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Eat Well, Spend Less Round-up and Giveaway!

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This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to Lynda, our winner of the Kroger card! A big thank you to all who entered.

Last week in our Eat Well, Spend Less series, nine of us bloggers shared a close look at where shopped for groceries and how we made things work for our particular area of the continent. Many things such as budget, proximity to markets, time and location all factored into our decisions and it was very interesting to read about the various approaches to this everyday task.

I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised at how many of you enjoyed our virtual shopping trip and had lots of fun showing you my local haunts in my post, Simple Bites Goes Shopping. I do feel fortunate to have such fantastic grocery shopping resources so close to where I live.

In this post, I’ll give a quick recap of Eat Well, Spend Less Part 3: Making the Most of Where You Live. I encourage you to visit the post of the blogger closest to your area, as they give shopping tips specifically for their region.

Also, we’ve got a great giveaway for you, so don’t go anywhere before you comment for your chance to win.

Eat Well, Spend Less: Making the Most of Where You Live

1. Our Texas contingency, Amy, showed us how to save money on groceries in Texas, including a couple of great resources for buying locally or buying in bulk.

“I realized we were spending more money on groceries than ever before. How does one go from a modest Southern California grocery budget to a Texas-sized disaster? It all came down to a lifestyle shift.”

Amy shared how she learned to shop intentionally and use coupons. It’s an inspiring read!

Read the rest: How I Eat Well & Spend Less in Texas.

2. Colorado Carrie gave readers a fantastic overview of how she shops at up to 10 different stores to get the best deals.

“Colorado is probably not the place that would initially come to mind when you think of places to get great grocery deals. Yes, we do have a lot of great local producers of beef, dairy, produce, and more, but we’re not exactly famous for a fabulous growing season…For whatever reason, though, we do seem to have a lot of grocery stores that are fairly competitive with each other.”

Carrie shops a lot like I do, hitting up everything from the ethnic markets to Costco to get what she needs. This really works for us.

3. Jessica lives in the state with the highest cost of living, California.

“We can’t determine what the store charges, but we can decide how to cook and how to eat. If our family, living in an expensive state, can spend less than the national average, you can, too. Really.”

An impressive numbers geek, Jessica shows us how she frugally feeds her family of eight and shares strategies for saving money in her expensive state.

Read the rest: Saving Money on Food in Southern California.

4. Ever the practical one, Katie G shares her two-store strategy and dishes up whip-smart shopping tips that apply to everyone.

“Now that I am essentially a “working mom,” I’ve realized how precious my time is. I don’t even want to spend an extra minute at the grocery store if I don’t have to.”

Read the rest: Eat Well, Spend Less: How I Shop to Save.

5. Over in Michigan, Katie K shares a super awesome strategy for taking advantage of all four seasons.

“I live in Michigan, where we have all four seasons, sometimes three in one day…My reliance on the Farmer’s Market in our city has vastly increased as I’ve committed more and more to eating real food and buying locally.”

Katie details how she preserves the harvest and finds ‘real food’ super deals.

Read the rest: Food Sources in Michigan and the Midwest.

6. Mandi is on the East Coast like me, but lives much more rurally.

“Because we live 25-30 minutes from the closest grocery store, we probably spend more time preparing for our grocery shopping than we do actually grocery shopping. Forgetting a key ingredient throws the whole meal plan out of whack, so I try really hard not to let that happen!”

She’s got some terrific strategies for keeping the grocery budget low even as food prices rise that are applicable no matter where you live.

Read the Rest: Grocery Shopping When You Live in the Boonies.

7. Shaina shops in the Midwest to feed her family of six and offers solid, practical advice to other families in this area.

“Living in the Midwest poses a few challenges as you start thinking about grocery shopping. The first and probably most prominent challenge is that of local food availability during the winter months. These definite seasonal shifts also lead to seasonal shopping differences for our family.”

Don’t miss Shaina’s farmers’ market shopping tips and precious vlog of the family’s outing to the market.

Read the rest: Eat Well, Spend Less: Shopping in the Midwest.

8. Tammy detailed three important things about the way she shops in the Pacific Northwest and openly declares her loyalty to Costco!

“I love shopping at Costco. With a growing family, we just don’t have trouble using those 5-pound bags of organic veggies or big bags of dried beans. Is Costco frugal?  I certainly think it can be, and I’ve been getting the majority of our groceries at Costco for a couple years now.”

Read the rest: My money-saving, time-saving, healthy-eating method.

$50 Kroger Gift Card Giveaway

Kroger, our sponsor for this series, is giving away nine $50 gift cards, one on each of the Eat Well, Spend Less blogs, so head to each of their sites below for multiple chances to win!

