How Comparison Shopping Can Lead to Big Savings

Yesterday, I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I took my Aldi receipt from Saturday morning and compared it to our local grocery store's prices via the online ordering set up. I used "apples to apples" - organic to organic, sizes to sizes and used all generic items from the grocery store to keep it the fairest. 

Now, Aldi is just one of many low-cost grocery stores. They keep their costs low in a variety of ways, but namely being energy and body efficient, carrying private label items, ordering in bulk, keeping employees at a minimum, and having customers partake in the work, like taking your own bags and packing them, and renting your cart for the shopping trip, to ensure it gets back to it's home spot. Other stores you might have in your area are WinCo, Sprouts, Fareway, and Save A Lot to name a few. 

But I digress -- so what were the results? The grand total of my SAVINGS was $50.05 on my Aldi order from what I would have spent at my local chain store. That's right. My bill was $65.67 at Aldi and it would have been $115.72 elsewhere. Now, you might be able to combat some of that with coupons and sales and Ibotta savings at your local grocer, but sometimes you just need to get in and out. The ONLY thing I didn't save on was milk... and here in PA, I think milk is a set price pretty much everywhere, so no surprise there. But I bought 37 items and 36 were a savings. Those little bits add up!! 

I'm not saying your local store doesn't have perks, and honestly, I prefer to shop local when I can (and I did after Aldi - I normally get about 75% at Aldi, then go to my local store for the rest that I can't get there and my meats). But when you're living on a budget, a 43% savings on groceries is a BIG ticket every month. It can literally be hundreds of dollars that you're eating! 

More tips on grocery savings to come, but in the meantime, what's your best grocery saving tip you can share?