Tightwad Tuesday: Get More for Your Money at the Grocery Store

Many food manufacturers today are trying to sell us less product for the same price.  They're very smart about it because they find ways to give us less food in almost the same package.  Peanut butter now comes in at least 3 different size packages - 15, 16 and 18 ounces, but by glancing at them you might not notice the difference.

From LtoR - 15 oz, 16 oz and 18 oz

Because of the varying sizes, package price is not always a true comparison. As consumers, we need to step up our game to keep on top of these changes and ensure we're still getting the bang for our buck. In order to get that apples-to-apples comparison, shoppers need to look a little closer and compare the price per ounce or price per pound.

This is where unit price comparisons come in handy.  Most grocery stores these days will show you the unit price for most pre-packaged food items in the store.  It's usually in smaller font and located in a corner of the shelf tag:

Here are a couple recent examples where, by comparing unit price, I get more food for my money.

  

We've tried making homemade cheese with our raw milk, but so far it hasn't worked out and I'm scared to waste another gallon.  Until we can get it right, we'll continue buying a lot of cheese.  I used to always by the 8 oz. package of shredded cheddar.  The normal price for the 8 oz bag is $2.69 or 33.6¢ an ounce.  It's on sale in this example for 28.6¢ an ounce ($2.29 per bag).

Once I started comparing unit prices, I stopped buying the smaller bag.  I now only buy the 16 oz size.  Even at the regular price, the 16 oz has a better unit price (31.2¢ vs. 33.6¢), although not a big difference.  When it's on sale though, like in the tags shown, the unit price is better by almost 10¢ an ounce.  For me, that's enough difference to make me spend the extra 70¢ per package and stock up on the 16 oz size.  The use by date is usually a few months away so it never goes bad at our house.

Ketchup is another example.  Our ketchup of choice is Red Gold.  The local store stocks the 24 oz bottle and the 115 oz can. 

The price on the 24 oz bottle is:

	Unit price per ounce
Regular price	7¢
On sale	4¢



The 115 oz can is always 4¢ per ounce.  I know that, by buying the larger can, I always get the sale price on ketchup.  We divide that big can into 6 pint jars and store in the fridge until we need them.  We do this about twice a year and it keeps just fine in the jars.  If I can get to Sam's Club, that same size can is 2¢ an ounce -even more savings.  At that price, if some gets wasted I'm less concerned because the whole pint jar only cost us 32¢.

There are so many options at the grocery store today and already so many labels to read and ingredients to look out for, we don't need anymore confusion by trying to figure out if 2 oz of peanut butter is worth an extra 60¢.  Comparing unit prices, which your store already identifies for you, might just help make your shopping experience a little smoother and will hopefully help you get more food for your hard earned buck. 

If you don't already shop by unit price, I hope you'll check them out the next time you're in the store.  If you already employ this shopping method, tell me what your best buys are.

In case you're wondering - in the peanut butter example above, the Kroger brand 16 oz tub was the best by unit price followed by the 18 oz Jif and then the 15 oz Skippy. 

I'm linking up with Frugal Ways, Sustainable Days and Gratituesday.

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