The Kroger Co. operates grocery retail stores under the following banners:
  • Supermarkets: Kroger, Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Hilander, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Scott’s Food & Pharmacy
  • Multi-department stores: Fred Meyer
  • Dillons Marketplace, Fry’s Marketplace, Kroger Marketplace, Smith’s Marketplace
  • Price-impact warehouse stores: Food 4 Less, Foods Co

Note: Don’t have one of these stores in your area? I’ll provide you with a $50 Visa card instead.

Enter to Win

*This giveaway has now ended*

Every reader has four methods available to enter this giveaway:

1. Leave a comment sharing how you eat well & spend less. Do you coupon? Shop multiple stores? Do you break your budget down by category (i.e. produce, meat, staples)? How does where you live affect your grocery budget? What is your favorite frugal meal?

2. Follow @KrogerCo and @simplebites on Twitter and tweet the following:

Enter to win a $50 @KrogerCo gift card from @simplebites  http://bit.ly/g9N51L  #eatwellspendless

Be sure to come back and leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve done so.

3. “Like” Kroger on Facebook. Be sure to come back and leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve done so.

4. Enter 8 more times on the other participating blogs:

Prize:

(1) $50 Kroger gift card

This giveaway ends at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 28. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well.

Wait! You can still enter our Queen for a Day giveaway! One lucky winner, eight special prizes – don’t miss it!

Cooking has always been Aimée's preferred recreational activity, creative outlet, and source of relaxation. After nearly ten years in the professional cooking industry, she went from restaurant to RSS by trading her tongs and clogs for cookie cutters and a laptop, serving as editor here at Simple Bites. Her first book, Brown Eggs and Jam Jars - Family Recipes from the Kitchen of Simple Bites, was published in February 2015.

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245 Comments

  1. Right now I’m just starting out on the eating well part. I’ve been doing the spend less part for some time now. So, for now I coupon to save money on some stuff so that I can splurge on free range local eggs. I also am making a lot from scratch.

  2. I try not to buy anything other than necessities (bread, milk) unless it’s on sale and I have a coupon.

  5. I use coupons and buy most of my produce, meat and dairy locally at the farmers market. It’s more expensive than the conventionally produced items at the grocery, but a big savings over the organics in the grocery store. That’s our compromise!

  6. I love this series! I have tried to cook more from scratch and stock up on staples. I do coupon extremely and use southersavers.com for my matchups. I think it all just works together for the most savings!

  7. I do the grocery store hop to take advantage of sales, specials and coupons. It’s not unusual for me to leave Kroger and go directly to another store if they have some of what I need on sale. I also take advantage of the many farmer’s markets in my area. Organic is usually cheaper and the selection is way better.

  8. I keep a weekly list of:
    How much I’ve spent from Sunday-Saturday
    A list of dinners to eat each week (to be juggled around, if necessary)
    Staples that are out or running low
    What’s in the fridge & freezer that needs eating!

    In addition, working in the home and outside of the home, my time is incredibly tight and precious. I’ve found minimizing the number of stores I hit each week has taken so much stress off of my weekly rounds.

    I didn’t used to take my children to the grocery stores with me (I didn’t want to deal with constant haranguing over all the food that is marketed to children), but now I go once at the weekend with them to slowly introduce them to how to shop and so they can get to know the people who help us at the local co-op.

  9. I try to use a list, which helps, but as a college student with only microwave access, it is hard to keep healthy food cheap.

  10. We use coupons matched-up with sales to save money. We also eat very little meat, but instead focus on beans, grains and vegetables.

  11. My biggest money saver is gardening. I live in a rural area and I’m able to find meat from grazing cattle. The rest of the shopping is from various stores and a food buying club. The only processed foods we eat are corn chips. I made everything from scratch. I may take more time at first, but once you get a plan, it doesn’t take that long. Eat for your health!!! We’ve seen many health improvements in the last 10 years eating the way we do.

  12. Great giveaway! Thanks! We save by buying in bulk when possible, shopping often to avoid throwing away rotting produce, couponing, and shopping by sales. From what I understand, food is expensive everywhere, so not sure if location is a big factor. Our favorite frugal meal at the moment is a green lentil “stew” with onion, garlic, carrots and celery.

  13. I eat well and spend less by carefully planning our menu and making most things from scratch. I shop at our farmer’s market when possible and grow my own veggies in the summer.

  14. We are now eating less meat and make it stretch farther by incorporating meat into dishes that have more veggies. We also buy most of our vegetables now from a local farm which not only saves money, but also supports a local business. This year we are also attempting our first vegetable garden. We live out in the boonies in the desert, so it will be interesting to see what success we have.

