'd get it half price), though not all. Literally today I got butter for baking for half price (under $4 for 1lb, best price I've gotten in over a year). HT also tends to have the broadest range of eggs available, with some budget options (cage free are always cheaper than organic or the ones that can guarantee GMO-free, but you can't be too precious about chemicals in your food when you are on a budget in this day and age). Commercial bakery and dairy are also pretty much always cheapest at HT, even when you buy high quality. We splurge on a local farm for milk and can get it at HT in the returnable glass bottles for a full dollar cheaper than the equivalent option at WF. Yogurt options at HT are pretty much the same as WF and always cheaper.

Oh, and if you buy any of the following, the best prices are actually at Target (go to a full-size suburban Target, not a small city Target): soda, lunchbox items, Rao's sauce. I go to Target when I have to stock up on foods to send for snacks for school and activities, it's waaaaay cheaper than other options for that. And I recently discovered they run deals on Rao's all the time -- that's a favorite barely-cooking dinner for us on a weeknights, so I like to stock up on it. It actually winds up costing less than when I make my own sauce because I buy good quality canned tomatoes and those have gotten crazy expensive pretty much everywhere.

I maintain spreadsheets on grocery costs and can easily compare what I spent on the same items at different stores over time, and will also sometimes note prices on items I don't buy and take photos to record later so I can price compare. I also look at the weekly grocery deals at all stores. I am obsessive about grocery costs because it is one of the best ways to keep your monthly expenses down. I would estimate I save $100-200 a month on groceries this way. That's an extra $1200-2400 a year going into the 529 and Roth IRA instead of the grocery bill. Not a ton but it adds up over time. Worth it.[/quote]

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