  15. I gave up on coupons. Nine times out of ten, if there’s a coupon for it, you shouldn’t be eating it anyway. After a while of making the rounds, I’ve memorized who has what cheapest, and I try to hit whatever store is on my way back from whatever errand I’m running, and then stock up on the things that are cheapest there. As a result, I go to the grocery store about seven times a week, and yet, I never make a special trip there, so I’m not burning any more gas in the process.

    That’s one thing people don’t factor in: your time and gas. If you burned a gallon going there, then you had better have “saved” $4.00 in the process or it’s a net loss.

    Same with coupons. The average home printer cost about 27¢ to print a page, so if you printed a 25¢ coupon, you just lost two cents. Print more than one per page, or even shrink them down to print 8 or more, if you can.

    Cheers!

  17. I am following Simplebites and Kroger on Twitter and Tweeted the message:
    lyndacooks Lynda Clark
    @simplebites Enter to win a $50 @KrogerCo gift card from @simplebites http://bit.ly/g9N51L #eatwellspendless

  19. I basically only shop one store (on Sunday nights after the kids go to bed), because I find that when I hit up mulitple places, I end up spluging on my favorites at each place and blowing the budget. I also have certain items that I check every week and only buy when they’re on sale (like meats!). The extra freezer and garage storage is key to shopping the sales.

  21. I live in Spokane, WA and absolutely take advantage of Costco with every paycheck. One, the produce is delicious and larger than most grocery stores (same cost for a whole pineapple, but Costco’s is huge and ripe, for example.) Since I’m single, I often buy whole clamshells of berries and freeze half immediately, so it ends up being cheaper than buying bags of frozen fruit. Two, I bake a LOT, so Costco sized bags of flour, sugar, etc work splendidly for me. The butter’s cheaper, too. Three, for the things I can’t finish on my own in a timely fashion, I go halvesies with my friends who don’t have a membership. I’ll often shop with one of my girlfriends and we’ll split things we both buy but can’t justify buying in bulk for one or two people (and that don’t freeze well).

    I’m also fortunate that I live close enough to home to take advantage of fresh chicken eggs, home-grown hamburger, steaks, etc. The round trip may be $40 in gas, but the weekend visit is absolutely worth it. And since I live in the big city, any time mom needs stuff from Costco, I pick it up and occasionally split stuff with her, too.

  22. For feeding our family of 6, I’ve found that the best deals can be found at our local co-op. I buy most of our grains and beans in bulk there. We’ve also joined a local CSA. We get organic, fresh, locally grown produce for a fraction of the cost at the grocery store. And, it takes MUCH better!

  23. I shop different stores for the best price and that saves me money, whether produce or bulk or everyday items

  24. I have found that planning my menus in advance and having a well-stocked freezer and pantry helps me to eat well and spend less.

  27. I do selective couponing and buy 1/4 beef each year. We buy fresh eggs from a neighbor. Not huge $$ savings but real food is more important–we’ll trim the budget in other areas.

  28. I shop all the ads and sometimes price match at Wal-Mart. I use coupons. I garden and trade with other friends who garden. I cook mostly from scratch, even the babyfood.

  30. We eat well and spend less by….. eating a lot of “Mexican” style food really! Quesadillas, beans, chilaquiles, taco salad… All of that tends to be pretty inexpensive, and you can add veggies to just about anything!

  32. We’ve reviewed our primary staples and figured out what we can do without and what we can do from scratch!

  35. I always use coupons. I match up the weekly ads to my coupons and I never buy anything we don’t need.

  36. I have a large garden and grow and can a lot of produce. We also buy in bulk whenever possible.

  40. I clip coupons and do all the shopping in my house. I usually will go to Kings, Safeway and then if I need to Walmart. Lol.

  42. Every weekend I make a list of healthy meals to prepare for the week. Then I make my grocery list based off of these meals. I split everything into six categories: Fruits/Veggies, Meats, Bread, Dairy, Frozen and other. I try to fill the cart with fresh fruits and veggies right away so that there isn’t a lot of room for unhealthy food that isn’t on my list.

  46. I try to make a monthly menu (usually turns into a weekly menu because I’m rarely as ambitious as I would like). I try to group meal ideas by similar ingredients (i.e if I need queso fresco for a bulgar salad I make I will also make a fajita soup that uses it as garnish in the week). Then I shop the sales at Meijer (also use coupons) and get somethings at Trader Joes.

  47. My biggest help in eating well and spending less through weekly meal planning and then making sure I stick to it!

  49. We use coupons and plan a menu for the week – it saved us $100 in the first month, and we’re trying to get it down a bit more every month.

  50. I have been learning a lot from this series. One way I am trying to live more frugally is by incorporating more beans into our meals – to make things more filling, while spending less than I do on meat.

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